WILMINGTON, Ohio – Wilmington College (WC) had outgrown its agricultural facilities and wanted to expand. When BrightFarms, adjacent to WC’s Academic Farm, asked the college if they would be interested in that facility, they didn’t hesitate.

The acquisition, which will become the Wilmington College Agriscience Center, includes an existing 120,000 square-foot hydroponic greenhouse, as well as an adjacent 20 acres bordering the college’s 267-acre Academic Farm.

“One of the main reasons we looked at this property is we have an annual livestock judging competition, the Aggies Judging Contest,” said Dr. Chad McKay, associate professor, area coordinator for agriculture, and endowed chair of agribusiness and leadership. “It is the largest student competition on the east side of the Mississippi River. We annually attract about 2,000 students from various high schools.”

About eight years ago, the contest outgrew the facilities in the community, and the college had to move it to Clark County, two miles north.

“So, it was welcome to WC in Clark County, and we’re here in Clinton County,” McKay said. “We wanted to bring everything back home.”

They were in the process of designing a new facility with lab space, classrooms, offices, and big enough to hold the livestock show when BrightFarms, which had been vacant for about a year, became available.

“We took a look at it,” McKay said. “All of the utilities were already there, the electric, water, gas, it is adjacent to our Academic Farm. The total facility is 2 acres under roof, and is on a 20-acre plot. So, we gained this big new facility that we could retrofit how we wanted.”

The greenhouse features existing offices, restrooms, a paved driveway and parking lot, commercial-grade utilities, ADA accessibility, and other professional spaces that can readily be repurposed into classrooms and labs.

Also, BrightFarms had excavated and prepared land for a future facility expansion, so the space for WC’s livestock show arena enjoys construction-ready status. The arena, which will have seating for up to 1,000, will be a venue capable of hosting statewide livestock and equine competition, FFA and 4-H events, and applied learning workshops.

The college asked current ag students for input on how best to use the new facility. Morgan Evans is currently studying agricultural business and will be graduating next semester, so she won’t benefit from the new space. Yet she was pleased to give suggestions on how she thought it could best be utilized.

“I am excited. It is super cool that the college is getting input from students about what we would like to see and what we would benefit from in our classroom,” said Evans, who grew up on a row crop farm in northern Ohio.

“They reached out to a few of us who were heavily involved in the ag program and talked about what careers we were interested in and what the college could benefit from having,” she explained. “It was neat to be a part of the process of imagining what it could become.”

The facility may allow the college to develop some new programs, to get into the agriculture systems management side of things and the precision side of agriculture, McKay said. It also dovetails well with the college’s introduction of a Master of Science in Agriculture degree program starting next fall.

So. while exact plans are still under development, they definitely will hold both agriculture and natural science, and there will be laboratory space. This will enable the college to have smaller class sizes.

“We like to pride ourselves on a 16 to 1 student ratio,” McKay said. “In fact, we are now getting classes up to 25 or 30 to one, even 40 to one. Students come to WC because they want that small classroom environment. This is going to allow that to be more true.”

Agriculture is the largest major on campus and has been for about two decades, McKay said. It represents about a third of the students. Last year, WC saw a 7 percent increase in enrollment, and ag grew from about 220 students to about 300 students.

“We needed an expansion of facilities, so BrightFarms was the right opportunity at the right time,” McKay said.

WC President Corey Cockerill said that the Agriscience complex will be one of the boldest moves in the nearly 80 years of WC’s agriculture program.

Added McKay: “It reflects our commitment to preparing students not just to work in agriculture, but to shape its future, no matter if you were born and raised on a farm or if your first experience with agriculture in our courses.”