By COLIN BENNETT
NAUVOO, Ill. — After completion of its first school year, Nauvoo University is viewed by some local residents as the economic rescue “The City Beautiful” needs to survive.
The new and as-yet unaccredited school technically remains just the Nauvoo Study Program while it continues to grow. The program, which had 13 students enroll in its first semester last fall, was the idea of Latter-day Saint investors and retired BYU faculty, but is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The school’s backers hope it will eventually become a full-fledged university.
“Some people here believe it’s the only hope we have to help the economy here in town,” said Evan Ivie, Nauvoo Study Program director. “We do get tourists in the summer, but we don’t really have much else and having a little academic institution would be good for the town.”
Nauvoo Latter-day Saints in the 19th century founded a university with eight faculty members and had plans for a campus, but it was never built before the exodus west. Ivie became involved in the new effort when the BYU Semester in Nauvoo was discontinued several years ago. He said he saw what a good thing it was for students to study in Nauvoo.
“Most LDS people when they think about LDS colleges and LDS standards, they think about BYU,” Ivie said. “We have become convinced there is a third option besides the BYUs and besides going to a college and attending institute. It would be really good to have LDS-oriented independent colleges that have LDS standards but don’t require church funding.”
Ivie said he believes more local, independent LDS colleges could be a blessing to a larger number of students than can be accommodated on BYU campuses. Methodists have 100 four-year colleges and Catholics have 170, but they are all independent and are not owned by those churches, Ivie said.
“I’m setting trends,” said Rebecca Hiersche, a Nauvoo Study Program student from Baton Rouge, La. “I get to set the traditions instead of having the traditions set already. There will be stories and memories from our first two semesters that can be passed on through just about every semester.”
Hiersche said living in Nauvoo is an adventure in itself because it is a small town and therefore requires students to devise their own entertainment. She said she has received the education she was looking for.
“It’s not really, in my opinion, like a college,” said Emma Pauley, a Nauvoo Study Program student from Washington, Iowa. “It’s more like a large family because you’re living with these people in such close quarters that they’re more like siblings than classmates.”
The students attending the Nauvoo Study Program live in the Nauvoo Family Inn and Suites hotel on Mulholland Street. The hotel set aside part of its executive suites building for student apartments and classrooms. Classes technically are currently taken through Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Ill., and BYU Independent Study. There are also Nauvoo-specific classes taught by retired BYU professors.
