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Midland University to close on Dana College purchase in mid-July

The former Dana College campus will officially become part of Fremont’s Midland University next month.

A partnership that includes Midland University and an Omaha-based development group will close on the purchase of the Dana campus July 19th. Dana College closed in 2010. Meanwhile, Fremont-based Midland University has seen rapid growth in its student enrollment.

Midland president Ben Sasse says the purchase of the Dana campus is part of the University’s strategic plan.

"We’ve grown from 590 kids to 1100 kids, and our strategic plan calls for getting to about 1800 students and we’d like to have beds for 75 percent of those, so we need 1400 beds. And we’ve been expanding housing options on campus in Fremont from about 560 to almost 700, and so we needed to take a big step forward."

Sasse says buying the Dana campus is more economical for Midland’s expansion than building as much new housing on their campus as they need. Midland University officials have a four-phase plan for the Dana campus that’ll have students attending school there in 2015 or 2016.

As for the school’s name, Sasse says they’d like to call it “Dana College of Midland University.”