Alaska Pacific University's Board of Trustees have carried out an Institutional Self Study and an accompanying Campus Plan in order to determine what kinds of campus developments would be necessary for the continued growth and improvement of APU. The Master Plan, as it is called, was completed with the help of DOWL Engineers and the Omni Group and is a very comprehensive 100 page document with campus maps, engineering studies, as well as need projections for campus classrooms, offices, student housing, and programs.

APU's Full Time Equivalent (FTE) enrollment is roughly 510 students this year, up 52% from its low point of 336 in the Spring of 1996. The assumption of the Campus Plan was that enrollment would grow another 32% to about 675 FTE students over the next five years. Keeping this aim in mind the Master Plan assesses the development of the "physical plant" which will allow the campus to accommodate an increase in student population.

The projected changes for APU are very exciting and include a renovation of Grant Hall. The renovation of the 3rd floor, which includes a new state-of-the art science center, will get under way in early May 2003. The second floor renovations will take place in 2004. BP has made the lead contribution for the Science Facility renovation so it will be named the "BP Science Center."

In addition to the Grant Hall renovation, the Campus Plan shows how additional academic buildings could best be situated between the Carr Gottstein building and the Atwood Center. That area is a parking lot now, but could easily be reconfigured into a coherent campus, with some of the unsightly parking that sits in the middle of everything being moved across the street and put behind trees, like the Grant Hall parking. Additional academic facilities are not necessary for the anticipated growth, but their place has been determined.

Additional student housing will clearly be needed as the university's enrollment expands, especially in the Campus Undergraduate Program. When the Atwood Center was renovated a few years ago, APU had to take out all the apartments with kitchens in Atwood North. That meant that sophomore, junior, and senior students who wanted to stay on campus would also have to continue to take their meals in the cafeteria. But that is not what more experienced students want. They usually want apartments. If APU doesn't offer that on campus, then the campus community is going to lack experienced students, and that makes for an incomplete community.

Our new dorms will be located across the road from the Atwood Center next to the top of University Village and accommodate 24 students in six apartments of four students each. Knobby and Mary Segelhorst have made the lead donation to build this new development, and the dorm will be named after them. This dormitory will be ready for occupancy in the Fall of 2004. Plans for an Alaska Native Cultural Center and Student Housing continue to move along as well, and the two dormitories may well be built in tandem.

The Master Plan also makes plans for the development of the University Endowment Land. Some fifteen years ago, the Trustees of Alaska Pacific University determined how to balance development with preservation on the APU campus. They transferred a sizable portion of the APU campus to the Municipality of Anchorage to be preserved as a city park for recreation: that is now the University Lake park.

Next to that park, they established the University Endowment Lands, to be developed in ways fitting for the U-Med area and also providing for income streams into the University's operating budget. At the present time, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) is housed on campus in Gould Hall and Grace Hall (both on Endowment Lands). The buildings are leased to the USGS and provide income to the university. The development of Endowment Lands generates additional revenue to supplement fund-raising and income from the APU Foundation. All three of these sources are necessary to make a private university survive and thrive, because tuition and fees only provide 60% of the cost of educating students.

One premise of the Master Plan is that APU remains committed to Active Learning and the low student to teacher ratios that are the key to its success. Nothing supports high quality of education like small classes and individual attention. Therefore even with the increase in the student population our goal is to maintain a student to teacher ratio of 12 to 1. The recommendations of the Master Plan will help the university deal with the potential increase of students in the coming years and their academic and housing needs. Plus it will help guarantee the pristine environment of our beautiful campus.