Arizona Community College Seeks Money for Campus Focused on Sustainability

Rio Salado College and the City of Phoenix are trying to talk the federal government into contributing stimulus-package money to help build a new downtown campus where community-college and charter-high-school students could prepare for jobs in the growing sustainability industry.

The college, which is part of the Maricopa Community College District, offers most of its courses online. It has already committed $4-million to the project, according to The Arizona Republic, which reported that the mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, has discussed the project recently with Vice President Biden and officials of the Education and Energy Departments.

The project is one outgrowth of the mayor’s plan to make Phoenix — a sprawling metropolis in a region with very little water — a leader in sustainability.