Bellevue College has scheduled a town hall meeting to discuss opening a new satellite campus near the Issaquah Highlands. This meeting will be held on May 1 at 6:00 p.m. in Blakely Hall, 2550 NE Park Drive, in order to hear from the community.
“We want to be more available to people east of Bellevue, like Issaquah, North Bend, Sammamish, Snoqualmie,” said David Sandler, Public Relations Manager at Bellevue College.
The college originally bought the 20 acres in August of 2010 with a satellite campus in mind. Beginning with one building, the college will probably continue adding and developing the land as it is needed. For now, no construction has taken place. “We’re still in the process of gathering information.”
The meeting will be open for any topics, from potential courses to building designs to campus planning.
“Our goal is to hear from as many people as possible, because there are so many great ideas out there as to how we should develop this campus,” said Laura Saunders, Interim College President. “It’s important for the end result to reflect the needs and desires of the community this campus will serve.”
The most basic goal for the meeting is to find out what the community wants. Any and all plans regarding a new campus are up for debate.
“We haven’t made any decisions about classes there. First we want input on what they [the community] want in terms of classes. Our plan is to have one building initially, then in a few years down the road, we’ll add more. We could have classes relating to business, or running start, which could be helpful to the running start students in Issaquah. We could also have nursing classes there that could coincide with the Swedish hospital nearby. Early childhood education, summer camps for children—basically, we want to reflect the needs of the community,” said Sandler.
Students are welcome to attend the forum. Attending BC officials include Bart Becker, Director of Community and College Relations, Ray White, Vice President of Administrative Services, and Laura Saunders – Interim President of Bellevue College.