High-Profile Building
Visalia - Colleges in the Central Valley are growing fast, led by booming community college enrollment and the rapid expansion of private universities in the Visalia area.
Case in point is the nation's largest private college – the University of Phoenix – that plans a high profile campus building on west Highway 198, according to an application filed with the city of Visalia this week.
The college would be a tenant in a new 25,000-square-foot, two-story building on the south side of Highway198 near Chinowth, with high visibility from the freeway. The college has a similar high-profile location in Fresno off River Park.
Currently, the university holds classes at the Visalia Convention Center.
Developer of the project is Fresno's Mehmet Noyan who has been working with the college for nearly a year to build and lease it a Visalia location.
The college needs a conditional use permit because it holds classes after 5 p.m., according to a city regulation. Already, the site plan for the building has been approved by the city.
With campuses in 40 states, the college has an enrollment of nearly 400,000 students. The school was founded in 1976 by Dr. John Sperling and owned by the Apollo Group, Inc. The university has more than 200 campuses, with more than 100 degree programs at the associate's, bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels in several fields of study.
Besides Phoenix, Visalia-based San Joaquin College has recently set up new offices here, Fresno Pacific has opened a new and much larger campus and Chapman College has a new large location, also on West 198. Sources say Heald College is also looking for a campus here.
During tougher economic times, more people turn to schools to upgrade their skills and marketability for future employment, suggest officials. COS enrollment is the highest in years for example.
The school was the top recipient of student financial aid funds for the 2008 fiscal year, receiving nearly $2.48 billion for students enrolled. Undergraduate tuition averages $12,000 per year. Students spend 20 to 24 hours with an instructor during each course, compared with about 40 hours at a traditional university.
The average age of a University of Phoenix student is between 33 (undergraduate) and 36 (graduate), and most students have work-related commitments. Additionally, nearly two-thirds of the university's students are women.”
Through its online portal, or eCampus, University of Phoenix students also have special access to software required for coursework. Available, for example, are virtual companies created by the university to provide students with assignments more realistic than those available with case studies.
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