William Woods University opens Branson satellite

William Woods University marked its satellite campus expansion to Branson with a March 29 grand opening at 3027 W. 76 Country Blvd. in the Grand Vista Center, where it offers postgraduate degree programs for working adults.
 
The Fulton-based school has offered classes in the Branson area since 2002, but its establishment of a satellite location in the Taney County town is something graduate Elizabeth Farris has waited five years to see.

“I was contacting person after person. I so wanted them to be here because I loved being part of William Woods and the traditions of William Woods when I went there,” said Farris, who graduated from William Woods’ Fulton campus in 1994 and was recently elected to the school’s board of trustees.

Need for access
Even with the proximity of College of the Ozarks and Ozarks Technical Community College’s Richwood Valley Campus, Farris, a former teacher, said she wanted more higher education opportunities in her hometown.

She now works as chief operating officer of Farris Law Group, her husband’s firm, but she once spent a year driving to Springfield every day to earn her master’s degree in educational administration.

As a candidate for the Branson School Board, though, she knows local access to higher learning is still important.

“I knew there was a need, through the teachers, to have something, where they could attend classes, and maybe they didn’t want to do it online and maybe they didn’t want to drive to Springfield. That’s kind of why I started pushing it,” she said. “I am a big believer of growth, and Branson is only going to be better because William Woods is here.”

Philosophy of flexibility
The school is offering  a Bachelor of Science in management; a Master of Business Administration; a Master of Education and an educational specialist degree at the Branson satellite campus.

Michael Westerfield, vice president and dean of graduate and adult studies, said that unlike other schools, William Woods doesn’t publish a set catalog of classes and times.

Instead, it uses a cohort model, waiting until enough students are interested in a program and agree to a common meeting time to start classes. In areas where there’s not a permanent location, courses are often held in temporarily leased or borrowed space, he said.

“We commit to them that once we start, we will complete the degree for them in that location, regardless of what happens to the cohort, such as if people drop out,” he said.

The school held orientations for its Branson degree programs the evening of the ribbon-cutting, Westerfield said, but start dates for classes aren’t yet determined.

Tuition ranges from $195 per credit hour for the Bachelor of Science in management to $360 a credit hour for the educational specialist degree, he said.

Regional demand
William Woods already has satellite locations in Columbia, Jefferson City and Blue Springs. Beyond Farris’ encouragement, however, choosing Branson to expand into the southwest portion of Missouri made geographic sense, Westerfield said.

“We were getting a lot of requests from northern Arkansas, in that area right south of Branson, plus we’ve had (courses) in a lot of the smaller towns, and especially school districts around Branson,” he added. “This is a fairly new move for us, to think about trying to locate regionally.”

Farris isn’t the only member of her family with a central role in helping William Woods set up shop in Branson. The school’s leased space in the Grand Vista Center belongs to her parents, Christina and Dimitri Tsahiridis, though that’s simply a coincidence, Farris said.

Westerfield said the school’s 3,000-square-foot leased space has classrooms, conference areas and offices. Lease terms were not disclosed.

“There’s a lot of space around town, but it doesn’t mean it’s the right space,” Farris said. “You have to have a certain way things flow to be a college.”

William Woods University was founded in 1870 and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.[[In-content Ad]]