The larger ministries have to worship in other areas of the building or in other locations on campus. He said the expansion will help address a number of needs. Focus will be on program space and will include an 800-seat worship area that will be adaptable for smaller needs. There also will be a variety of meeting and program areas and some additional office space. No date for the start of construction has been set, with the timetable to be determined by additional private gifts for the project.
Plans call for the addition to be adjacent to the current facility.
It will involve some reconfiguration of current indoor program space, but the external structure will not be significantly altered. The World Campus is an educational institution with no walls, where learning is accomplished via the Internet and other new information technologies. As envisioned by University leaders, it is a distinctive outreach campus of the University that will eventually offer a broad spectrum of educational activities beyond the existing Penn State system. In the next five years, the World Campus is expected to have 300 Penn State courses online. The World Campus will use these technologies to create a rich and dynamic learning community among students who are separated from each other and from the faculty.