Nevada State College campus growth fueled by enrollment surge — PHOTOS

For longer than a decade, Nevada State College has been little more than a cramped two-story building in the foothills of the Henderson desert.

But steady enrollment hikes have sparked a dramatic expansion at the school, where the campus footprint has tripled in just one year. Buildings with floor-to-ceiling views of the Las Vegas Valley will boost classroom space by 50 percent. Brand new amenities include a cafeteria, an auditorium and lecture halls to give students a more traditional campus experience when they descend on campus for the fall semester, administrators say.

"We've had this incredible growth over the past 13 years despite having a pretty significant lack of facilities," said Erika Beck, NSC's provost and executive vice president. "It was a really significant challenge for students, but we finally have a fully integrated campus."

Two new 60,000-square-foot buildings consolidate most operations at NSC, which eventually will funnel all resources onto its main campus at 1125 Nevada State Drive. The school plans to shutter a secondary campus in downtown Henderson at Basic Road and Water Street, where students took nursing and education courses before the upgrade. For now, though, students still have to go to that location for financial aid and registration services.

Other notable additions at the school's 509-acre main campus include new cadaver facilities for anatomy and physiology courses, more than a dozen additional study rooms, and a parking lot that adds 565 new spots — nearly doubling available capacity. NSC's library is also getting a drastic upgrade — with 1.4 million e-books, it will soon stock the biggest digital catalog in the state.

Funded through private donations and a $150 student fee approved by NSC's student government representatives last year, construction for the $54 million project began January 2014 and will end this month, with crews doing final touches before the fall semester begins Aug. 24. Administrators say the change was long overdue for a college where enrollment has ballooned from 176 students in 2002 to 3,549 in 2014.

"You have no idea what this means. It's like a dream come true," said Moee Turbin, 19, a junior who voted in favor of the fee hike last year. "I think it's worth it. It makes sense to have our departments here instead of (in downtown Henderson)."

Nevada State College was added in 2002 to the Nevada System of Higher Education as a second-tier school. Part of its mission is to provide underserved student populations with access to bachelor's degrees. Nearly half of its students are first-generation, non-traditional college students, and administrators hope the upgrades will encourage them to stay at the campus longer, boosting their chances of graduating.

Many students use public transportation to get to school, so offering them places to eat, study and rest on campus could greatly help them focus on their studies.

"If we engage students and keep them on campus longer throughout day, it will increase retention significantly," said said Jennifer Haft, director of strategic initiatives at NSC. "We serve an underserved population that stepped up knowing they would gain in the end."

Contact Ana Ley at aley@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find her on Twitter @la__ley.