DENVER — Johnson and Wales University (JWU) on Thursday announced they will be closing two campuses, including one in Denver.
In a video announcement on Twitter, Chancellor Mim L. Runey revealed the school's plan to expand to become a comprehensive university.
Because of changes in higher education, and the current pandemic, Johnson and Wales will not be enrolling new students at their north Miami and Denver campuses for the fall 2020 semester, Runey said.
"To achieve this new vision for the university, this week the Johnson and Wales board of trustees determined that JWU's unique status as one university, with four geographically-diverse, on-the-ground campuses must now become a part of the past," Runey said in the video.
The north Miami and Denver campuses will cease operations officially in the summer of 2021, Runey said.
"This was not a decision arrived at lightly," Runey said, "It was deliberate, thoughtful, with the intended outcome to ensure that every JWU graduate, past and future, will see the value of their education increase."
In 1999, JWU acquired a 10-acre campus that once housed the Colorado Women's College and later the University of Denver Law School, according to the school's website.
Since welcoming its inaugural class of 325 students in 2000, JWU has invested more than $48 million in additional construction and renovation to enhance and improve classroom facilities, culinary laboratories and residence halls on campus, the website reads.
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