LOGANDALE, Nev. — Beginning in the fall of 2012, high school graduates hoping to enjoy the values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in their college education will be able to attend a new school in Nevada.
While unaffiliated with the Church Educational System, Desert Valley College officials say it will promote LDS values, providing an alternative to Brigham Young University and the already established, privately run Southern Virginia University, which also maintains standards of conduct and a strict personal behavior code. The goal of the new school will be "to provide for an intensive learning experience in a stimulating setting where a commitment to excellence is expected and the full realization of human potential is pursued," according to executive director Rex Jensen.
"We are aware of a growing number of cases where LDS kids go to other colleges and end up becoming inactive or leaving the church or becoming less active and getting into difficulty with morality and with drugs," Jensen said. "The numbers are quite high for those who go to other schools." He said some students, specifically within the geographical area between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, would benefit from having an LDS faith-centered educational experience.
Officials anticipate the enrollment of hundreds of students to kick off the first year, as local support for such an institution is growing and more than 80 percent of the country's LDS members live in the Western states and in close proximity to Logandale. Last fall, BYU accepted 68 percent of the more than 10,000 who applied. Enrollment there sits above 30,000 annually. BYU-Idaho enrolls just over 12,000 each trimester, but also turns away many who apply.
"A lot of them would like to go to BYU, but it's either too cold for them or too far from home," Jensen said. The new school would be situated an hour outside of Las Vegas and within a day's drive from Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.
With its predicted smaller class sizes, the new college will be able to accelerate the learning potential for its students, much like Southern Virginia has, matriculating higher numbers of students than larger colleges and universities can in the same amount of time because of the intensified learning experience associated with smaller classes.
"It's like BYU but on a much smaller scale," Jensen said. "The concept is to provide an LDS environment, with a BYU-type honor code and dress code, in an environment where learning can take place."
Once established, the institution plans to offer a variety of four-year baccalaureate degrees in the humanities, social sciences, science, math and fine arts.
The idea has been in the planning stages for the past five years and is now to the point where officials are trying to secure land where building can take place. Jensen said to build out the entire concept, it would take 80 acres. The campus at Southern Virginia University began on a similar scale and now operates on 155 acres. Several site visits have been made and preliminary negotiations are taking place, but the current real estate market makes the low-appraised offers somewhat unappealing to property owners.
The transactions, however, are the biggest thing standing in the way of the new college taking root.
"We're not worried at all about getting the students, professors, teachers and/or instructors to come there," Jensen said, adding that there has been growing support from surrounding communities and church members in the area.
Desert Valley College, he said, will be modeled after the successful SVU plan and the BYU system of LDS Church colleges. As a small percentage of LDS high school graduates across the country are admitted into the BYU system or SVU, Jensen believes the academy in Nevada will serve a specific need.
Jensen, who grew up in Logandale and now lives in the St. George area, is directing the fundraising efforts while other influential members of surrounding communities sit on Desert Valley College's board of directors.
"It would mean a tremendous thing to them to have this college there," he said. The new school would not only provide secondary education opportunities for hopeful students in the area, which Jensen said is "essentially a bedroom community to Las Vegas," but he said it would enhance much-needed employment opportunities as well as provide the cultural benefits that any college does to its surrounding community.
e-mail: wleonard@desnews.com