1 0 • GCU TODAY
decided not to renew the contracts of 17 full-time faculty members, five
of whom had tenure. A partnership on a teen center with rock star Alice
Cooper didn’t pan out after receiving national media coverage in 2006.
Students sometimes left the University bitter and disillusioned when
treasured programs, such as music and theatre, were shuttered to slash
costs.
“To see the music program crumble was devastating,” says Amanda
(Gardner) Mutai, who left in 2005 but returned in 2010 when the arts
were reinstated, graduating last December.
After the third year under the new regime, GCU was in the black.
In 2008, it had a robust enrollment of 12,000 online but only 1,000
students on campus. Its future wasn’t yet secure, and the stage was set
for the next big thing.
2009-13: Booming and building
Unlike Brent Richardson, Brian Mueller was not a natural-born
entrepreneur. Throughout high school and college, all he wanted to be was
a teacher and a basketball coach — and that’s what he was, at Christian
high schools and colleges, until he decided to move to Arizona with his
young family to pursue a doctoral degree from Arizona State University.
Mueller and his wife, Paula, had three children with a fourth on
the way and struggled to make ends meet while living with a relative.
He was teaching philosophy at ASU for $5,000 a semester and driving
a broken-down car. He realized that something had to change, and
in 1987 he found work at the University of Phoenix as an enrollment
counselor.
Something did change — and the arc of Mueller’s career along
with it. The University of Phoenix tapped into a growing demand
for working-adult education as no one had before. Mueller moved up
through the ranks of its parent company, the Apollo Group, in a career
of 20-plus years, eventually running the company’s online operations
and later becoming president.
Although he never had taken a business course, he grasped how
higher education and business could be fused. The Richardsons had
taken notice, and they invited Mueller and Dr. Stan Meyer, who also
had experience in Christian education, to a meeting at a cigar store on
44th Street in Phoenix to discuss Grand Canyon and the University’s
next step: taking the company public.
After two more meetings involving other representatives of GCU,
Mueller was beyond intrigued.
BrianMueller, who became GCU’s
chief executive officer in 2008, has
overseen an era of unprecedented
growth for the University.
photo by darryl webb
