College finds a comfortable capacity

As the economy worsened, Everest University grew. The Tampa campus nearly doubled its size last month when it opened a new 30,000-square-foot building, the result of a $2 million expansion.

"In the education business, when the economy's bad, people go back to school," said Mike Barlow, Tampa campus president.

The renovated building sits a short walk across the parking lot from Everest's existing facility on West Hillsborough Avenue. The school, which offers diploma programs and career training, is part of a national system of for-profit colleges that Corinthian Colleges runs.

The Tampa addition made room for a nine-month electrician course as well as one for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Though Everest has 14 Florida campuses, only the branch in Orange Park near Jacksonville had offered electrician and HVAC programs.

Barlow said he had heard from industry professionals that they wanted training available for future employees, so they did not have to learn solely on the job or through apprenticeships.

Twenty-four students enrolled for the first session, which started in evenings in April, and 40 to 45 more signed up in May and June for morning or afternoon classes.

Everest-Tampa enrolls about 1,500 students. The university had relied on a 10,000-square-foot space by Marshall's at Waters Avenue and North Dale Mabry Highway for its overflow, and when the lease came up, it seemed like a good time to move, Barlow said.

The school wanted a site closer to its main campus, 3319 W. Hillsborough Ave., so students could have easy access to administrators and financial aid help. Its neighbor, Syms, happened to have a vast open space it wasn't using within walking distance.

"It couldn't have worked out better," Barlow said.

Corinthian Colleges leased the location and renovated it to fit its needs. The students pursuing diplomas stayed at the original building, and about 400 massage therapy and medical assisting and administration students joined the new electrician and HVAC programs in the new building.

Massage therapy and the medical programs also have grown since the move, Barlow said.

Known as the east building, the new facility offers classrooms and labs. A sign at the entrance urges "Quiet, please. Massage in session."

Computer stations and classrooms wired for Internet access allow students to gather for lectures. Then, they move to hands-on work, which makes up about half of the curriculum, said Tony Martinez, divisional trade program director.

"The more they apply and use the knowledge they learned, the more they retain," Martinez said.

The HVAC room features rows of heat pumps and furnaces. A wooden framed wall juts out in the electrician lab so students can practice residential wiring. Another side models what they would see at a commercial site. The motor control lab lets them simulate the sequences a motor would go through and spot problems.

The front of the building has a room for the medical assisting students to work with plastic skeletons and body parts. The two massage therapy rooms feature dim lighting and soft music, along with rows of massage tables that can be hidden behind curtains when students practice on the public. A dry erase board shares tips for headache relief through massage.

Martinez, who oversees the trade programs regionally, said it was rewarding to see the Everest-Tampa addition come to fruition. It grew from discussions and plans to a space where students in scrubs are hustling through the hallways or chatting in the lounge and labs are buzzing at night.

"You start out with a newborn," he said, "and you nurture it through."