Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Nevada State College is growing fast and going places, president says

When Nevada State College president Bart Patterson takes the stage next week to address students and staff about the direction of the school, there will be a lot to reflect on from its nearly 15-year history.

Since NSC opened in 2002, it has gone from a fledgling school teaching 177 students in a former vitamin factory to a college of 3,500 undergraduates with a foundation that recently annihilated a $10 million fundraising goal by raising nearly twice that amount.

Click to enlarge photo

Bart Patterson

Patterson’s message to the campus community? The college doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.

In the coming years, the school is looking to expand even further, with a number of new initiatives, facilities and even its first master’s program in speech pathology.

NSC also is planning to beef up its School of Education, with new programs in deaf studies and early childhood education and a goal of raising $6 million for a new building.

They are lofty aims even in light of the school’s recent accomplishments, which include completing construction on two new buildings for nursing and science (both of which are already at capacity), and obliterating that $10 million fundraising goal set two years ago. Around June, the school had already raised around $17 million.

The influx of money, given by many big names throughout the valley such as the Elaine P Wynn & Family Foundation, Cox Communications and NV Energy, helped award 120 full-ride scholarships.

“I think we’re going to continue to see this steady pattern of growth,” said Patterson, who is nearing his fifth year in the position.

The school, founded to relieve a maxed-out higher education system nearly two decades ago, has positioned itself as the ideal choice for underserved students who otherwise couldn’t afford a bachelor’s degree at a school like UNLV or UNR. Tuition is around a third of what it is at state universities.

NSC sees itself in the same vein as state universities around the country, who serve as the “middle tier” between research-focused schools like UNLV and UNR and community colleges like CSN.

“Most of our students come from Nevada and they stay right here,” Patterson said (around 95 percent of NSC students are from Nevada).

The school’s quick growth makes it one of the fastest-growing in the country, but its status as an upstart has its downsides. It bore the brunt of the state’s budget cuts to education in 2009.

Despite such setbacks, it continues to grow. And you could say the underdog status is only helping it along.

“We’re a much lower cost to the student than going to the universities,” said Patterson, who is six months away from becoming the college’s longest-serving president.

“We have small class sizes, and you’re not going to come into NSC and be taught by graduate assistants,” he said. “Having that connection with the faculty and staff in the first year really helps students to succeed.”

Looking another five years ahead, he predicts the school will surpass 5,000 students, see the addition of more academic programs and maybe even a sports team.

The college recently saw the formation of its first club-sport team in rowing, but they have an eye to eventually hit the big leagues.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Patterson said.

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