By Scott Miller
smiller@scbiznews.com
Published Oct. 27, 2009

Of the 22 campuses across the country of Brown Mackie College, the new downtown Greenville location opened with the largest enrollment, far exceeding the expectations of the college’s executives.

The 25,000-square-foot college at Two Liberty Square downtown officially opened today with an enrollment of 180 students. College executives previously expected around 40 students to enroll for the inaugural semester.

“We typically start five (locations) a year and this has by far been the most well received,” said Brown Mackie College Education System President Danny Finuf.

The previous enrollment high for a new campus, he said, was 104 at a campus in Indianapolis.

The college offers bachelor’s degrees in business administration, criminal justice, legal studies and health care management. The Greenville campus also will awards certificates in accounting, business, criminal justice, medical assistant and paralegal assistant, and associate degrees in applied sciences. At Brown Mackie, students take just one course per month but remain able to graduate in four years.

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“We expect that we will be expanding fairly soon and part of that will be adding new programs,” said Karen Burgess, president of the Greenville College. “We will be working with the community and looking at what jobs are not being filled.”

So far, the most popular programs have been criminal justice and health care management, she said.

“We believe this is going to add a lot of life and vibration to this end of Main Street,” said Greenville Mayor Knox White.

The city has placed a priority on attracting more colleges to its downtown, White said. The city is waiting to hear about Clemson University’s plans to possibly relocate its MBA program to downtown Greenville, he said.

“I really think it’s going to happen and I hope to hear something soon,” White said.

Clemson President James Barker has said the university is eyeing potential locations in downtown Greenville for its MBA program, but at this point, the university has not announced any firm plans.