When Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch opens its doors to students on Jan. 13, it will mark a new chapter in Wesley Chapel history.
It will be the first time that students in that community will be able to attend college, without having to commute.
Stan Giannet, provost of Pasco-Hernando Community College’s fifth campus, is fired up about the campus’ inaugural day of classes.
“We’re ready. We’re poised to open successfully,” he said.
Porter Campus will have a beginning enrollment of about 1,300 individual students, which is within the college’s projections, Giannet said. Its inaugural staff consists of 48 full-time positions, including 15 faculty members and 33 staff members. There also will be a large number of adjunct faculty members.
Officials theorize students come from Wesley Chapel, choosing the Porter Campus over the college’s East Campus in Dade City and West Campus in New Port Richey. At the same time, the college also expects to pick up some enrollment from nearby counties.
“We also know that many students in Wesley Chapel might not have been going to school,” Giannet said. “There’s no doubt that we’ll be bringing in students from Hillsborough, maybe even Polk.”
Porter Campus officials won’t be able to pinpoint where the enrollment is coming from, however, until they do a ZIP code analysis, expected to take place after the semester begins, Giannet said.
The campus, at 2727 Mansfield Blvd., is situated off State Road 56, about two miles east of Interstate 75, in the heart of Wesley Chapel. It is across the street from the planned Raymond James financial services office park, next to Wiregrass Ranch High School, down the road from The Shops at Wiregrass and around the corner from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel.
In addition to offering a two-year degree program, the campus plans to launch two bachelor’s degree programs in the fall. One is a bachelor’s degree in nursing and the other is a bachelor’s in applied science, focusing on supervision and management.
In keeping with its new baccalaureate offerings, the Pasco-Hernando Community College board is scheduled to vote on Jan. 21 on a proposal to change the college’s name to Pasco-Hernando State College.
As it opens, the Porter Campus is offering about 160 bricks-and-mortar, face-to-face sections and about 15 hybrid sections, which includes online and face-to-face instruction, Giannet said.
“That’s not counting our nursing courses. We’ll have several courses in our nursing program, which is a limited access program,” he added.
Courses being offered run the gamut from microbiology and human anatomy, to psychology and sociology, to cinema and literature.
The campus also will be the only PHCC location to offer two new certification programs. Those programs are for surgery and pharmacy technicians, both fields where workers are in high demand.
Porter Campus has six buildings, including a seven-story classroom building — said to be the tallest structure in Pasco County. It consists of a three-story parking deck, topped by four floors of classrooms and labs.
The nursing lab on the fifth floor simulates a hospital ward. The equipment is so current that the mannequins there can talk and breathe, officials said during a November preview tour.
Porter Campus boasts a beautiful architectural design, Giannet said, but it won’t truly come to life until the students, staff and faculty are using it.
“We want to create a milieu, an ambience, that will be conducive to a totally meaningful experience — from the learning perspective and from the working perspective,” Giannet said.
He wants the campus’ staff and faculty to enjoy being at the campus, serving students and he wants students to enjoy being there, too.
“We have small classes, “ Giannet said, enabling teachers to know students by name.
He also plans to have an open-door policy.
“Students can come to the provost office at any time,” Giannet said. “If the student perceives that he or she is valued, they feel more invested in their education. The research is unequivocal: The more connected that students feel to the campus, to the faculty, to the events on campus, the greater the likelihood that they’ll be retained and will succeed.”
The college will work closely with guidance counselors at Wiregrass Ranch and Wesley Chapel high schools, he said. Besides being able to earn college and high school credits through dual enrollment programs, students also will have a chance to have their questions answered about degree programs available through the college.
Giannet said he’s gratified by the warm reception that the new campus has received.
“The community has shown a tremendous interest in the campus and in the programs we are going to have,” he said.
He expects the college to forge close relationships with businesses and organizations in the community. It already has established a relationship with Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel.
“We’ve developed a partnership for our students to have their clinicals on that site, for our nursing students and some of the other Allied Health. That’s already in the works,” he said.
Work also is under way to create opportunities for Porter students at the North Tampa Behavioral Health center, a new psychiatric hospital on State Road 56.
“As a psychologist, I’m very excited about that,” Giannet said.
The campus was named to honor the Porter family, which donated more than 60 acres for the facility. It is the same family that sold the land now occupied by The Shops at Wiregrass and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel. The family also owns the land expected to become the site for the Raymond James office park.
