Drexel University, a 117-year-old private school in Philadelphia, has begun recruiting students for a new Sacramento campus that will open in January at the foot of Tower Bridge.
Drexel is introducing itself to Sacramento with a program geared for working adults who seek master's degrees.
The graduate program – run out of an office building on Capitol Mall – is the first sign of what could be the university's growing presence in the region.
With the downtown center, Drexel joins Pennsylvania's Carnegie Mellon University and Wharton School of Business with branches in Northern California. Sacramento also hosts extensions of the University of San Francisco and the University of Southern California.
Drexel's plans, though, are bigger than an extension center: Placer County officials are considering a plan to develop 1,100 acres west of Roseville that could include a Drexel campus complete with undergraduate education, residential halls and athletic fields.
Placer supervisors are expected to vote in September. Drexel, meanwhile, is testing its appeal in California with Sacramento graduate programs in fields such as business, engineering, nursing and education.
"We have decided to test this market with our strengths," said Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III, the university's executive vice president. "Now that we've looked here, it's pretty ideal for us. The kind of economic growth you're projecting is in our sweet spot."
At a meeting for prospective students last week at the downtown Hyatt, Drexel officials touted their school's practical approach to higher education. Drexel's degrees are closely tied to growing industries, they said. Professionals frequently visit classes. Students in many programs spend part of their education working in the field.
"Theory is great and you're going to learn some theory," said Lisa Morana, director of recruitment. "But you also want to know how to apply it."
Courses will combine classroom learning and online education. Drexel students in Sacramento will collaborate with classmates in Philadelphia.
"This kind of networking between coasts of a major private university is really not done very often," Oxholm said.
Morana told the group about $10 million in fellowship money Drexel is offering its Sacramento students. Everyone who is admitted will get some level of financial aid, she said, with the amount depending on each student's grades and test scores.
Nick Gilstrap, who works for Heald College, said he wants a master's in library science but doesn't want to leave Sacramento. Before Drexel, Gilstrap said, his options for an advanced degree were San Jose State University and UCLA.
"This seems like it would be better," he said. "Plus, I live 10 blocks from here."
While recruitment is under way for the Sacramento campus, the timeline for opening a Placer County campus is fuzzier. The proposal to build a university and adjacent housing development on farmland west of Roseville has been in the works for years.
It appears to be nearing approval – the Planning Commission will make recommendations in July, and the Board of Supervisors will make a final decision in September, said Michael Johnson, director of planning for Placer County.
Johnson's environmental analysis of the project showed that effects on wildlife and wetlands "could be reduced to less than significant levels," he said.
"It's in an area of the county that has been identified for future growth," he said. "It is consistent with the county's long-term plans for development."
The 1,100 acres in question are owned by the Angelo K. Tsakopoulos family, Bill and Claudia Cummings and Wayne and Mary Prim. They want to donate the land to Drexel and have the university sell 500 acres of it for housing. The university would use the revenue to build its campus on the remaining 600 acres, said Kyriakos Tsakopoulos, principal of AKT Development.
Even if the project is approved in September, Tsakopoulos and Oxholm said it will be too soon to know when the campus might open. Housing would be built first; the university would follow – assuming Drexel is successful with its downtown Sacramento program.
Drexel is not the first university the landowners have talked with about building a campus in Placer County. A few years ago, they were working with the Christian Brothers to start a Catholic university on the site, but that arrangement fell apart.
The plan with Drexel came together about a year and a half ago, over a meeting between university President Constantine Papadakis and developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos, said his son, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos.
"They share a very strong belief that higher education is both the key to quality of life and prosperity for a region, as well as the key to the American dream," Kyriakos Tsakopoulos said.
Drexel's Sacramento program is in a building owned by the Tsakopoulos family. Drexel is paying rent for the space, Oxholm said, and Tsakopoulos family members have helped university leaders get to know the area.
"They have been very kind in introducing us to the leaders in the community," he said. "By giving us the chance to speak with business and industry leaders, we have gotten the sense that we will succeed."
Call The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall, (916) 321-1083.
