After years of negotiating with public universities, the small boating and tourist town of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., may soon strike a deal with Arizona State University to land a four-year campus. The Arizona Board of Regents will vote Thursday on a deal with the Lake Havasu City government and the local school district that would pave the way for a new university in the next academic year.
The Havasu Foundation for Higher Education, a group that has spent seven years pursuing deals to bring a four-year campus to the city of 50,000, has raised $2-million from the community and local businesses to pay for renovations and other continuing costs for Arizona State to create a college campus at a former middle school overlooking Lake Havasu.
The proposed campus would admit about 175 students in its first year, but it could handle about 1,200 students over all. The new university would bring jobs, money, and an opportunity for academic achievement to an area that needs all three, said Mark S. Nexsen, the city’s mayor. In fact, the proposed campus would be the largest economic driver since the city’s formation in 1963, and a more educated population is likely to attract new businesses and raise salaries in the area, he said.
Creating a new campus would be a highly unusual move for a public university these days, as several states, including Arizona, pull back hard on higher-education spending. State leaders in Arizona are also urging universities to lower their costs for students, even as the state’s rapidly growing population puts more demand on its colleges.
But given that the renovations and some other costs would be covered by the community, a Lake Havasu City campus could be a model for Arizona and an opportunity to meet the challenges that face the state, said Bob McLendon, an Arizona regent. It’s also a practical solution for students, he said.
“A lot of folks just can’t travel 200 miles to go to a university and pay room and board,” said Mr. McLendon, who doesn’t expect much opposition to the deal from his fellow regents. “Our universities have taken tremendous hits, so they’ve had to make sacrifices. But out of every crisis comes an opportunity.”
‘Underserved’ State
David A. Longanecker, president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, said Arizona’s troubles continue to mount as it deals with limited capacity for growth in the university system, an expanding population, and state budget cuts. The state has locally controlled community colleges and three public research universities, but, he says, it has no four-year public colleges that could provide a cost-effective education.
To boost the number of degrees in the state, Arizona would have to spend money at expensive research universities—partly because it’s very difficult to get funds for capital construction in the state.
“I can’t think of a state that has more areas that are underserved,” Mr. Longanecker said. “And I don’t think you’ll see much new development in the country because most of the U.S. isn’t growing” economically.
The Havasu Foundation for Higher Education raised the $2-million in just five months, thanks in large part to Jim Santiago, a local retired businessman, and his wife, Shirley, who donated $1-million. Hundreds of local donors contributed, and the foundation has now turned its attention to granting scholarships—with the goal of awarding 400 to 500 scholarships of at least $2,000 each for the opening class, said Bill Ullery, the foundation’s executive director.
“We’re about to open a public university without a dime of public money,” he said. “We don’t even have a federal grant.”
However, Arizona State University would have to pay maintenance and utility costs that could be substantial. The campus would occupy the former Daytona Middle School, which closed after enrollment declined—and because the upkeep costs were too great, Mr. Ullery said.
Economic development was a key motivation for Lake Havasu City. The surrounding county is one of the poorest in the country, and it has a low level of educational attainment. The city is mostly a resort community with a recreation- and tourism-based economy; spring break brings in a lot of California dollars. Companies in the area tend to be small. And the area is acutely underserved by higher-education institutions, Mr. Ullery said.
Years of Trying
Beginning in 2004, the foundation tried to gain a Northern Arizona University campus, but the university declined years later, after a market study found that it would cost $225-million to build a new campus in the area. It would also have cost $35-million annually, and tuition wouldn’t offset the costs for a decade, according to the study, done by Lipman Hearne, a Chicago-based market-research company.
Lake Havasu City isn’t the only Arizona town that has made a pitch to attract a college. In 2006, Goodyear, Ariz., a suburb west of Phoenix, gained promises from three private institutions—Franklin Pierce University, in New Hampshire; Notre Dame College, in Ohio; and the University of the Incarnate Word, in Texas—to open branches in the city.
Mr. Longanecker said he wouldn’t be surprised if more private colleges picked up and moved to the Southwest as demographic changes favor states such as Arizona.
In a way, the Lake Havasu City deal wouldn’t have been on the table if the economy hadn’t tanked, Mr. Ullery said. Universities faced severe budget cuts and increased tuition, which caused the public, legislators, and other leaders to demand a different delivery system—and there was Lake Havasu City.
“One door closes, another opens,” he said.