MANKATO — Rasmussen College’s Mankato presence dates back to 1983, when the business school first rented a hidden alcove somewhere on the Good Counsel campus.

The college was basically an unknown in town, and was certainly harder to find than the city’s higher education Goliath, Mankato State University (as it was called then).

But today, Rasmussen is anything but hard to find. In fact, today Rasmussen is probably more visible than ever at its new location, an almost-posh building visible from Highway 14 just down the road from Drummers Garden Center and Floral and Home Depot.

Its future also is looking bright as enrollment continues to climb, bolstered by the advent of online education and the college’s addition of health care and bachelor of science programs. In the fall of 2004, there were 325 students. Today, there are more than 600.

With growing programs and surging enrollment, the new building could be a sign of the college’s progress.

“We really liked our location on Madison,” said Admissions Director Kathy Clifford. “But I don’t think anybody’s going to complain.”

If Rasmussen hadn’t moved out of its Madison Avenue location, the Victory Drive extension project would have kicked it out. So college officials set about an ambitious construction schedule with a goal of being in the new building for the beginning of winter quarter. (Rasmussen runs on a quarter system instead of a semester system.)

Plus, building new gave the college the chance to design a work space that suited its needs.

A walk down the hallway that greets visitors to campus shows how different the new Rasmussen experience will be.

On the right, a wall of glass windows looks in a library that is twice

the size of the previous one. On the left, the Student Support Center helps students get answers to any problems they may be having.

The allied health rooms, where nursing or massage students train, are new and spacious. Academic classrooms come with desks that do double duty — they’re flat and work well for taking notes, but if computers are required, a portion of the top flips up and out comes a computer screen.

They’ve also arranged the classrooms so that students in different programs commingle. For example, in the wing where allied health classes are held, students pursuing criminal justice or other programs also will be in the same area for classes.

Rasmussen’s new building also has a student lounge with a fireplace and comfortable seating — something the old building didn’t offer.

“We have students now who are actually hanging out on campus,” said Doug Gardner, campus director. “They’ll sit by the fireplace, watch TV.”

A student life aspect of Rasmussen — usually the realm of more traditional, residential colleges — is even picking up.

“(Our students) do a lot of things like Rake the Town, Habitat For Humanity, Sharing Tree or Toys for Tots,” Clifford said. “Our nursing students helped organize a blood drive.”

Student Anna Ahlquist, a nursing student from Chicago, said she’s very happy Rasmussen upgraded its facilities.

“The new nursing lab is fantastic and very well lit,” Ahlquist said. “In the old building, you felt like you were in a dungeon. Now it’s a more cheery place.”

Jenna Williams of Elysian said she transferred from South Central College in North Mankato to Rasmussen and prefers the smaller class sizes at Rasmussen,

The process is simpler at Rasmussen, she said. She also liked Rasmussen’s placement rate, which Williams said is 93 percent.

Oddly, the new building has less square footage than the new building. But the space is now much more efficiently used so that it seems like there is more room. For example, the amount of space given to allied health has now doubled to meet the demands of that program.

Also, the number of credits being taken at Rasmussen is changing greatly. Gardner said about half of all credit hours at Rasmussen right now are done in online classes, which reduces the need to for a physical space to put those students