Sunday, August 21, 2005
Apple Valley U? Lewis Center courts four-year colleges
By Leroy Standish / Staff Writer, Daily Press
APPLE VALLEY- No doubt the Victor Valley's population is growing, but is it enough to support a four-year university?
Representatives from the town of Apple Valley and the Lewis Center for Educational Research have been interested in luring a four-year institution to the Victor Valley. The goal is part of the town's Vision 2010. The Lewis Center has land available, and a growing population of students exists in the Victor Valley.
"We have been promoting that for quite some time as well as some other local agencies, trying to get a four-year university up here," Mayor Scott Nassif said. "We have actually made contact with the state and tried to market this area."
Nassif could not say who at the state level the town has made contact with.
The town's Vision 2010, goal 3, states that the town shall "provide opportunities for local career and employment advancement by attracting graduate, post-graduate and vocational training facilities."
Rick Piercy, CEO and president of the Lewis Center, said the school has 15 acres adjacent to Highway 18 ready to donate for a university or college. And the school is willing to have its existing buildings used by university students during the evening hours.
"We have dreamed for a long time of being able to have a four-year campus here in Apple Valley for the Victor Valley, but I haven't met with anybody from Cal State yet," he said. "They are just one of a number of colleges that seem interested in moving into the Victor Valley."
During last week's Town Council meeting, Councilman Tim Jasper said that California State University San Bernardino is interested in having a four-year institution here in the Victor Valley.
But no one at the university is aware of any effort to open a facility in Apple Valley or anywhere else in the Victor Valley, said Joe Guiterez, university spokesman.
Jasper did not return calls for comment on this story.
In the first quarter of the year, a town staff person did contact a dozen different colleges and university asking about expansion plans, but no pitch was made to them about locating in the Victor Valley, said Kathie Martin, town spokeswoman.
In Palm Springs there is an extension of California State University San Bernardino, known as the Palm Desert Campus. The facility opened in 1986 and was funded by private donations, Guiterez said.
The only evidence of California State University currently in the Victor Valley are limited course offerings at Victor Valley Community College. Aside from offering courses for California State University, Victor Valley Community College also offers courses from Azusa Pacific University and the University of Phoenix.
The community college has no plans of expanding to become a four-year institution or working to attract four-year institutions to co-locate on its campus in Victorville, Bill Greulich, spokesman for the college, said.
"We are planning on some day in the future to expand our capabilities - maybe looking at the west side of the freeway for a center," Greulich said. "As far as building out for a four-year institution, no."
There are many students who choose to make the down-the-hill commute for their education. With the ever-increasing population, Piercy said that perhaps the time is right for another school to move to the High Desert.
"There are thousands of students traveling down to San Bernardino and all those other places because we don't have a four-year institution here," Piercy said. "The larger Victor Valley has a larger population than North Dakota, and they've got a couple universities."
According to Nassif, having a university in town would be a boost to the local economy.
"When a four-year university locates in a community then higher-tech industries have a pool of graduates," Nassif said. "Local job opportunities for residents are created so they don't have to move down the hill and it keeps your graduates in the community. It enhances the community by having a four-year university."
Used with permission by Daily Press, Freedom Communications, 2005