Ground was broken in Brighton Thursday on Westfall Road for a new, $10 millon campus for Empire State College. Empire is part of the SUNY system and it offers non-traditional teaching both online and face to face, at campuses scattered throughout the state.
The new, 30,000 square foot facility is located on land on Westfall Road near South Clinton Avenue in Brighton which is owned by the state.
Officials say they have outgrown the current facility which they lease on Winton Road North in Irondequoit. Empire State College President Merodie Hancock says the new facility will have technology that will help students better connect with each other all over the state.
"We're also trying hard to connect across the state of New York and that's one of the pieces that we'll be highlighting in this center as well as down on Long Island; having video conferencing that'll bring together not only our academic classrooms and our students but also different community interests and community needs to build partnerships across the state."
Lori Mould is a graduate student at Empire State College and also the president of the SUNY Student Assembly. She says the new location will provide a better experience for local Empire students.
“I think this facility is going to be amazing for all of our students they're actually going to have a place that they can come and congregate and have a little bit of a taste of what our traditional brick and mortar schools are, and I think that's really important for our students to have that kind of community feeling."
The new facility is scheduled to open in February of 2016.
