Classes begin at new South University in Short Pump

The village now has a school.

Classes started yesterday for about 100 students at South University in West Broad Village -- nearly triple the number the school had anticipated for its start-up enrollment.

The campus is just behind Whole Foods Market in the new Short Pump development, where empty storefronts reflect the recession's impact.

But a poor economy also draws people back to class and is likely one reason for South University's opening enrollment, said Dennis Corrado, president of the Richmond-area campus.

The university, which hopes to have about 1,000 students within five years, hired additional faculty before classes began, Corrado said. It has between 16 and 20 fulland part-time faculty members and 17 full-time staffers.

The campus occupies 30,000 square feet on two floors and represents a $12 million investment, Corrado said.

It offers degrees in seven programs, including criminal justice, psychology, nursing and business administration, and has 11 classrooms, three labs, a bookstore and a library that already contains 1,700 volumes.

Corrado said the university's first class is about a 50-50 mix of students just out of high school and nontraditional, older students returning to school.

South University is one of 86 for-profit institutions certified to operate by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which also accredits most other public and private schools in the state.

South charges $4,895 per quarter for 18 credit hours for bachelor-degree programs; $6,245 per quarter for a master's in business administration and the professional counseling program.

That's higher than the state's public universities charge. Virginia Commonwealth University, for example, charges in-state undergraduates $3,558 per semester in tuition and fees.

But Corrado said South University offers a "students first, no matter what" philosophy and personal attention that's not available at larger schools.

At South University, class size averages 12 to 14 students, with the largest about 36. "There's nowhere to hide when the class is small," he said.

The Short Pump development is a first for a South University location, he said.

"This is new for us -- a mixed-use facility like this where you can actually live, work, play and now learn," said Corrado, who opened South University's campus in Tampa, Fla., before coming to the Richmond area last spring.

The school has six campuses in the Southeast, but the university is named for its chancellor, John South, not the region.

The school dates to a business college founded in 1899 in Savannah, Ga., and purchased by the South family in 1974. In 2003, it was acquired by Education Management Corp., among the largest providers of private post-secondary education in North America.

Contact Karin Kapsidelis at (804) 649-6119 or .