Building a $35-plus-million luxury hotel and conference center on the campus of Metropolitan State College, as school officials are now suggesting, might well elevate its hospitality department to the ranks of the nation's elite.

But there are other more pressing demands for capital funding and academic programs at Metro State, as Metro officials very well know, not to mention Colorado's other higher-ed institutions. In recent months, the colleges and universities have argued they need $800 million more from the legislature just to "catch up" with their peers in other states.

If Metro officials are able to find private capital to underwrite the construction of the facility - all of it - and expect no taxpayer subsidies to keep the operation afloat, then we wish them well. Without those assurances, however, the project will remain a difficult sell.

Plenty of colleges and universities, including the University of Denver, own or operate conference facilities. They typically host events that are connected to the campus. They serve as "laboratories" for hospitality students, and do not rent guest rooms to the public.

Other hospitality schools link up with private hotels to train students at the property, because college administrators do not want (or their boards will not allow them) to operate commercial ventures. Even the massive Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas does not operate a stand-alone facility on campus. The folks in Sin City recognize that having a university successfully run a lodging operation can face long odds.

Metro President Stephen Jordan told us his team wants to cost out a campus hotel first and then locate a private hospitality firm willing to undertake the project and manage it. But he also suggested that if necessary, a portion of the up-front capital costs could come from bonds issued by the school that would be repaid from operating revenues.

A model Jordan cited is the University of Delaware, which put up 75 percent of the funding for a campus hotel that's operated by Courtyard by Marriott. As the trade publication University Business reported when the facility opened in November 2004, "investors will profit if all goes well."

Therein lies the rub. All may not go well. If financial forecasts do not pan out, taxpayers will have to repay the bonds or subsidize daily operations of the hotel.

Perhaps Metro State could adopt a model common to new toll road projects, where a private company pays for the construction of traffic lanes, repays its investment by collecting tolls for a set time, say 20 years, and then transfers the highway to the state. If Radisson or Hyatt or Choice could build and operate the on-campus hotel, there would be no gamble for the college or Colorado taxpayers.

If not, it's hard to see how this project could generate broad support at a time of so many competing needs.