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Burlco community college closing one campus, expanding another

The community college in New Jersey's largest county is shifting its operations around among its physical campuses, closing its longtime Pemberton home and expanding its Mount Laurel campus to reflect enrollment and population changes over the years.

The community college in New Jersey's largest county is shifting its operations around among its physical campuses, closing its longtime Pemberton home and expanding its Mount Laurel campus to reflect enrollment and population changes over the years.

The announcement Monday from Rowan College at Burlington County - newly renamed from Burlington County College, reflecting a partnership with Rowan University - follows an internal study showing the school's Mount Laurel campus has high demand, while its Pemberton location does not.

It also follows a simple reality: The Mount Laurel campus has already been the de facto main campus for a decade, and future growth for the 9,500-student college was always likely to occur more on that campus than in other locations.

"No one did anything wrong here, it worked for a number of years when the college was first built," Paul Drayton, the college's new president, said in an interview. "But because of the changes - the demographic changes and others - here in Burlington County, it just became more and more of a challenge for students and faculty and staff, having to work or to travel out to Pemberton."

Opened in 1995, the Mount Laurel campus became the most popular campus in 2005. Last year, there were more students at that campus than the others combined, the school said.

"This is where the students want to be, this is where the faculty wants to be, and this is an opportunity to rebrand the college with a newer, more modern, more centrally located campus," Drayton said.

As Burlington County's population has grown over the years, much of that growth has occurred in towns near Mount Laurel, while the area around Pemberton has seen declining numbers of residents.

A majority of faculty members and full-time staff live near Mount Laurel, while about one in four live near Pemberton, according to college data.

The result: The Pemberton campus, opened in 1971 as the original location for the college, has become inconvenient for most people.

And those aging buildings would need repair and renovation in coming years, Drayton said; that money can now be put instead toward new construction in Mount Laurel.

The school will save between $3 million and $4 million in annual operating costs alone, he said.

"Those cost savings are pretty - they are substantial, when you look at it, so it didn't make sense, from my standpoint, to continue having those operating costs at two campuses," he said.

Drayton said attrition, not layoffs, will account for elimination of duplicate positions as the two campuses combine. At this point, he said, he does not expect to offer early retirement packages, because natural attrition should cover the shift.

'Strategically'

"We know that through the next 18, 24 months, we are going to close one campus, and so that gives us the ability, strategically, to say, 'You know what, we know how many custodians, public safety, buildings, and grounds personnel we'll need when we consolidate on one campus,' " Drayton said.

"We feel fairly confident there will be enough turnover over the next 18 or so months."

That 18-month time period should see the bulk of the move, Drayton said, with classes unaffected this forthcoming academic year but shifting for fall 2016. Some specific classes or programs, such as athletics, may take longer to move, but most classes should be moved in the next year and a half, he said.

An exact time frame for "phasing out" the Pemberton campus has not been set. Consultants are working on that, as well as examining how to upgrade its Mount Laurel campus.

Renovations

The Mount Laurel changes will include building a new student center that, with the library and dining hall, will serve as a central spot on campus. Some buildings will be renovated by changing, for example, computer labs into office and classroom space, Drayton said.

Walkways and outdoor areas will also be updated, he said, and some buildings may be expanded, creating a campus feel more on par with four-year residential colleges, he said.

As for the Pemberton campus, a committee of college and county officials, including the mayor of Pemberton Township, will study the facilities' future.

Rowan College at Burlington County's other locations, in Willingboro, Mount Holly, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, will remain open, Drayton said. The Mount Holly and Willingboro sites could see some changes to academic programming as the Mount Laurel shift occurs, he said, but nothing is yet planned for those locations.