It's Official: Woodbury's give UVSC $20 million for Business School

After a week or so of UVSC administrators refusing to comment, the details of the largest donation in the school's history was finally made official last Friday when it was announced that the School of Business has been renamed the Woodbury School of Business in recognition of the $20 million donation made by the Woodbury family.


UVSC gets $20 million gift
Donation by Woodburys given to business school
(Deseret Morning News, October 20 2007)

Funny that the Daily Herald, the paper that had actually scooped this story a week ago, didn't have an article about Friday's announcement. Perhaps the editors felt they didn't need to after getting right the first time.

No details were announced on how UVSC might use these new funds, which will be paid out of a trust for the next 10 years, but it makes sense that at least some of the money will be used to establish the MBA program they have been talking since being granted university status.

And no word yet if Arizona philanthropist Ira Fulton will match the Woodbury donation.

Dental Hygiene bachelor proposal goes to Regents

UVSC's Dental Hygiene program has been offering 2-year associate degrees for almost ten years. Earlier this month the school's Board of Trustees approved a new 4-year bachelor's program.


UVSC degree options open wide
College sends plan for a bachelor's in dental hygiene to state board
(Deseret Morning News, October 17 2007)

Currently in Utah only Weber State offers a bachelor's degree in Dental Hygiene. Of course the state's Board of Regents will need to give the final word on UVSC's proposal. There is a Regents meeting scheduled for October 24 at Utah State...no word if this item will be on the agenda yet, but we assume it will be

Big bucks on the way

Clyde Companies Inc has given $1 million to UVSC and uber-donor Ira Fulton has matched that gift dollar for dollar.

Orem construction company donates $1M to UVSC
(Daily Herald, October 4 2007)

UVSC to get $1 million donation from Clyde Companies
(Deseret Morning News, October 4 2007)

Part of that dough will go toward creating a four-year bachelor's program in construction management that focuses on highway and heavy railroad construction. The newly upgraded soccer field will get $300,000.

New play a first for UVSC's theater department

A new play by award-winning student playwright Mahonri Stewart will open next week, and it represents a new era for the Theater Arts department.

'Rings of the Tree' at UVSC (Deseret Morning News, August 30 2007)

Rings of Trees is the first senior project approved by the department. As the performing arts at UVSC continue to grow, look for more student productions in the works.

Here is the info if you are interested in attending:


Blackbox Theater, Gunther Trades Building, Room 631, UVSC Orem Campus

7:30 p.m., Sept. 6-8; 2 p.m. Sept. 8

Cost is $5

First day of Fall Semester

UVSC's Fall Semester started Wednesday, and despite booming enrollment it looks like the kinks that have plagued the back-to-campus rush have been ironed out. Lines seemed shorter and no major outages for the school's UVLink computer system. All in all a good beginning to the last year as UVSC.

UVSC's final fall semester begins (Daily Herald, August 23 2007)

But the big story here just might be enrollment. Right now the school is running a nearly 7 percent increase compared to the numbers posted at this time last year. Of course the final fall numbers won't be posted for another 3 weeks, so look for that big percentage to drop each day until then. The Pipeline spoke with an administrator on Wednesday who said they are predicting about a 2 percent increase when all is said and done. Compared to most other schools in the state this year that is huge.

The total head count numbers will be helped considerably when the high schools start turning in their concurrent enrollment data at the beginning of September. Concurrent enrollment might he

The other impressive number this year is the Full Time Equivalent, which as of today sits at 15,448. As we all know the FTE calculates the number of students that are taking a full load, and it is the number that actually means something (the one used by the state to calculate funding). In fact the FTE for this year is already 98.6 percent of Fall '05 numbers, with just 93.4 percent of the headcount. That means students are taking more credits. More FTE means more funding, and hopefully more eventual graduates.

In fact, according to the most recent fact book put out by UVSC's Institutional Research office, the number of juniors and seniors has steadily risen over the past 5 years. Thats a sure sign that students are staying put, which might be the reason why headcount and FTE numbers are on the rise.

UVSC adds 4-year biotech degree

Here is a piece describing UVSC's latest degree in today's Page One that was sent out to all campus employees:

New Bachelor Degree in Biotechnology Offered at UVSC

Utah Valley State College’s 56th baccalaureate degree is a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biotechnology.

Biotechnology is technology designed to work with biological systems. This includes research, development, quality control and manufacturing in fields such as genetic engineering, medicine, agriculture and forensics. UVSC’s program will be laboratory intensive and will give students hands-on experience in biotechnology that will better prepare them for future careers. This will make students more marketable to the growing biotechnology industry in Utah.

“Typical biology graduates accepting jobs in industry, take up to a year to reach a productive level due of their real lack of hands on experience, regardless of which school they come from,” said Mark Bracken, chair of the biology department. “Now, instead of taking a year or two to train, these students can be independently productive in just a few weeks to a few months. This makes them more competitive not only in the industry, but with graduate schools as well.”

With this approval, UVSC is the only institution in the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) with a baccalaureate program in biotechnology.

“Graduates of this program will have the opportunity to continue into graduate course work and degree programs at the University of Utah and Utah State, neither of which have baccalaureate program in biotechnology,” said Karl Worthington, interim vice president for academic affairs.