The College of Southern Nevada is seeking funding for a long-term endeavor — a campus in northwest Las Vegas — during the state’s upcoming legislative session.
In the swiftly expanding Centennial Hills, the community college plans to create a 40-acre campus at Elkhorn Road and Grand Montecito Parkway. The land is already theirs.
The population and development of the area have both increased. According to college administrators, students would benefit from having a nearby choice for higher education.
Federico Zaragoza, president of CSN, stated that the demands in that sector “only continue to grow from an educational standpoint.”
Through the 2023–25 capital improvement requests of the Nevada System of Higher Education, the college is requesting $5.2 million in state funds. CSN would contribute matching funds totaling $1.1 million.
Funds would be used to plan the design and construction of the campus’s initial building as well as the campus’s site infrastructure.
The college, which enrolls about 30,000 students, now has three primary campuses: one in Henderson, one in North Las Vegas, and one on West Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas.
At CSN, there are about 9,700 students from the northwest Las Vegas region, according to Zaragoza.
A long history
The effort to open a northwest Las Vegas campus spans nearly two decades.
In 2006, the process of transferring the land from the city of Las Vegas to the college began. A land patent transfer was finalized in 2018 through the Bureau of Land Management.
The Las Vegas City Council approved a development agreement in 2017 with the Nevada System of Higher Education on behalf of CSN. No timeline was set for when construction on the new campus would begin.
CSN has requested state planning funds four times. And it must at least have construction underway by 2026 or it could be at risk of losing the property, Zaragoza said.
The 2017 agreement with the city said the college must begin construction on at least “one educational building” within eight years of the federal land transfer.
Zaragoza said the project has had some momentum, and he thinks this will be the legislative session where it moves forward. The session begins Feb. 6.
“Now, there’s a sense of urgency that will hopefully get us across the line,” he said.
The project was also mentioned during Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s “State of the City” address this month.
What the campus will offer
The college is proposing seven buildings at the northwest campus when it’s built out.
Students would be able to take all of their general education courses at the campus, said James McCoy, vice president of academic affairs at CSN.
Also, each existing main campus has a CSN High School, a dual credit offering that allows students to earn high school and college credits simultaneously.
A northwest campus would open up an early college opportunity for residents in that area, Zaragoza said.
In addition to academic programs, the campus would offer workforce components that align to the needs of that geographic area, Zaragoza said. That could include, for example, health care programs.
CSN also wants to consolidate its public safety programs — including police, fire and EMT — under a “center of excellence” that would be located at the new campus.
The college currently leases space on Water Street in downtown Henderson for its Southern Desert Regional Police Academy, a partnership with other agencies.
Also, a concept in its infancy is the possible creation of a mortuary science program that would be part of the center, McCoy said.
Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.
Rephrased from Las Vegas Review Journal by The Mystic Gambler
Learn To Play Video Poker Perfectly – Free Training Program
Leave a Reply