P9
March 2013
P8
March 2013
It’s
not the California Gold Rush,
although it seems like a higher-
education version of it.
The Golden State, which enrolls a full tenth of
the country’s public four-year college students,
has been slashing funding for its universities
in the wake of declining tax revenues. The
result has been steep increases in tuition that
the state’s governor,
Jerry Brown
, says are
unsustainable.
The estimated cost for California residents to
attend a school in the University of California
system for 2012-13 is $26,500, which includes
tuition and room and board. For the state’s
private colleges and universities, tuition alone
runs at least that much. For example, Point
Loma Nazarene University in San Diego charges
tuition of $30,000.
Seeing opportunity, Grand Canyon University
has stepped up – and staffed up – its efforts
to show California high school students that
they can receive a private, Christian education
at affordable rates. Last year, the University
had four representatives in all of California;
this year, there are 18, and they’re offering a
package of $18,000 per year (for tuition and
room and board) to students with a minimum
3.0 grade-point average.
The strategy seems to be producing results.
Last year, GCU had 240 new students from
California. In the fall, it is expecting almost
three times that many.
“The word is out,” said
Sarah Boeder
, GCU’s
executive vice president of operations. “When
I am traveling (in California) and people find out
where I work, most of the time they tell me about
the commercial they just saw for GCU and how
much they liked it. We are being well-received
by California residents, and it’s exciting.”
It’s also competitive, but GCU’s pricing is hard
to match. Eager to attract more Californians to
Arizona’s three public universities, the Arizona
Board of Regents recently raised the cap on
out-of-state undergraduate students to 40
percent through January 2015. However, tuition
and fees this year at Arizona State University for
out-of-state undergraduates were $23,000, not
including room and board.
Olivia Meek
, a senior at Grossmont High
School in San Diego, said she can’t wait to get
to GCU, where she will be a Servant Scholar
and a nursing major in the fall. She considered
Point Loma and California Baptist University (in
Riverside) before settling on Grand Canyon.
“I’m excited to go somewhere different,” Meek
said. “The dorms are nice, and everything
seems brand-new.”
GCU has hosted California students at games
played by the Antelope men’s and women’s
basketball teams in Riverside, Fresno and San
Diego. And it has brought students to Phoenix
by bus on Fridays for on-campus weekend visits
known as “Discover GCU.”
“We receive great feedback from these events,
and they will continue through the end of April,”
Boeder said.
In an appearance recently on the morning TV
show “San Diego Living,” Boeder said one of
the show’s anchors told her that his daughter
needed to be considering GCU.
“He was thinking of sending her to a private
university in California,” she said, “but he said it
was too expensive after seeing our price.”
Boeder said that in talking to California students
and their parents, GCU representatives
emphasize
the
University’s
scholarship
program, which takes unweighted GPA and
date of registration into consideration. They
also show the maximum a student would pay for
on- or off-campus housing.
“Most universities are not this transparent,” she said.
Closer to home, GCU is exploring a satellite
location in the sector of metropolitan Phoenix
known as the East Valley.
In January, representatives of the cities
of Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and
Queen Creek came to campus to learn of the
University’s interest in developing a location
that would open in the fall of 2014 with 1,000
traditional and 250 non-traditional students,
potentially growing to a total of 7,500 students
and 2,000 faculty and staff by 2020.
The University is seeking a site of between 75
and 150 acres.
“We’re open to creating what you see here (in
west Phoenix), in an area that’s convenient and
accessible,”
Brian Mueller
, GCU’s president
and chief executive officer, told the cities,
adding that on-campus housing initially would
not be part of the plans.
Noting that more than 70 percent of the
University’s traditional student population of
6,500 is from Arizona, Mueller said East Valley
students who have been resisting GCU because
of a cross-town commute presumably would
find a closer location more appealing.
In addition to classroom buildings, the satellite
campus would have a recreation center and
food service among its amenities.
“We want to have a true campus environment,
as opposed to a building next to a freeway,”
said
Dr. Stan Meyer
, Grand Canyon’s chief
operating officer.
An editorial in the
Arizona Republic
encouraged
the East Valley cities to sharpen their pencils
and make it happen.
The cities “would be wise to make prudent
offers to GCU, recognizing that a midsize
college campus is good for everyone, great
for the local economy,” the newspaper wrote.
“For both Grand Canyon University and the
Southeast Valley, the possibilities are exciting.”
The University has made similar on-campus
presentations to the cities of Las Vegas,
Albuquerque and Tucson, which also have
shown an interest in possibly developing
satellite sites.
“When Grand Canyon operates a campus,
there’s a lot of upside (for cities),” Mueller said.
“We add employees, we bring tuition revenues,
we pay taxes and we build our own buildings.”
■
CALIFORNIA,
HERE WE COME
GCU making bold moves in
2013 to recruit, expand
The College of Arts and Sciences building, which opened on the GCU campus in the fall of 2012, is considered the
University’s signature academic building and could be replicated at a satellite site. Photo by Darryl Webb
The Antelope Reception Center, where prospective students are hosted, opened as part of GCU Arena in the fall of
2011. University officials have explored the possibility of opening one in southern California. Photo by Darryl Webb
Sarah Boeder, executive VP of operations, says GCU’s
foray into California has been well-received by high
school students and their families. Photo by Darryl Webb
– by Doug Carroll
