Woodbury University Shifts to Burbank

Woodbury University, a business-oriented college that celebrated its 101st anniversary in Los Angeles this year, is planning to move to Burbank next year, its president announced Tuesday.

Its new campus will include the college’s first student housing, President Wayne Miller said.

Woodbury, which has been at 1027 Wilshire Blvd. for 50 years, has purchased 22 acres at 7500 Glenoaks Blvd., Miller said. He said the school will move to the site, which is on the border of Burbank and Los Angeles, in July, 1986, after an “intensive planning process.”

Classes will begin there in September, 1987, he said.

The site is now occupied by Lutheran Junior-Senior High School, which may relocate within Burbank, Lutheran school officials said.

‘Extremely Exciting’

“This is extremely exciting for us, and we have been investigating this possibility for three years,” Miller said. “We want to add housing, renovate the existing buildings and construct some new buildings so that Woodbury can become a full-service university.”

Miller said Woodbury paid $6.75 million to buy the land from Lutheran, and will spend about $3 million to renovate the school’s buildings. He said the cost of new buildings has not been estimated.

The university began as Woodbury Business College, which opened in 1884 in a storeroom on North Main Street. Founder F. C. Woodbury and one instructor offered classes in bookkeeping, English, penmanship and spelling.

University Accredited

Woodbury is now a nonprofit university offering two-year, four-year and MBA degree programs in business, design and architecture, and computer operation. The school is accredited by the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges and has 950 students, Miller said.

Miller said housing on the new campus is expected to accommodate 200 students. All students now commute to class.

He said university officials also are exploring the possibility of expanding the curriculum and maintaining a satellite campus at the existing downtown campus.