The group brought in non-LDS businessman and educator Larry Moses to help with financial projections and construction planning for a campus that organizers hope will eventually serve from 1,200 to 1,500 students. The group has architectural plans and has been looking for property on which to build. Organizers had planned to open in fall 2009, but those plans are now on hold.

Both Ivie and Robison say they're concerned about young Latter-day Saints who don't get into LDS-owned schools and eventually find themselves outside the church looking in.

Ivie said he would like to one day see "100 LDS colleges spread throughout the country. ..."

"We can create the right environment for them, where they don't have atheists and antagonistic teachers and classes and subjects antagonistic to testimony," Ivie said.

Robison said he'd like to see "some kind of 'confederation' of colleges that are LDS-focused, exchanging informational resources," in the future. He's watched more than 80 percent of the high school students in his LDS stake graduate from LDS seminary. Yet after time away from home at school or a job, only about 55 percent of the eligible young men serve an LDS mission, he said.

"That's too much of a drop-off. ... We're here to raise young men who will go out into the world and serve the Lord in the mission field then be faithful in doing whatever they're called to do thereafter, and 55 percent just isn't good enough."

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com