Correction: Arkansas State University CQ A.C. is the private foundation with which Arkansas State University is working to fund its campus in Queretaro, Mexico. An article about the campus in Thursday's editions gave an incorrect name for the Mexican foundation.
JONESBORO -- Despite delays in getting utilities to the proposed Arkansas State University campus in Queretaro, Mexico, along with changes in designs and rising costs, classes are expected to begin in the fall semester of 2016, officials said Wednesday during a brief news conference in Jonesboro.
Edmundo Ortiz, the general director for the Association for Advancement of Mexican Education -- which is overseeing the funding of the new campus -- said he expects 1,000 students to enroll at the 250-acre Queretaro campus next year.
"This project will change so many lifestyles and the relationship with academics and industry," Ortiz said.
The university announced in 2012 that it would build the campus near Santiago de Queretaro in north-central Mexico and expected that within five years of its opening, it would boast an enrollment of 5,000.
Ortiz's organization spoke with representatives from the aeronautics, pharmaceutical, engineering and agriculture industries in Mexico about the proposed campus and procured funding from investors.
Originally, officials said it would cost $50 million. However, ASU-Jonesboro Chancellor Tim Hudson said Wednesday that the project is now expected to cost about $75 million.
Changes in architectural designs and difficulties in getting permits for water and electrical service to the remote Mexican area were to blame for the increase, Hudson said.
"We're beginning a university from scratch," Hudson said. "This is land development on a major scale. There are lots of complexities in large projects."
All of the money is coming from Mexican investors and not the university. When opened, the campus is expected to generate about $8 million annually.
It will be the first American-style campus in Mexico, Ortiz said.
"We are making history," he said Wednesday.
During the news conference, Hudson left briefly to arrange to close the ASU-Jonesboro campus at 1 p.m. because of approaching ice, sleet and snow, leading Ortiz to joke about the wintry weather in Arkansas.
"In Queretaro, it's always 19 degrees," he said, referring to the temperature in Celsius. Converted to Fahrenheit, the Queretaro temperature was 72 degrees.
"You can always wear shorts in the comfortable weather," Ortiz said, laughing.
Developers are expected to build a community around the Mexican campus. The community will include single-family and multifamily residences, stores, elementary and high schools, shops and other businesses.
Ortiz said the community may someday grow to be as big as Jonesboro, which has a population of 67,263.
In a video presented at the news conference, Queretaro's Gov. Jose Calzada said the ASU campus project is the "first step in a relationship we will be able to talk about in the next ... 20 years.
"We can say we were the first to [create] an exchange of knowledge, and students and education that will transform the way we behave in the relationship we have between Mexico and the United States," he said.
State Desk on 03/05/2015