The Early Years
Florida Atlantic University has been providing higher education opportunities to residents in the northern part of its service area for several decades. Prior to 1993-94 college credit classes were offered at off campus "centers" through FAU's Division of Continuing Education. In northern Palm Beach County, classes were offered at the West Palm Beach Center at 45th Street. When FAU began offering courses at Palm Beach Community College's Eissey Campus, the center became known as the North Palm Beach Center. Moving in 1991 to Dwyer High School, the Center offered a limited number of undergraduate programs in general management, elementary education and public administration, graduate programs in business administration, public administration, educational administration and supervision, and core courses in the graduate nursing program. Fewer than 800 students were enrolled in 55 evening classes. Having virtually no office space, there were only a handful of permanent faculty assigned to the center; instead, faculty traveled north from the Boca Raton Campus to teach these courses.
The Northern Campuses
Between 1994 and 1995, the North Peach Beach Center and a newly acquired facility in Port St. Lucie were designated the Northern Campuses. The Northern Palm Beach Campus was located in leased space at the NorthCorp Center in Palm Beach Gardens; the Treasure Coast Campus was located in Port St. Lucie on Barry University's former campus adjacent to Indian River Community College's St. Lucie West Campus. In time student enrollment at the Northern Campuses broke the one thousand mark with a headcount of 1400 students enrolled in approximately 85 courses with more than 5000 credit hours. Initially, there were only a dozen permanent staff and faculty assigned to the campuses, which offered undergraduate degree programs in General Management, International Business, Elementary Education and RN-BSN Nursing, graduate programs in Business and Public Administration and Educational Leadership, and the core graduate courses in Nursing.
By 1998, undergraduate and graduate program offerings were added at the Northern Palm Beach Campus to include Psychology, Criminal Justice, Public Management, Social Work, the Humanities, Marketing, Accounting, Economics, Finance, Health Administration, Exceptional Student Education, Counselor Education and Curriculum and Instruction. To the north, the Treasure Coast Campus was offering upper-division courses in the humanities and social sciences, undergraduate programs in Education, Business, and Nursing and graduate programs in Education. Enrollment at the northern campuses grew to 2200 and the area's exploding population growth demanded more programs, course offerings, faculty, services and space.
The John D. MacArthur Campus and Treasure Coast Campus
In response, ground was broken to form a permanent northern Palm Beach County campus in Jupiter at Donald Ross Road, and in Fall 1999 the John D. MacArthur Campus opened on 135 acres of land donated by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. With three administrative buildings, one residence hall, a dining hall and a utility building, the campus welcomed seventy-four Honors College students, who joined 1700 commuter students. Recreational facilities were developed and included a swimming pool, soccer field, basketball court and handball courts. The MacArthur and Treasure Coast campuses expanded their staff to more than 75 support and administrative staff and eighty permanent faculty. Growth continued at a steady pace, and in 2002 the Treasure Coast Campus opened a new joint-use facility with Indian River Community College.
Today, the Jupiter and Port St. Lucie campuses offer a wide variety of courses in all the programs previously mentioned and also English, History, Political Science, Social Science, Journalism, Real Estate, Ethnic and Women's Studies and TESOL. Based on 2007/08 figures, more than 3500 students are now enrolled at the MacArthur and Treasure Coast campuses taking more than 50,000 credit hours.
New Growth
During the last decade the northern campuses have more than tripled in enrollment; students are attending classes not only in the evening, but also throughout the day and on weekends, and administration, staff and faculty are committed in their efforts to keep up with the demand in programs, courses and services.
The Treasure Coast Campus is now operating independently from the John D. MacArthur Campus and expanding its programs. In Jupiter, a second residence hall opened in Fall 2001, the dining hall was expanded and two new buildings, the Hibel Museum of Art and Edna Hibel Fine Arts building were completed in Summer 2002.
The campus currently occupies approximately 45 acres with eighteen buildings totaling more than 333,000 square feet: eight classroom/office buildings, a library, a 500-seat auditorium, two residence halls, a dining hall, a museum building and central utility plant. The FAU/Scripps Science Facility, temporary home of Scripps Florida, is located on the campus, with the permanent facilities near completion. Recreational facilities include a soccer field, swimming pool, disc golf course, and tennis, volleyball and basketball courts.
The "northern campuses" of FAU are an integral part of higher education in northern Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.
