Park University's lease for use of the University is coming up, but officials say they must expand enrollment before they can put their own footprint elsewhere in Gilbert.
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Park University Gilbert campus 92 W. Vaughn Ave Gilbert, AZ 85233
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Park University is taking a close look at its future in Gilbert as part of a universitywide strategic planning effort aimed at aligning programs with the evolving needs of students and employers, Interim President Kathrine Swanson said.
“Park University has just adopted a new strategic plan and new mission and vision statement,” Swanson said. “Really setting our direction for the future for the entire university network, which includes the Parkville campus, the Gilbert campus, and our centers mostly affiliated with military bases around the country.”
The private university, based in Parkville, Missouri, opened its Gilbert campus in 2018 with plans to reach a balanced budget within five years. That plan was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed growth in key areas such as graduate and degree-completion programs, Swanson said.
“When Park University initially opened in 2018 in Gilbert, we had a plan and a proforma to get us to a balanced budget there because we knew it would take some investments in about five years to get there,” she said. “Well, then a funny thing happened halfway through that called COVID.”
The Gilbert campus has built a strong base in athletics, with about 325 student-athletes enrolled, part of a total enrollment of 367 students. But Swanson said the university needs to expand beyond athletics to build a sustainable presence.
“We were really looking at four different types of students to serve,” she said, citing daytime traditional students, graduate students, evening adult learners and student-athletes. “We did really well in building up the student-athletes … but what we haven’t done well is building up those evening graduate programs, degree completion programs in particular.”
To determine what mix of programs can thrive in the East Valley market, Park is conducting market research.
“The desire is to expand,” Swanson said. “I think that market research is going to help us determine how that expansion happens. In some ways, it might be more of a shift in strategy to target more of those degree completion and graduate programs.”
Swanson said Park would need to reach about 750 students in Gilbert before it could consider building its own facility.
The university leases its space in the town’s University Building, which it shares with a University of Arizona nursing program, and plans to work with the town to extend that arrangement while refining its academic and enrollment strategy. The current lease expires June 30.
The reassessment in Gilbert coincides with Park’s broader repositioning across its national network. The university operates its main campus in Missouri and more than 20 locations nationwide, including centers affiliated with military bases.
Park is one of 193 institutions nationwide recognized as an “Opportunity College or University – Higher Access, Higher Earnings,” a classification that identifies schools enrolling representative student populations and producing higher-than-expected earnings after graduation.
It is also classified as a “Professions-Focused Undergraduate/Graduate-Master’s Large/Medium” university, a category emphasizing programs designed to prepare students for professional careers.
Only 18 universities in the country share both of these designations, a distinction Swanson said underscores Park’s dual commitment to accessibility and workforce readiness.
“We are also secondarily designated as an opportunity college, which means that we are serving students who might not otherwise have access to education, who are underserved or from lower socioeconomic levels, and our graduates are earning salaries on the other side higher than the average,” she said. “When you marry those two classifications together, Park University is one of 18 universities in the country that has both of those designations.”
Swanson said the classifications reinforce Park’s approach to education, which blends durable skills such as critical thinking and communication with the technical skills of professional disciplines.
The university offers programs in business, information and computer science, sport and exercise science, and criminal justice, among others.
“There has been a lot of question marks about the value of higher education,” she said. “That goes to the need to really look at, are we offering the right programs that people will want to participate in higher ed?”
To address changing expectations, Park is developing more flexible pathways, including competency-based and accelerated degree programs. The university is awaiting approval from its accreditor to launch its first accelerated bachelor’s degree.
“I think that will be attractive, especially again, to those adult learners who are at that point in their life, ‘I just want a degree,’ and it’ll be a way for us to get that to them sooner,” Swanson said.
Swanson said the university sees “potential and opportunities” in Gilbert, particularly in serving adult learners who want to complete degrees or earn professional credentials that can quickly advance their careers.
She said she is impressed with the community and its growth since her earlier career experience in Arizona.
“I worked at Northern Arizona University earlier in my career and was in Gilbert back in the '80s, and it certainly has changed a lot since then,” she said. “I’m enjoying the time that I spend there on the campus, so I see the potential and the opportunities there.”
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Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Kathrine Swanson.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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