Site Selection Process

Why our campuses are located where they are

In 2002, our founding board of directors approved a master plan for Gateway Community and Technical College. The plan includes a “distributed college model” involving three primary campuses to provide the region with easy access to higher education. The plan's guiding principles state that each campus will:

• Provide full services of Student Affairs, Business Affairs, Library Services.
• Include on-campus adult education and literacy programs and general education/transfer programs.
• Have areas for students and the public to gather.
• Exceed standards for accessibility, including access to public transportation.
• Have adequate parking or access to it.

Students on every campus will be able to take general education classes, as well as programs designed to allow them to transfer to four-year colleges. However, some technical programs require unique laboratories and classrooms. This means our campuses focus on specific technical areas, because the expense of replicating specialty labs, classrooms and equipment is financially unfeasible. In general, our campuses offer the following program mix:

• Located near many industrial and manufacturing companies, the Boone Campus focuses on areas related to manufacturing, engineering technology and related trades.
• The Edgewood Campus, located next to St. Elizabeth Health System’s Edgewood site, focuses on nursing and allied health careers.
• The Covington Campus focuses on business, information technology, education, criminal justice, arts, early childhood development, cosmetology and a full array of pre-engineering/advanced manufacturing technology and pre-nursing/allied health courses.
• The Urban Center at 525 Scott Boulevard in downtown Covington is the forerunner to the proposed Urban Campus that eventually will replace current facilities on Amsterdam Road . The Urban Center currently offers a growing number of classes and services, as well as the Certified Nurse Aide program.

 The future Urban Campus will focus its technical programs in business, information technology, education, criminal justice, graphic arts, early childhood development, cosmetology, and a full array of pre-engineering/advanced manufacturing technology and pre-nursing/allied health courses and adult education.

Site Analysis

The Site Selection Analysis for the Urban Campus of Gateway Community and Technical College has been completed. EOP Architects, the college’s urban campus master planning consultants, presented their findings at the November 17, 2011 meeting of the college’s Board of Directors. The consultants applied fourteen criteria commonly used in urban campus planning to the five specific sites in the Covington city urban core; these were the same sites that were presented at the October 27 committee meeting. The consultants’ recommended site is commonly referred to as the Scott Boulevard site, the area that includes the current Urban Center of Gateway and is generally bounded by 3rd, 7th, Madison and Greenup Streets. A complete copy of the Site Selection Analysis Report can be found at the following link: https://urbancollage.box.net/shared/static/19rsl4rr8xfle1rmegbj.pdf

Based on the professional analysis, the advice and counsel of the Community Advisory Committee on October 27, other community input received in neighborhood association meetings and community forums and the counsel of college’s Board of Directors and the GCTC Foundation Board, the campus planning process will move forward with the Scott Boulevard site as the location for the new Urban Campus of Gateway Community and Technical College. The planning team will convene the Community Advisory Committee as soon as they have completed the next phase of their work which will include academic space planning and the development of various alternatives within the campus location.