Lofty goals spur local campuses’ building boom

Monday, Nov. 30, 1998 | 11:04 a.m.

The 20-year population boom that has transformed the Las Vegas Valley from a compact city whose primary focus was gambling into a sprawling metropolis with diverse interests is having a dramatic impact on local college campuses.

Just as casino owners continue to reinvent their industry, tearing down and putting up ever larger and more elaborate resorts, the higher-education system is reinventing itself.

Campuses at UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada are in the midst of a construction boom that reflects the reconstruction of their educational philosophies and their goals.

Almost $200 million in building projects for the two institutions are in progress, were completed recently or are planned for the near future.

Funding for the projects comes from the Legislature, from a tax on slot machines and from gifts.

Recent donations have made it possible for UNLV to begin construction on the Lied Library, the Bennett Professional Development Building, the Fulton Gaming Institute Building, the Beam Music Center and a fund-raising center for the UNLV Foundation.

The slot tax -- $250 on each slot machine in the state, which flows into the state's Special Higher Education Capital Construction Fund -- is being used to finance a $40 million bond issue that among other things is paying for renovation of Sam Boyd Stadium and the Thomas & Mack Center, as well as construction of a sports pavilion.

Master plans put into place at UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada since the arrival of three of the state's top higher-education administrators are in large part responsible for the building binge.

The University and Community College System of Nevada Chancellor Richard Jarvis and CCSN President Richard Moore were hired at the same regents' meeting in August 1994. UNLV President Carol Harter was hired six months later, in February 1995.

High on Jarvis' agenda was to increase enrollment throughout the system, a direct assault on the state's poor ranking in the number of high school graduates who get post-secondary education.

When he told a legislative committee in 1995 that he wanted to make the community college system "an open gateway," only 32.8 percent of the state's high school graduates went on to post-secondary school -- the lowest rate in the nation.

At that time, enrollment throughout the system was 65,000 -- about the same as it had been in 1992 and 1993.

In the fall of 1995, the enrollment began a steady, rapid growth. By this fall, 85,000 students were attending one of the state's universities or colleges -- 31 percent more than in the 1994-95 school year.

Much more than half that growth has taken place at CCSN and UNLV.

That's brought progress, but not enough. The latest figures available from Post Secondary Education Opportunity, from 1996, showed that 38.7 percent of Nevadans go on to college -- a 6 percent increase. But Nevada is still at the bottom of the rankings.

Subhed: Cost of improvement

To improve that figure, the universities and colleges have to continue growing. With that in mind, the 1997 Legislature approved $104 million for capital improvement projects throughout the college system. CCSN received $58 million and UNLV got $32 million, primarily for the Lied Library, which had already received a $15 million donation from the Lied Foundation.

For next year, the college system had planned to request $105.2 million from the 1999 Legislature -- $56 million of that for CCSN and $42.6 million for UNLV.

However, because of sluggish tax returns, the Public Works Board has told the college system to pare its capital improvement budget to $93.7 million, which still is more than it has received in past years.

Jarvis has said he will appeal to the governor for reinstatement of some of the 1999-2000 building money, and the Public Works Board agreed to submit a second list of projects that were eliminated so that if additional money becomes available, construction will receive another infusion of funds.

Even without the infusion of funds, building continues. The community college has $72 million in new construction planned or under way. The university has $95.7 million in projects.

Subhead: The master plans

The building goals are tied into 10-year master plans that Moore and Harter were asked to devise for their institutions shortly after they came on board.

For CCSN, Moore set a goal to provide a quality education for a broad base of students, a concept that has generated an annual growth rate in the double digits. The college enrollment is 16 percent higher this year than last.

So the college is building classroom space as fast as it can to ensure that all those students get classroom seats, and two of the buildings share space with local high schools, bringing higher education to the next generation.

Harter's goals for UNLV revolve around becoming a "premier urban university" and being more student-friendly.

The university's building plan reflects the different focus. Among nine new buildings in the works are the new library, a law school building, a proposed dental school, a music center and a student-service center.

Subhead: Building for growth

With more than 30,000 students and growing, CCSN is building just to keep up.

"Our enrollment doubled in four years," John Kuminecz, the college's spokesman, said. "Our faculty went from 170 to almost 400."

And there is no end in sight to the growth for the college's three campuses -- on Cheyenne Avenue, on West Charleston Boulevard and in Henderson. About 100 more instructors are expected to be hired next year.

"We will be continuing to grow as we develop open access and opportunities for career education and job training," said Kuminecz.

Four projects are under way or planned. The two largest should add 240,000 square feet of classroom and office space to the West Charleston campus on the booming northwest side of town.

A 120,000-square-foot classroom and office complex that will add 30 faculty offices and 30 classrooms, as well as room for student services, is due to be completed next July. It will cost about $25 million.

A second 120,000-square-foot building for science is still on the drawing board for West Charleston, but it is getting a high priority for $30 million to $35 million in funding when the college submits its request to the Legislature next year.

"We're expanding in medical technology and science areas, since that demand is there, so the science building is the next step," Robert Silverman, the community college's senior vice president of academic affairs, said.

Subhead: Partners with high schools

The other projects build on a partnership that the college stumbled on in its struggle to keep up with growth.

CCSN has long used high school buildings for classroom space in the evenings. At first, it was a convenient temporary solution. After all, classroom space was classroom space.

But officials discovered a side benefit that dovetailed with the college's goals. They found CCSN was more accessible to high school students, who are now allowed to take courses through a program called High School on Campus.

In fact, the partnership was so successful that the college opened a $5 million computer center at Palo Verde High School in Summerlin that is being used by both high school and CCSN students.

Four more are planned -- one at Western High School, one at a new high school being built in Henderson, another in Clark County and one in Nye County.

The concept is going one step further at the center in Henderson. CCSN is building a $17 million, 70,000-square-foot center on land where a new high school is going up.

The building, scheduled to open in July, will have four science labs, faculty offices and general classroom space -- all to be shared with the high school, said Orlando Sandoval, CCSN's associate vice president of campus planning.

Subhead: Building for stature

At UNLV, the growth of student population, now at 21,000, is slower. But the university is interested in a different kind of growth -- a growth in stature.

That's reflected in its current projects: the $40.5 million Lied Library, a $15.5 million law school building, a $12 million proposed dental school, a $6 million proposed music center and a $5.5 million facility for the International Gaming Institute.

The goal behind those projects is "serving the region and achieving distinction," as stated in the master plan.

The 300,000-square-foot Lied Library, which recently had a formal topping-off, is the biggest project under way.

It has a projected completion date of January 2000, and the move of the existing library into the new building -- another $9.5 million cost -- will allow the new William Boyd School of Law to find its permanent home.

The old James Dickinson Library will be renovated at a cost of $15.5 million to house the new law school, which is now at the former Paradise Elementary School.

The old elementary school just moved into new facilities on the UNLV campus, a $7 million project.

The university's other projects reflect the new emphasis on building stature:

-- Construction has begun on a $2.2 million, 8,000-square-foot William G. Bennett Professional Development Building adjacent to the new Paradise Elementary School.

The building will include a lab, classroom, office space and video and computer equipment for university students and faculty who are studying elementary education for at-risk students.

-- The first bid packages have gone out for the Stan Fulton Building, a $5.5 million facility that will hold the UNLV International Gaming Institute, currently housed in Beam Hall.

Vince Eade, managing director of the institute, said the 35,000-square-foot building should be completed by the end of 1999 and will house one of the foremost gaming institutes in the world.

"We have trained over 1,000 gaming regulators from 24 or 25 states and 17 foreign countries," said Eade.

The UNLV Gaming Institute was founded in July 1993 in response to the spread of the gaming industry in the United States.

In addition to regulators, it trains mid- to upper-level management, including those who have worked their way up through gaming and those who are trained in management but have no gaming experiences.

Eade said the new building will relieve a major space problem.

"We have to turn people away because of no space," he said.

The three-story building will include a 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot simulated casino, a computer lab, two standard classrooms, two conference rooms, faculty offices, administrative offices, a lounge and a restaurant that will be used for functions held by the institute and UNLV.

-- A long-awaited music building is now in the planning and design stage. To be called the Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center, the $6 million project will result in a new complex for the music department in the College of Fine Arts.

-- Two projects will go to the state Legislature when it meets in February: a 71,160-square-foot dental school on the community college's West Charleston campus, at $12 million; and a 37,000-square-foot teaching and learning center, at $9 million.

-- Fund-raising also will be taken care of in the current building boom. UNLV's Foundation has received approval from the Board of Regents to build a $5 million, 22,000-square-foot building to house fund-raising operations. After the building is constructed through the use of donated funds, it will be given to the university.

Subhead: Aiding student convenience

But stature isn't everything. One of the university's big goals is to be more aware of students' needs.

Now, students must go to the east side of campus for admission and registration and to the west side for academic advising, career planning and placement and the cashier's office.

"The nature of our student body is that a vast majority don't live on campus, so they need to accomplish things with a fair amount of convenience while here," UNLV spokesman Tom Flagg said. "It's not showing student focus when students are required to run around to accomplish what they need to accomplish."

So one of the university's priorities in its request to the 1999 Legislature will be $4.2 million for a student-services center.

"We're working toward centralization," Flagg said. "What we need to do is have one-stop shopping, to be able go to one place and take care of everything and not have to go from one end of campus and running back again."

UNLV isn't overlooking the role of its sports department, either.

The Thomas & Mack Center, used by a wide variety of noncollegiate events, is undergoing a major expansion that includes the addition of an $8 million pavilion adjacent to the facility to be used for practice by men's and women's basketball programs and the women's volleyball team.

Sam Boyd Stadium also is undergoing major renovation as part of the $48 million project at the sports site.