UNLV President Carol C. Harter announced today in her 10th annual State of the University Address that the institution will launch a large-scale public/private partnership to redevelop the areas surrounding the campus.

Called "Midtown UNLV," the redevelopment effort calls for private businesses, various government entities, community members, and the university to join forces to improve the physical space around the campus, starting with the areas immediately to the east along Maryland Parkway at the campus entrance. Currently, a major north-south travel artery in Las Vegas - Maryland Parkway - is home to one of the community's older commercial districts.

"The goal of this project is to create a place at our front door that would help transform our surrounding area into a university district - a neighborhood of restaurants, cafes, outdoor gathering places, small-scale galleries, and welcoming residential and retail opportunities," Harter said. "This district will revitalize the area, serve as an attraction to the creative people the university seeks to serve and employ, and to literally and figuratively transform our community."

UNLV Foundation Board member Michael Saltman, a business owner in the area, plans to spearhead the project by redeveloping one of his shopping complexes, located at the corner of Maryland Parkway and Harmon.

"Mike Saltman has exhibited wonderful leadership in envisioning this partnership project," Harter said.

The entire project is a physical manifestation of a community partnership orientation that Harter has adopted during her decade-long tenure at UNLV. "We have long maintained that a university should help transform its community in positive and constructive ways, and we are committed to that idea at UNLV," she said.

The address centered on the theme of "community engagement" and the integral role a metropolitan university plays in the economic and social development of its region.

Harter, one of the longest serving women presidents at a major public university, also provided highlights of progress in her 10 years at UNLV, including the following:

• Enrollment has increased by more than 35%, from approximately 20,000 to more than 27,000 students. Doctoral headcount enrollment has grown 215% (not including professional schools) since 1994.
• More than 100 new academic programs have been added, including 53% at the graduate level.
• UNLV has built 17 buildings, has renovated six more, and is planning $91 million in student-centered facilities.
• The university has raised $214 million in cash and gifts; received $142 million in pledges and $100 million in "estate expectancies."
• UNLV is now ranked as a major, national Research II (Doctoral/Research Universities-Intensive) institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and is moving rapidly to Research I or Doctoral/Research Universities-Extensive status.