ANN ARBOR—Washtenaw Community College will offer several evening classes this fall on the University of Michigan campus as part of a pilot project.

WCC President Larry Whitworth said the use of U-M classroom space will allow the college to expand its class offerings close to where many WCC students live: The city of Ann Arbor.

“This is a great opportunity for WCC to team up with U-M,” Whitworth said.”We need space in Ann Arbor to serve our students and U-M has classroom space available in the evenings. It’s a perfect match.”

WCC will lease four classrooms four nights a week in Mason Hall on central campus. The college of Literature Science and the Arts manages the classrooms and will provide instructional support services to the WCC faculty and students as part of the arrangement. There is no conflict with U-M evening classes.

“We are pleased to partner with Washtenaw Community College and see this as an excellent way to not only support the needs of the local community, but also increase the use of campus space,” said U-M Provost Phil Hanlon.

Offering classes in Ann Arbor should help ease crowding on WCC’s main campus, where enrollment has grown close to 10 percent a year for the past three years. That growth has prompted WCC officials to look for ways to expand class offerings without expanding the physical campus. The college also offers classes in Dexter, Brighton and Hartland.

“Allowing WCC to use U-M classrooms when they are not being used is an ideal extension of the overall effort to make better use of campus facilities,” said Frances Mueller, project manager for U-M’s Space Utilization Initiative.

Mueller said Mason Hall was picked because of its convenient central-campus location. Nearby U-M parking structures are open in the evenings and there are restaurants and other businesses just a block away in the State Street area.

The WCC classes will be offered starting the week of Aug. 30 and run through Dec. 17. Classes to be offered range from principles of accounting and basic statistics to composition and introduction to American government. WCC projects 300 students will enroll in the classes on the U-M campus. Registration begins today.

Washtenaw Community CollegeU-M Space Utilization Initiative