Roosevelt University has decided to move its booming northwest suburban campus from Arlington Heights to Schaumburg and hopes to choose a Schaumburg site within two weeks, university president Theodore Gross said Tuesday.
He said the university is considering either part of Unocal’s former regional headquarters near Golf and Meacham Roads or another site in the same area which Gross would not disclose.
Both are in the vicinity of the Woodfield Mall.
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“We want to build a major, comprehensive university in the northwest suburbs,” stated Gross, saying that that area currently did not have such a university.
For the last seven years, Roosevelt’s northwest suburban campus has been renting 90,000 square feet in the former Forest View High School, 2121 S. Goebbert Rd., Arlington Heights.
Gross said Roosevelt had hoped to buy the entire Forest View location from School District 214 because the building has 300,000 square feet and sits amid 31 acres.
However, “the school district . . . felt they had a more important use for that building,” Gross said.
He said Roosevelt will leave Arlington Heights regretfully. He said the university has received enormous support from political and civic leaders there.
But Gross said the Roosevelt student body of 2,850 in Arlington Heights has outgrown its rental space.
The university is in the midst of a campaign to raise $5 million to buy and refit a building for its new northwest suburban campus and has raised so far $2.25 million, Gross said.
He said the whole move from Arlington Heights to Schaumburg could take two to five years.
Reacting to news, Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene Mulder said, “I’m disappointed, but I understand completely that they need to find a permanent campus. I have not given up all hope” that Arlington Heights could be the site of that campus, she said. She added, “It will take a miracle now.”
Lena Gubiotti, community relations coordinator for High School District 214, said the district uses the Forest View building for its administrative offices, for the site of its alternative school for students with behavioral disorders, for adult education and community theater productions.