POTTSVILLE, Pa. — Alvernia University students returned to classes on a new campus. A building they've only seen in blueprints.
After two years of construction, project Pottsville CollegeTowne is finally complete. And students like Emily Shappell are enjoying all of the upgrades.
“Well, we like the chairs a lot, and it's all very nice. They even have vending machines, and there's supposed to be a cafe,” she said.
Before Pottsville CollegeTowne took over the abandoned grocery store on Progress Avenue, Shappell and her classmates were at Alvernia University's old location in the Cressona mall.
A place Pottsville CollegeTowne Director Cynthia Mensch says didn't give students the full college experience.
“Our last facility was beautiful and made use with the room that we had, but it was still a mall, and how do you attach academic excellence in someone's mind to a mall?” she added.
Along with a new building comes new equipment.
Professor John E. Donton is excited to teach students biology using equipment they've never had access to before.
“We were limited in what we could have in the classroom in that point in time. So now we can work with microbes. These students are going to be heading in the biomedical health sciences professionally and will be used to working with these microbes,” he said.
The new building also gives the branch campus the space to expand its class sizes, making plenty of room for new students.
“We're seeing more people call us, again having that credence, having that idea that we're in Pottsville, being Pottsville CollegeTowne University, it's attractive to people,” Director Mansch explained.
Alvernia University plans to make the new facility accessible to other organizations in Pottsville.
Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.