2010
Canyon Hall, Student
Recreation Center and
College of Education building
open. Performing arts
program returns to campus.
2011
GCU Arena, Thunder Alley and
Prescott Hall open. Colangelo
School of Sports Business
introduced. Run to Fight
Children’s Cancer starts.
2012
Camelback Hall, Sedona Hall,
College of Arts and Sciences
building and Camelback Road
parking garage open. Student
Union dining hall renovated.
2013
Chaparral Hall, Saguaro
Hall and new library open.
GCU begins Division I play
after winning Division II
Directors’ Cup for two years.
Plans told for Mesa campus.
K-12 outreach launches with
Alhambra H.S. GCU named
No. 2 Best Small Company
by Forbes.
2014
Apartment-style residence
hall, classroom building
and second parking garage
to open in fall. Technology
programs to debut. On-
campus enrollment of 10,500
expected (50,000 online).
technology to education, a concept that in its early days was like striking
oil. He and Chris had started Masters Online, an online curriculum
company, and had learned of GCU’s struggles while doing work with
that company for the University’s College of Education.
The rescue operation came with considerable risk, but the
Richardsons trafficked in risk. Although GCU’s $20 million debt wasn’t
sufficiently scary, it came close.
“When you’re an entrepreneur, you go by your gut on a lot of things,
and you build around that,” Richardson says. “We were looking for
schools to do this with. When I walked the grounds for the first time, I
had the feeling we could really build something that hadn’t been done
here, a model for what a traditional university could be.”
In early December of 2003, the board agreed to sell, but only if an
agreement could be struck by Jan. 5, 2004, the Monday when classes
resumed. Otherwise, the school would close. The investors, who had
yet to see even one document from GCU, went into hurry-up mode,
hunkering down at a local hotel and working around the clock, even on
Christmas Day, to hammer out a deal.
Then, right on time, came the Jan. 5 bombshell: In a one-page memo,
Stafford officially announced his resignation as president to enter the
Episcopalian priesthood, adding that “a very highly qualified educational
management corporation” would oversee the school for an interim
period. In a second memo, this one from board chairman Don Pewitt,
the period was defined as 30 days. The outside firm, Pewitt said, would
“provide money, management and marketing to stabilize the school and
position GCU for significant long-term success.”
American history was being made on three fronts: higher education,
business and religion. Grand Canyon would become the first regionally
accredited nonprofit university to convert to for-profit status. It also
would become the first for-profit Christian college, although it had
dropped its Southern Baptist Convention affiliation in 2000.
A month later, the structure of the new GCU became clear. A board
of trustees would oversee the nonprofit side of the University, the
Canyon Institute for Advanced Studies (today’s GCU Foundation). And
a board of directors under Significant Education would administer the
for-profit side, owning the accreditation, programs and lease on the 100-
acre campus. The acquisition of the accreditation was crucial.
The Richardsons had their school now, and Brent Richardson
officially became Grand Canyon’s chief executive officer. On his first day
on campus as CEO, a hot-air balloon landed near the main entrance and
he saw a woman break her leg while chasing after a dog.
The adventure was only beginning.
“I thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’” Richardson says.
2004-08: Pursuing progress
Although boosting online enrollment was the key to shoring up the
University’s shaky finances, Richardson met with students, faculty and
staff and made two things clear, to their relief: The new management
team would not abandon either the traditional campus or GCU’s
Christian heritage.
Despite being a money loser, the athletic program was deemed
worthy of retention, as a way of maintaining a sense of normalcy.
Baker was asked to take over as interim director of athletics, and he
remembers a conversation with Richardson in early 2004.
“I’m risking everything I’ve got on this,” Richardson told him, “and
I’m not sure if this will work. But if it does, it will really be a fun place
to work.”
Athletics had its own mess to deal with. GCU already had decided to
leave NCAA Division II and return to its original NAIA membership,
and NAIA schedules for several sports had been finalized. But the NAIA,
now skeptical of the school’s acquisition, dumped GCU, citing a bylaw
(since changed) prohibiting the admission of for-profit institutions.
Ironically, the NCAA had no such problem with GCU, saying
there was nothing to keep it from being in Division II. Nevertheless,
presidents of institutions in the California Collegiate Athletic
Association refused to consider the University’s petition to rejoin the
league, so eventually the fledgling Pacific West Conference agreed to
give the Antelopes a D-II home.
“We were an anomaly, and people didn’t know how to take us,”
Baker says.
That was true even on campus. Dr. James Helfers, then dean of
the College of Liberal Arts, remembers a first year under the new
management that was “both unnerving and exciting.” But by the end
of 2004, when Richardson awarded Christmas bonuses on the front
lawn of campus and many were moved to tears by the gesture, believers
outnumbered doubters.
“Everybody was doing extra, going the extra mile, and Brent had told
them he’d pay them back,” says Faith Weese, then in public relations for
the school. “They just trusted him so much.”
It wasn’t perfect. Tensions rose in May of 2005, when the University
GCU TODAY • 9
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