Nevada State College will hold some classes at 303 Water St. starting in January. President Fred Maryanski and other administrators have moved to the location, about five miles from the school's main campus on Nevada State Drive. Photos by SAMANTHA CLEMENS/REVIEW-JOURNAL Donald Hampton moves boxes Wednesday into the Nevada State College president's new office in the Water Street South building in downtown Henderson. The growing college is renting 13,000 square feet in the building for administrative and classroom spaces.

The president of Nevada State College has packed up his office and is moving it five miles away from the college's main campus.

Fred Maryanski's new digs are at the recently completed Water Street South building, at Basic Road and Water Street in downtown Henderson.

About 13,000 square feet of Water Street South will serve as a satellite campus for Nevada State College. Administrative offices, three classrooms, two nursing labs and a media center will be located at the satellite campus, with classes set to begin there in late January.

The six-year lease, about $27,400 per month, is the 3-year-old college's latest effort to accommodate its growing number of students and faculty. The school's main campus, in what had been a vitamin factory at 1125 Nevada State Drive, has just nine classrooms. Maryanski's former office is being converted into a 10th classroom, but it will be a relatively small one.

As for the possible drawbacks of moving his office to the satellite campus, Maryanski said, "We're going to be pretty evenly divided. No matter where I was, I would be with half the people. In that sense it was neutral."

The Water Street building will house about one-third of the campus, said Brad Jensen, the college's facilities management director. Earlier this year, the college rented about 3,000 square feet from the city of Henderson for business offices on Water Street.

As movers came to haul his belongings to the new campus Wednesday, Maryanski was working on plans to take the college statewide.

In January, he plans to sign an agreement with three state community colleges to bring upper division courses to their campuses.

Over the next few years, the schools will work to allow students at Western Nevada Community College campus, Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno and the Community College of Southern Nevada to complete their two-year degrees and then take Nevada State classes, either across the hall or at a nearby campus, as part of a bachelor's degree program.

"We want to provide access to the Nevada State College education to the citizens of the state. We feel the best way to do that is in partnership with the community college and also with the community colleges up north," Maryanski said.

With increased admission standards at the state's two universities on the horizon, Chancellor Jim Rogers said he wants to establish a "Nevada State system" to provide another avenue for bachelor's degrees statewide.

The "Nevada State system" would "give us classes in North Las Vegas at the Cheyenne campus, at the Redfield campus, which is right outside Reno, and classes out at the Western Nevada Community College," Rogers said.

CCSN President Richard Carpenter said he hopes to start offering Nevada State upper division courses in the coming year at CCSN's Charleston and Cheyenne campuses.

Full bachelor's degree programs on campus will take longer to implement, he said.

"The number one reason for CCSN students dropping out is not academic; it's financial," Carpenter said. "It's one of the impetuses for bringing these courses onto our campuses. Students, they don't have the financial means to commute back and forth to Henderson to take courses."

Carpenter, Maryanski, TMCC and WNCC officials said there are still many details to work out, including financial aid for students and how to fit upper division courses onto community college campuses that are already strapped for space.

Maryanski also emphasized that the college, which enrolled about 1,000 full-time students this fall and is expected to triple its enrollments over the next five years, will expand its main campus on Nevada State Drive.

The college received $13 million in 2003 and $9 million last spring from the Legislature to complete its first building.

But due to escalating construction costs, the size of that facility has shrunk from the 100,000 square feet that had been initially planned to 42,000 square feet. Maryanski opted to remove his office from the plans to provide more space for classrooms in the new building, expected to be completed in 2008.

Having the college divided across Henderson is disappointing, but necessary, said Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson.

"It detracts from the higher educational experience, and so ultimately the goal will be for them to have that integrated type of campus where all the work is being done in one place," he said. "But likewise, because they're growing so quickly they can't fit everybody into that vitamin factory."

Finding nearby rental space was good fiscal planning, he said.

Maryanski noted it's cheaper than previous plans to build portables on campus.

"You've got to take those baby steps," Heck said. "We don't have the financial wherewithal to go in and give them $50 million and say, `Build a campus.' "

For two days a week, Nevada State student Deborah Mackey will commute to Water Street South this semester, where she'll take education classes and work within the nursing department.

She's heard the new building is nice, and she is happy it's next to a coffee shop.

"Hopefully it won't be too much of a drag," she said. "I'm not happy about it, but it'll be all right."

But she'll miss the "Great Hall," the student lounge in the expansive warehouse-like center of the old factory, where she plays cards and catches up with friends between classes.

On Wednesday, the hall had reverted to its warehouse roots; it was filled with furniture and boxes waiting to be trucked over to Water Street.