“This significant gift provides us with strong options to make many of our programs more accessible to many more people,” GMU President Alan Merten said in a statement.
Van Metre Companies, the developer behind the 2,700-home community of Broadlands, as well as Broadlands Village Center and Broadlands Marketplace, donated the land, which is near Exit 6 on the Greenway.
GMU is part of the Loudoun Planning Project, a partnership with Northern Virginia Community College, Loudoun County Public Schools, the Town of Leesburg and the Loudoun County government. The group is exploring the possibility of using the land to establish a Loudoun campus for GMU. This winter, GMU will ask state lawmakers for money to launch a study to determine the physical and academic scope of the campus, said Jerry Coughter, GMU's executive officer for its Loudoun campus. No date has been set on when construction will begin.
On the location, Coughter said it "fulfills" all the criteria the university and county had in mind.
"It will be walking distance to a Metro station, and it has great road access," he said, adding there will be plenty of homes, shops and entertainment options also nearby.
First brought to light in August 2008, GMU has been looking for a spot to build a campus—possibly a joint facility with Northern Virginia Community College—for over a year. Although a new campus is still far from a certainty considering the state’s tough economic situation, the plan is for a four-year facility that would accommodate between 5,000 and 10,000 undergraduate and graduate commuting students. University officials have long said that Loudoun is an under-served college market and that they are attracted by the county’s emerging technology, aerospace and biomedical industries, to include the Janelia Farm Research Campus near Lansdowne.
"The thought here is that the campus will have the needs of businesses in eastern Loudoun and western Fairfax in mind," Coughter said, suggesting many courses offered at the future campus will likely cater to those industries.
The idea of a full-service GMU campus in Loudoun is not a new one. Several years ago, the school considered building a university, to include a performing arts center, in Dulles South on land promised by developer Greenvest. However, those plans fell through when county leaders nixed Greenvest’s grand development’s plans for Dulles South, which included as many as 15,000 homes.
In this latest endeavor, Brambleton was once thought to have been considered a possible location, as was Leesburg. Earlier this year, a feasibility study was conducted on building a campus in Loudoun. Several times, university officials met with the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, which expressed a desire that the campus be easily accessible. The Broadlands land is about a mile from a future Metro station.
“This signature location will become a cornerstone of our educational community,” said Loudoun Chairman Scott York (I-At Large). “Loudoun County is a dynamic location in Northern Virginia with a motivated and educated workforce. A high-quality university campus at this site will provide a valuable resource to our citizens.”
This will be not GMU’s first foray into Loudoun. GMU currently offers courses in nursing, education, information technology and management at a facility in Sterling. The location also offers undergraduate general education courses and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute courses.
See www.gmu.edu to learn more.
Great win-win for the school and Van Metre.