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Minnesota State Mankato raised its flag at 7700 France in September 2008.
Andy Meinert works for an Internet survey company in Hopkins. John Helcl contracts with Homeland Security in South St. Paul. Janet Ha works with special education students as a paraprofessional in Edina.
The three are also pursuing master's degrees in the evenings, and in that pursuit they're finding Minnesota State University, Mankato at 7700 France ideal.
For Meinert, it's the university faculty he remembers from his undergraduate days in Mankato. For Ha, it's the enthusiasm of her classmates and the comfort of the facility. For Helcl, it's how the evening classes fit in so well with his unconventional schedule.
After more than ten years in which the university conducted metro-area classes in afterhours high schools and other borrowed facilities, 7700 France is a milestone for Minnesota State Mankato. It's the university's first permanent site in the Twin Cities. While other institutions within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System offer classes in the metro area, most do so on the system's two-year campuses, or in high schools or community centers.
The Minnesota State Mankato flag was raised at a grand opening in the fall of 2008 outside the site, a five-level office building located at 7700 France Ave., Edina. On the third floor of the building, Minnesota State Mankato occupies a dozen classrooms, a twenty-five-screen computer lab and faculty offices. It's well-suited for working adults seeking to either finish certain undergraduate degrees or embark on graduate school.
That's what brought Meinert to 7700 France. A Redwood Falls native, Meinert, twenty-six, attended classes in Mankato and received his undergraduate business degree in the spring of 2005. Today he works with Global Market Insite, a Hopkins firm that produces online surveys for market research clients.
He enrolled in the master's in business administration program at 7700 France to further strengthen his position in the job market. "I was looking at my career and wanted to make sure I had the best possible skills for the market, that I'm well trained and that I have as much knowledge of the fundamentals of business, beyond the bachelor's degree, so I could advance higher up the corporate ladder," Meinert says.
After evaluating several graduate courses in the metro area, he picked 7700 France for the quality of instruction—which still resonated from his undergraduate experience in Mankato.
"I had a great relationship with a lot of my professors," Meinert says. "The fact that the professor I had during my undergrad is also teaching in my MBA program in the Twin Cities, makes it feel unique and gives it a university feel."
And Ha says she's impressed with her fellow students. "Almost everybody is a working professional and totally into this class, learning about the research and participating and working together. They're really impressive."
Ha, who lives and works in Edina, graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1980 and switched careers a few times before taking a job as a paraprofessional with special education students at Edina High School. She took some Minnesota State Mankato classes in Eden Prairie to see if she was interested in pursuing a degree. Today, that degree is underway at 7700 France.
It might be hard to imagine attending college without accumulating stacks of parking tickets along the way, but the 7700 France campus is basically ticket-proof. The building has a large, secure parking lot with no meters, money or stickers required. A security staff monitors the property, which in the evening is relatively still—save for the activity on the third floor.
It's during evening hours that most classes at 7700 France are offered, and by 7 p.m. the large doors of corporate neighbors such as ConAgra, Great Clips, Donnelly Development and Sperides Reiners Architects Inc. are closed. A walk through the expansive commons and cafeteria area with its cushioned chairs and round tables is Monday-night quiet.
It's only after reaching the third floor that the officebuilding feel fades and an academic look takes hold. Here, greeting the visitor through signs overhead and to the side, are the familiar purple and gold of Minnesota State Mankato. In the hallways, each door has a room-number plate with the university's familiar flame insignia.
At the entry and reception desk, technology coordinator Samone Franklin oversees the extensive media components of the site—all of it brand new and linked into Minnesota State Mankato's servers and services. Three or four classes are in session behind closed doors and in rooms that are carpeted, spacious and comfortable. Those are the features that immediately struck Ha about 7700 France.
"It's heaven to come to," she says. "Even though it's an office building, it lends itself pretty well to being a school. You park right by the door. And with the meeting space, the atrium where we meet and study, it's a little learning community… Everything is superior to any school I've ever attended."
Helcl, Ha and Meinert all agree the facility has a strong university feel, versus a night-school vibe.
"It's very intuitively laid out, considering it's in an office building," Helcl says. "And I've heard the stories of when they were offering classes in high schools and junior highs… It's hard to get into the collegiate mentality when you're sitting there in a junior high-sized desk. This is very tailored to working adults."
From the start, 7700 France seemed best poised to serve non-traditional students who otherwise couldn't make the commute to Mankato. And schedules rarely get as nontraditional as Helcl's.
From midnight to 8 a.m., he works as a Federal Protective Service Security Contractor on the third shift at the Fort Snelling Federal Building. And classes at 7700 France fit right in as a part of his day. Or, rather, night.
"The fact that it's a stone's throw away from 7700 France works out really well," he says. "I wake up in the afternoon—my 'morning'—shoot over to class, have some time to study and then go to work. It pretty seamlessly fits right into my normal schedule."
Helcl is a 2003 Minnesota State Mankato graduate in law enforcement and ethnic studies. Upon moving to St. Paul, he found himself interested in pursuing the master's in public administration. He saw with Minnesota State Mankato a more "streamlined" version of the degree compared with other institutions offering an MPA.
President Richard Davenport says he sees this new venture as a way to make top-quality education accessible to metro-area residents. In an environment rich with institutions offering MBAs and other programs, Minnesota State Mankato is the affordable option. It is, Davenport says, "another attempt at reaching out and meeting the needs of students."
Besides cost, a major component of the marketing campaign was convenience—how the facility offers the traditional high quality of a Minnesota State Mankato degree without the commute to Mankato. It was a benefit that resonated as 7700 France was starting up and gas prices were hitting the $4 mark.
To students such as MBA candidate Abdul Sait, that quick commute literally made the difference between staying with Minnesota State Mankato or leaving. Sait lives in Eagan, and also works there as a senior programmer and analyst for North Mankato-based Taylor Corp. He used to schedule his in-town meetings for the days he took classes on the Mankato campus.
But as more and more meetings for Taylor happened online, he was finding less need to drive to Mankato for work, and he started seeing the travel costs for school as an issue.
"With gas prices being so high and the economy in turmoil, I was seriously contemplating taking a break or maybe transferring to another university in the Cities," Sait says. "Fortunately for me, MSU announced classes at 7700 France. A 15-minute drive from work, this couldn't have been better news for me… It has been fabulous."
Marketing efforts for the facility in the fall of 2008 involved a 50,000-household mailing, followed by web and television advertising. Public service announcements and community newspaper advertisements were used as well.
"And you could tell every time there was a new marketing attempt, there were new calls coming in," says Dr. Patricia Lipetzky, dean of the College of Extended Learning.
Ironing out lease issues and other red tape during the first semester allowed for marketing to extend well into fall semester of 2008. As a result, Lipetzky says, her office is seeing several classes that were initially drawing low at 7700 France now reaching capacity enrollment. The master's in public administration, for instance, went from six students its first semester to a sell-out.
In its first two semesters the facility has enrolled 485 students, the majority of them seeking graduate degrees.
The MBA at 7700 France was launched this spring, and expectations are high for a jump in fall enrollment following further marketing of that degree by the College of Business.
And it's the convenience of the commute that has resonated the most with focus groups, says Pamela Jo Baker, the College of Extended Learning's director of program development. Baker has headed up the marketing efforts for 7700 France since plans for the facility began.
In February, she helped conduct focus groups for marketing the MBA at 7700 France. Of all the facility's features, its metro location was deemed the one to emphasize the most, Baker says.
"While (MBA) enrollment isn't exactly where we want it to be, I have a feeling it's going to fill up," Baker says. "And I think a lot of them will be alumni, based on the feedback from the focus groups."
Fall 2009 will bring about an urban and regional studies degree at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as a master's degree in engineering, Lipetzky says. Plans are also underway to develop a professional leadership degree as well.
For now, the facility offers courses in education, creative writing, speech communication, gerontology, health sciences, sociology: corrections, sociology: human services planning and administration, the MPA (master's in public administration) and the MBA (master's in business administration).
Having staff who are based in Mankato also teach at 7700 France is both a selling point and a way to spread the word about the facility.
"That's been a delight, working with the faculty," Lipetzky says. "We've had faculty in high schools and kind of poor locations for adult education. They're loving it, and they're enthusiastic and that's hugely important too, because they're also instrumental in recruiting."
Helcl, Ha and Meinert say there are no clearly defined circumstances—economic or otherwise—that bring their fellow students to 7700 France.
"From what I understand of the people there, they're all employed, they're all interested in furthering their education while working," Meinert says of his small MBA class.
But, he adds, the need to develop stronger skills to shore up against a time of layoffs, closures and an historic economic downturn is bound to become a stronger factor for going back to school.
"There's nobody in there now who's been laid off or mentioning the economy, but I do think that plays into it," Meinert says. "Everyone's kind of looking at uncertainties and saying well, I want to put myself a step forward in front of the next person who goes to get that job; have a better education, have a way to get in the door easier versus getting laid off and hoping for the best."
These are times, Lipetzky says, that foster a tremendous need for facilities such as 7700 France.
"People are in transition, as all of society is," she says. "I think that's driving inquiries and enrollment."
"No matter what, going back and getting your education bolstered at this time really has an impact on your ability to seek out new employment," Meinert says, "because it's going to be very competitive at any position."
In her classes, Ha says, people aren't so much transitioning between careers but broadening their education in order to be less vulnerable to layoffs.
"Everybody's an adult and everybody's working," she says. "That, we have in common."
Joe Tougas is a writer and editor in Woodbury, Minnesota.
