Everest College cuts ribbon on new Sudbury campus

“We spent a lot of time thinking about what students had asked for,” she said. “We gathered their comments, feedback and suggestions and implemented all of that into the school.”

Scott said the new campus includes a state-of-the-art heating and cooling system, wireless Internet throughout the whole space, laptops for students' use and a resource room.

Students love the new campus, as it's a vast improvement on the former campus, which was located in an older, poorly-laid-out Elm Street building with ventilation issues, she said.

“I hear mostly from them it's a place that they're proud of,” Scott said. “They walk through and it feels like a school and it looks like a school. Everything is brand new. Over at the old campus, it wasn't. Not everything matched.”

Many of Everest College's 200 students and 35 staff members were on hand Aug. 15 to mark the campus' grand opening.

The celebration started with a smudging ceremony.

Later on, Mayor Marianne Matichuk helped Scott cut the ribbon to open the new campus officially. Students then placed items in a time capsule to be opened 10 years from now.

Matichuk said it was an “honour” for her to attend the event.

“This new location will serve students better and provide them with the necessary tools to reach their goals and achieve success,” she said.

“I think it's really important, and I really want to thank you for expanding in our community, because it means a lot from just an economic perspective and also it shows growth for the future.”

Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce membership account manager John Kennedy said the new campus — a “massive undertaking in the millions” — shows Everest College's commitment to the downtown and to the city's economy.

Skylor Gelinas, an Everest College health and fitness student said besides his appreciation of no longer having to listen to classmates complain about being too hot or too cold, the new campus is just much better suited for classes.

“It's about 100 times better,” he said.

The campus' grand opening was held just a month after Everest College's 14 Ontario locations were put up for sale following a crackdown by the American government on the schools' U.S.-based parent company, Corinthian Colleges.

But Scott maintains she's not concerned, as the Sudbury campus has seen several owners come and go in the past.

What's “tragic,” she said, is many people think the school is closing, when that's not the case. “You don't spend $2 million in a community to close overnight,” Scott said.