'Mormon-friendly' colleges planned for Nevada, Nauvoo

Two separate groups of educational entrepreneurs are planning to open private colleges in the next few years aimed at Latter-day Saint students who are not admitted to Brigham Young University or its campuses in Idaho and Hawaii.

Nauvoo, Ill., and Moapa Valley, Nev., are the sites of the proposed schools, to be known respectively as Nauvoo University and Desert Valley Academy. Both of the planned schools have already established Web sites — nauvoouniversity.com and desertvalleyacademy.org — as well as school administrations, boards of directors and plans for housing and instructing students in a "Mormon-friendly" environment secular universities can't match, say those who are spearheading the efforts.

Spokesmen for both groups have talked with top leaders of the LDS Church about supporting their endeavors but were told the church is not currently interested in expanding into higher education beyond its existing campuses.

Both groups say they are basing their business plans on the success of Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Va., which was formed by a private group of Latter-day Saint businessmen and educators based on the values and standards at BYU. It opened its doors in 1996 with 76 students and has since grown to attract several hundred per year.

Evan Ivie, former director of BYU's popular Semester in Nauvoo program, said when the church decided to discontinue the program in 2006, several people expressed interest in providing a college venue for LDS students there based on the region's key role in church history and the fact that the church recently reconstructed the Nauvoo Temple.

"I think there was a strong feeling that good was being done and something additional here would benefit students, faculty and the town. As we've examined church history and seen the goals that the early Saints had of having some kind of academic institution here, we've been touched by their devotion to education and the desire to have that as a centerpiece for the city of Nauvoo. We share in that desire."

Ivie said he's seen "strong interest" among many LDS academics to move to an area "where they can attend a temple and be involved with an academic institution, maybe even teach some classes. There's a natural flow for the kind of people we need for a university here in Nauvoo."

He anticipates city and county leaders in the area "will welcome this as a very positive step forward in this area," and said he plans to talk with them in the near future about specifics of the planning that is under way.

The nonprofit institution won't have any of its own campus facilities in the early stages, he said, noting the building that formerly housed the BYU Nauvoo program has been demolished.

Recent comments