Concordia ends first year at new campus

Concordia ends first year at new campus

By Robert Bell Friday, 19 June 2009

Concordia University Texas recently wrapped up its first year at the school’s new campus in northwest Austin. The university has added a new specialization to its kinesiology program and will also launch a new accelerated degree program soon.

Concordia also recently received an anonymous donation of $1.5 million for the school’s new baseball field. It is the largest single gift in the history of Concordia University Texas.

“This is an incredible gift that allows Concordia to continue on its transformational journey that began with the campus relocation,” Tom Cedel, president of Concordia University Texas, stated in a press release.

The response from the school’s new neighbors has been great, said Alan Runge, provost of the university.

“Almost one year later, students, faculty and staff are thriving in the beauty of our new home,” he said.

“We could not have received a warmer welcome from our neighbors and have been very pleased to be able to invite people onto campus for fine arts activities, speakers and worship. Community participation has been steadily increasing.”

Concordia’s leaders voted in 2005 to move from its land-locked 23-acre campus next to IH 35 in Austin, and purchased 384 acres, 250 of which are a protected nature preserve.

The university is part of a larger group of schools called the Concordia University System, which is affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, though enrollment is not limited to that faith. Concordia University Texas has satellite campuses in San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth.

“With the move to the new campus and its own preserve lands, now named the Concordia Preserve, as well as the surrounding Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, we are revamping and expanding our environmental studies program,” Runge said.

Concordia will also offer nursing programs soon.

Through a partnership with the Clinical Education Center at Brackenridge, The University of Texas at Austin and Austin Community College, Concordia has developed a Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, Runge said.

“We will be the second local provider of baccalaureate nursing education. [We] began accepting students into pre-nursing studies this past fall,” he said.

The university plans to begin offering BSN program courses in the summer of 2010, pending state approval.

“We have revamped our kinesiology program and have added a fourth specialization to it: Fitness and Wellness Supervisor,” Runge said.

Starting this summer, Concordia will begin offering classes for the Accelerated Degree Program, offering business-oriented degree programs that meet in the evenings one night each week on the new campus.

Recruitment of students from Leander and Cedar Park has been going well, Runge said.

“We currently have 44 applicants from Leander ISD schools — 25 from Cedar Park, 13 from Leander and six from Vista Ridge,” he said. “The support in the community and from Leander ISD has been wonderful.”