Downtown Detroit Global Campus to open in Spring 2014
Central Michigan University's downtown Detroit campus is under construction and slated to open in the spring.
The new location is being built on the ground floor of the One Kennedy Square building on the corner of Woodward and Michigan avenues in the heart of downtown Detroit. It will be the eighth CMU location in the metro Detroit area.
Featuring a Global Campus center, where CMU students can take undergraduate courses during the summer, the location will also include a multi-purpose room for events and classes. Several university offices, including Enrollment Management, Upward Bound and the President's Office, will be housed there, as well.
"The new location is a total university location," Director of Public Relations Steve Smith said. "It will allow us to serve Detroit residents, businesses and employees with student services, academic programming and other outreach activities."
The location will provide student services for Detroit residents and gives the university a high profile in downtown Detroit's most active area. There will also be internship opportunities for event management students.
Smith said the university also hopes to establish dual and bridge enrollment programs with local high schools to get students involved in higher education as soon as possible.
"The location will also be used to highlight student, faculty and community accomplishments," Smith said. "This includes art and engineering student works, technology projects and choir and band performances."
Birmingham junior Andrew Powers became interested in taking summer courses in Detroit when he learned about its construction. He said he knows other CMU students in the Detroit area who have taken summer courses at Oakland Community College and had to transfer the credits to CMU, and said the Global Campus at the location would simplify this process for those students.
The lease for the location, which allows for $143,000 per year in expenditures, was approved by the Board of Trustees last summer.
"I think it will be great for students who are working a job and want to earn some credits in the summer," Smith said.
