Some of their adult students "live in York and work in Lancaster, or vice versa," Elizabethtown College's Barbara Randazzo says.

And it's for them and other working professionals that the college is about to open a new satellite adult-learning campus in York.

On Jan. 5, the college will begin holding classes in what it calls a "new, state-of-the-art facility" in an office-park setting just off the I-83 Queen Street exit.

York will become the third satellite location for the college, joining Lancaster and Harrisburg in addition to the main Elizabethtown campus.

The adult degree programs are designed for professionals seeking to earn a college degree while maintaining careers and personal lives, college officials explain.

Randazzo, director of admissions and marketing for the college's center for continuing education and distance learning, is enthusiastic about the possibilities for York.

"It's exciting ... the Lancaster and Harrisburg locations have been extremely successful for us, and there's definitely a community need" in York as well, she said.

The new York satellite campus, at 224 St. Charles Way, Suite 250, is easily visible from I-83 and will offer "a very corporate-like setting," Randazzo said.

"We find that adult students," or at least those older than tradition college students, "need more of that kind of environment," she said.

The campus will offer classes, both in the classroom and online, to adult students hoping to earn their bachelor's degrees part-time in the evening.

The college will lease space on the second floor of a building that houses an estate company on the first floor. The mini-campus will feature three classrooms, two staff offices, a faculty lounge, student lounge and technology room.

Classes are five weeks long, meeting a night or two a week, and while students take one class at a time, they're "accelerated" through the program by attending school through the year, officials explain.

Work at the site is nearing completion, Randazzo said last week, and the college is expecting 100 students initially.

The new site also is across the street from a Ruby Tuesday restaurant and a Country Inn & Suites.

The adult degree programs are open to students age 23 and older who have professional work experience.

Students can major in business administration, accounting, corporate communications and criminal justice at the York campus.

The college's other satellite locations are in Lancaster's College Square complex, on Harrisburg Pike, and at Harrisburg's Dixon University Center.

Fore more information, contact Randazzo at randazzob@etown.edu or 361-3750 or Erica Schieler at schielere@etown.edu or 519-9337.

E-town has 1,600 full-time students.


Staff writer David O'Connor can be reached at doconnor@LNPnews.com or 481-6033.