Archive for April, 2014

On May 9, GCU will host a commencement ceremony and team-building event for about 180 fifth-graders in Arizona who are junior coaches in Playworks, a national nonprofit that trains adults and children to bring respect, inclusion and peace to school playgrounds.

Senate Bill 1303 would have reduced the school’s property tax assessment ratio from 18.5 to 5 percent. However, the total amount the University pays in the future – even at the reduced rate – would continue to increase because of investment in infrastructure on the Phoenix campus.

Story by Doug Carroll Photos by Darryl Webb GCU News Bureau As the students, faculty and staff of Grand Canyon University adjourned for Christmas break near the end of 2003, few of them had much knowledge of the financial health of the sleepy, west Phoenix campus where they studied, taught and worked. They were in the dark, and that was not a bad place to be. Like many private institutions of higher education, Grand Canyon had endured its share of struggles since its humble beginnings in 1949, after three Baptist pastors each had plunked down a silver dollar to start Grand Canyon College in Prescott. Lacking either the taxpayer support of public universities or the substantial donor base of successful private colleges, the school depended primarily on tuition-paying students, of whom there were about 1,500 on campus and a similar number taking classes online in 2003. Budgetary surgery was a way of life. “Every few years, there was a financial crisis,” recalls Dr. Charles Maxson, then in his 20th year on the faculty at Grand Canyon. “That’s how it was, and how most small colleges still are.” In 1997, the University’s lenders had pressured the governing board for a change […]

The first residency for online students in GCU’s nurse practitioner degree program, which is being held on campus this week, has drawn 14 nurses from Arizona and other states who are practicing and being tested on their medical knowledge of the human body, from clammy foreheads and swollen feet to most everything in between.

The adjunct faculty member, who is big on the accessibility of the arts, wants to work with incarcerated women to help them “reclaim some of their power.”

The annual Broadway and opera concert kept the great American music coming, in the final performance of 2013-14 by the Canyon Singers, the New Life Singers and the Canyon Chorale.

Former NBA player Sarunas Marciulionis visits campus for screening of documentary film, which tells the story of the rise of the Lithuanian basketball team after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Members of the cast of the 1999 production of “into the Woods” returned to Ethington Theatre for the 2014 version of the Stephen Sondheim musical — and liked what they heard and saw.

The University has made a $125,000 contribution to the City of Phoenix to help offset city budget shortfalls in community education around drowning prevention and graffiti abatement. The announcement is the latest in the University’s partnerships to augment Phoenix public programs.

In January, GCU’s College of Doctoral Studies introduced Learner Dissertation Pages as an improvement to the Doctoral Community Network, putting the learner and the entire dissertation committee together in a virtual workspace and enhancing access for all.