Colleges and universities across the country are facing financial difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic, but Grand Canyon University in Phoenix feels confident about its financial outlook. 

As the city of Tempe and University of Arizona look to furlough some of their employees, GCU is doing the opposite and offering annual pay raises to most of its 4,500 employees who are working hard and taking care of the university's students. 

“This was the time that our annual increases generally take place and so I think some of our people were a little concerned that maybe given the circumstances, we couldn't do that but we feel like we are in a very strong position to do that," said GCU President Brian Mueller. "So it’s coming in handy for a lot of our people because maybe their spouse has been laid off.”

Mueller said GCU doesn’t anticipate any enrollment dips like other Arizona universities expect. In fact, he said GCU may even see an increase in its traditional and online students. 

Mueller said part of the reason things have gone smoothly at the university is because GCU had about 85,000 online-only students prior to the coronavirus pandemic and the transition to online courses wasn’t difficult for the remaining 22,000 students who were taking in-person classes. A majority of GCU employees were already set up to work from home, Mueller added. 

GCU is also looking for ways to help the community during this time. The university is making personal protective equipment for its employees and it's raising $100,000 to produce 15,000 cloth masks, 10,000 respirators and 10,000 shields that it will donate to hospital partners, the city of Phoenix and others, Mueller said.  

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