CanyonCorridorFall2015

16 / 32

16 | CANYON CORRIDOR CONNECTION
Communi t y Highl ights
Wisdom from the Heart:
To L ve Your Neighborhood
by Brian Mueller
The Arizona Republic invited Grand Canyon
University President Brian Mueller to describe
why his institution is working with the city of
Phoenix to improve blighted neighborhoods around
its west Phoenix campus. The following is the
article that printed in the July 26, 2015 issue of
The Arizona Republic.
“(Free enterprise) begins by emphasizing that
those who benefit most from the freer markets
are the have-nots: those without inherited
wealth, prestigious credentials, social or class
advantages — in other words, people whose only
hope for a better life is a social order that will
reward their hard work and enterprise.”
– Arthur Brooks, president of the American
Enterprise Institute, quoted in the Wall
Street Journal
“(When you understand our God-given nature,)
you begin to understand we are hardwired for
freedom by the same Creator who gave us our
unalienable rights.”
– Adam Smith, author of the “Wealth of
Nations,” as quoted in the Wall Street Journal
The two principles expressed by those
economists are at the heart of Grand Canyon
University’s remarkable renaissance in the past
seven years.
We are hardwired for free enterprise because it
is the system that led to our explosive growth.
In 2008, the university’s leadership team
committed to free enterprise by taking the
company public. The success of that initial
public offering provided $254 million the
university invested to spark the resurgence on
its campus.
The team also devoted itself to the university’s
longstanding core teaching of Christianity,
which is to love God with your entire heart, soul
and mind; and to love your neighbor as yourself.
Our neighborhood at 33rd Avenue and Camelback
Road had been one of the most economically
depressed and crime ridden in Arizona. We
invested public market dollars to build out what
is now referred to as a hybrid university. We
have a residential campus of 18-to-22-year-old
students as well as an online campus of working
adult students.
The university has invested hundreds of millions
of dollars in its residential campus, which has
grown from 900 students seven years ago to
nearly 15,000 this fall. The online campus has
grown to 60,000 students.
To complete the story, however, we must live out
the Christian directive to love our neighbor as
our self. To seek not just our own prosperity but
the prosperity of the city we live in, we are in the
process of executing a five-part plan.
PART 1: BUILD WORKFORCE
Our goal is to build the university’s residential
campus out to 25,000 students with 70 percent
studying science, technology, engineering
or math. We plan to help Arizona create a
workforce that will encourage companies to
move their operations to this state and bring
thousands of jobs with them.
The ground and online campuses leveraging
a single administrative infrastructure has
produced incredible efficiencies. We have been
able to freeze the already low private school
tuition rates for seven years, allowing all social
classes of Americans to have access to a private
education. At the same time, our investors have
received more than a reasonable return. Many
would say this is an American free enterprise
success story.
PART 2: GROW JOBS
In addition to the 75,000 students being
served, our workforce has expanded from 1,000
to 3,500.
We want to increase faculty and staff to 5,000
while also employing hundreds of residents in
our neighborhood so they can build successful
lives based on their own efforts. In addition,
Grand Canyon is identifying assets on the west
side with the potential to be thriving enterprises
and investing in them with the goal of creating
more west-side jobs.
They include:
• A 31-acre parcel at 27th Avenue and Camelback
Road that was home to prostitution, drug use
and other criminal activities. Grand Canyon
University purchased the land and buildings
and is making a major investment in the
property. In less than 18 months there will be
two office complexes, a hotel and restaurant,
and a conference center that will employ more
than 3,000 people. Much of the enterprise
will be operated by students in our Colangelo
College of Business Hospitality Program.
• A 30-year agreement with the city of
Phoenix to manage and renovate the rapidly
deteriorating Maryvale Golf Course on 59th
Ave. and Indian School Road. We envision
it will become one of the premier municipal
courses in America. It will create employment
opportunities, give people another reason to
come to the west side and be a tremendous
point of pride for west Phoenix. Our golf
management program will manage the $10
million investment.
PART 3: SUPPORT SCHOOLS
We are making a major investment in the public
schools in our neighborhoods, most notably at
Alhambra High School. Alhambra has 2,800
students — of whom 82 percent are Latino and
90 percent live below the poverty line.
GCU student Heather Shamburg, left, helps Alhambra
High School student Sahara Abukar in 2013.
(Photo: Charlie Leight/The Republic)
Adjunct faculty Tammy Ericson demonstrates how
to monitor blood pressure on student Madeline Burt
during a nursing class in January 2015.
(Photo: Michael Schennum/The Republic)