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Liberty University's Billion Dollar Boom

At a time when many universities are raising rates and cutting back on spending, Liberty University in Lynchburg is booming.  The private, Christian school is wrapping up more than a dozen major construction projects in less than a decade. 

Liberty is a relatively small school -- about 15,500 students on campus. But it’s a giant online, the nation’s number two behind the University of Phoenix, with 85,000 people taking classes through their computers, and that has apparently provided plenty of money for growth.

A recent report by ProPublica and the New York Times says Liberty is in the midst of a billion dollar building spree.  In the last few years it’s added a new library, science hall, school of music, softball stadium, natatorium, parking garage, student union and, at a cost of nearly $40 million, expansion of another essential facility.

“Our football stadium seats 19,200 officially today, and for the first game this fall, we’ll be up to 25,000,” says Dan Deter, Vice President of Major Construction.  He explains that Liberty is moving up to the highest level of NCAA competition, joining schools like Virginia Tech and UVA.  

But perhaps the most spectacular new structure is the Freedom Tower, 275 feet tall, at the center of campus. Two elevators transport visitors to an observation deck at the top or to one of four floors of classrooms.   “The one comment we’ve heard from professors is it’s hard to keep the students’ attention, because there are such amazing views on all four sides, so until they get used to it the professors were keeping the blinds pulled down,” Deter says.

It’s also possible to travel on foot to the top.  Just ask 77-year-old Duane Temple. “Long, long ago, when I was 17 years old I went up the Washington Monument in ten minutes.”

Eighteen-year-old Bailey Stormes plans to enroll at Liberty in the fall, and she intends to make the climb part of her fitness routine. “Oh yeah, every day!" she vows. "I just really want to have my God time, and it makes you feel closer to God when you’re up here.” 

The Freedom Tower will also serve as a place to express school spirit.  Recently, Deter says, Liberty honored the Philadelphia Eagles. “There’s an LED light package on the exterior of the tower that we can make it a bunch of different colors – all red, all blue, all green," Deter explains. "I know for the Super Bowl victory for the quarterback of the Super Bowl winning team was a Liberty students, so we lit the tower up green.”

From the top of this, the tallest building in Lynchburg, you can see the city, the mountains and the rapidly expanding campus. From below, you can’t help but think of the University of Texas Tower, the scene of a mass shooting in 1966, but Deter says safety was considered when Charlottesville architects VMDO designed the building and placed plexi-glass around the outdoor observation deck.

“I don’t want to go into all our specifics," Deter says, "but we do have security protocols for the top of the tower.  It is a beautiful view, but we also take our student safety very seriously.”

Liberty does allow students to carry firearms, inviting them to practice at a new, state-of-the-art firing range. 

It seems likely Liberty’s President Jerry Falwell, Jr. will continue to pursue his vision of what he calls "a world class university training champions for Christ."  The school owns more than 7,000 acres in Central Virginia and took in nearly a billion dollars last year.  The New York Times and ProPublica suggested the school might be profiting at the expense of students, spending far less on teaching than comparable universities, but in our next report Liberty’s Vice President for Finance offers a different view.  

Liberty University was recently shocked by a New York Times account of the school’s billion-dollar building boom.  Administrators say it’s true – they’ve added lots of new facilities over the last few years, but one of Lynchburg’s largest employers says it’s not skimping on education to create a world-class campus.  Sandy Hausman has that story.

liberty_responds.mp3
Liberty University's response

           

Credit Liberty University
Liberty's Vice President for Finance, Robert Ritz, says he was shocked by a New York Times report on the school's billion dollar building boom.

 

There’s no denying that Liberty University is adding buildings at a surprising rate-- a new library and student union, a softball stadium, natatorium and expanded football facility, but Vice President of Finance Robert Ritz, says there’s more.

“A lot of people focus on the fact that we’re updating our stadium to be a national level type of stadium, but we also just built a music building and a music auditorium, and a science building, and if you drive by campus right now, the biggest, ugliest construction project is our brand new school of business.”

That makes sense in light of Liberty’s remarkable business success.  The New York Times calls it one of the most lucrative non-profits in the country with nearly a billion dollars in revenue last year. But the Times’ report, compiled in cooperation with ProPublica, suggests the school might be skimping on education – spending just $2,600 per student. 

That number is right, says Robert Ritz, but it’s no lower than competitors like the University of Phoenix, and he claims the school can keep costs down by hiring professors as needed.  Faculty members are not tenured, so if there’s no demand for their subject matter, they can be laid off. 

“We use a lot of adjunct professors, especially online.  Again, the word adjunct I don’t want to be misleading.  They still have to be qualified to teach the course according to our regional accreditation standards.”

All the new buildings, he says, are needed to accommodate growth and replace aging facilities.

“I’m not sure when the campus was purchased.  It was maybe around ’73, but it was basically a farm at that point, and they added some academic buildings, and a lot of them are just buildings not designed to last a long time.”

The New York Times and ProPublica also pointed out that Liberty gets millions of dollars from the federal government in the form of student aid, but Ritz says some of that is loaned and paid back, and if their education costs less than Uncle Sam provides, students keep the excess.

“Because we keep our keep our costs low, students are able to get refunds of their federal aid.  They’re allowed to use that aid to help pay for rent and groceries, so when you hear about Liberty getting $770 million in federal student aid, that’s not all staying at Liberty.  That’s coming through Liberty -- $300 million of it last year went back out to students to help them pay for their regular living expenses while they’re in college.”

Ritz and other administrators said they were shocked by the newspaper’s suggestion that Liberty is not subject to the same federal scrutiny as other institutions of higher learning.

“When I first came here I had seven people full-time working on regulatory matters, and I get that.  We need to be held accountable. All schools do.  That’s not a bad thing, but in the following about six years under the Obama Administration those seven full-time people grew to over 50 full-time people  dealing with government regulations.”

And he insists that Liberty gets plenty of government oversight.

“The Department of Education is in constant contact with us,  I mean every month.  The office of civil rights also has contacted us over the years. The Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration, they’re in contact with us, and they audit our records.  The Office of Inspector General, they did a two-year audit from 2012 to 2013 of our records.  I mean they basically know my shirt size.”

Which is why Liberty is working with Congress, the Secretary of Education and the White House to try and reduce the amount of government regulation on the nation’s universities.  

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief
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