Washburn Tech University expanding into North Topeka with their new campus

TOPEKA (KSNT) – Washburn Tech is expanding, officially breaking ground on its newest location in the capital city. 

Off of Highway 24 in North Topeka, Washburn Tech is taking over the old K-mart to expand its presence across Topeka and accommodate larger enrollment.

To celebrate the official groundbreaking, community leaders, educators, and many others came out to hammer the first nail into the building.  

“We’re going to have our business and industry group out here,” Scott Smathers, Dean of Washburn Tech, said. “And we’re building out the manufacturing technology center, which is really going to be an area that we’re going to allow business and industry to be able to do more customized training and a much bigger area to be able to train business and industry people, but also allow them to be able to use the space for training their employees.”

“I will tell you this, that we have way over 400 students on the waitlist, meaning that our programs are not large enough to take all the students who are demanding to be in the programs,” Juliann Mazachek, President of Washburn University, said. “And so, yes, this is something that is needed. It’s going to allow us to expand programs, actually, across all of Washburn Tech to be able to meet the needs of our community.” 

This new location is set to finish construction in May next year, and hold classes the following fall.

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