Benedictine University Coming to Downtown Mesa, AZ

March 15, 2012 - PRLog -- The city of Mesa, AZ, announced that Benedictine University from suburban IL will build a campus in the city's downtown with opening plans of fall 2013. The university will be the first of several colleges and universities that Mesa is in talks with for their vision of an urban campus with on-site student housing that will enroll 1,500 students within a decade.

"Benedictine was certainly near the top of our list since day one because of their background, their history," said Mayor Scott Smith. "This is exactly the kind of university and higher education opportunity we were looking for."

Benedictine Executive VP Charles Gregory said he expects to recruit sutdents from high schools, community colleges and from all over the West. Gregory believes that Benedictine will be the first Catholic college in Arizona. "We want our campus downtown to become a lively part of Mesa's urban core and to help surrounding businesses."

The university will likely offer programs in business, criminal justice and psychology at first and will start small with classes for juniors and seniors. During that time administrators will study what other programs are in demand by bsuienss and industry in AZ. The city of Mesa, on the other hand, wants to boost the number of residents with college degrees while matching those degrees with skills that high-tech employers want.

Forbes magazine named Benedictine among the top 20% of colleges in the U.S. in 2011 and The Chronicle of Higher Education ranks the university the 7th fastest growing insitutions in the nation.

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