Off-campus move helps downtown revitalization
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
As an associate professor at the
Baylor University School of Social Work, Rob Rogers said there’s just not enough room on campus.
"We're absolutely out of space," he said.
The School of Social Work will move into this downtown Waco building.
To meet the demand for more room, the
School of Social Work will move off campus to a building in downtown Waco.
"Being physically present downtown is just making more visible what's already there, the connection that's there," Rogers said.
For Rogers, that connection is between Baylor University and the City of Waco.
"It significantly takes up a large amount of space and brings in an awful lot of new people into the downtown core area," Scott Connell, with the Greater Waco Chamber, said.
Click to enlarge this rendering of what the school's new building will look like.
The move will bring in more than 250 students who will help the area stay vibrant.
"You're just a block away from restaurants and some shopping opportunities. We certainly have some living opportunities downtown," Connell said.
The school is moving into a space where a few businesses have moved or closed.
"Even though one might have a challenge, there's always room for new development and we continually have interest in downtown," Connell said.
The Baylor School of Social Work will make its move in January 2011, making it Baylor's second academic program to make itself at home downtown. The first was the Clinical Psychology program.