UCAT seeks real degrees, will this sink UVSC trades?

Once again top administrators at the Utah College of Applied Technology (UCAT) are asking the state legislature's higher ed committee to consider giveing them the ability to grant credit-bearing trades degrees, and thus be able to offer more applied associate degrees.

UCAT campuses seek degrees with credit
Higher-ed official says that would create overlap with what is already being offered (Slat Lake Tribune, May 20 2008)

Last summer the state's Board of Regents rejected a UCAT proposal to grant such degrees citing the fact that the system's eight campuses don't offer transferable credits. Now UCAT is asking the Higher Education and Applied Technology Governance Committee to circumvent the Regents decision.

This of course does not sit well with interim Regent chief David Buhler, who fears that a credit-bearing UCAT would compete with the state's traditional schools. Of course UVSC would be at the top of that list. For the past several years UVSC has lost market share as more and more Utah County trades students have chosen to get training at Mountainlands Applied Technology Center (MATC) located just across the street. If MATC started offering the same degree programs it would not be long before trades at UVSC would go the way of the Dodo.

SLCC-SLTATC merger gets committee approval

The proposed merger between Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) and Salt Lake Tooele Applied Technology Center (SLATC) has gotten one step closer to reality as the House Education Committee has unanimously approved a bill that would combine the two schools.
No word yet if the super-school will be named SLCCSLATC...but for all you abbreviation junkies out there...well, here's hoping.

House panel backs schools' merger plan (Slat Lake Tribune, February 20 2008)

One of the amendments to the original HB284 approved of by the committee spells out that Mountainlands Applied Technology Center (MATC), along with 7 other Applied Technology schools, cannot conduct feasibility studies about future mergers. In other words...MATC, you are on your own.

More College Consolidation? Will USU absorb CEU?

While the particulars between the possible University of Utah/Dixie College merger are still being ironed out, two other Utah colleges are talking about taking the plunge.

Price school a part of Utah State?
Area legislator: There are many questions to be resolved first
(Salt Lake Tribune, February 8 2008)

USU President's Response to Draft Bill Calling for Merger of CEU with USU
(USU website)

Sen. Mike Dmitrich of Carbon County has drafted a bill that would make the College of Eastern Utah in Price part of Utah State University in Logan. And while the bill has not been formally introduced, USU president Stan Albrecht is already entertaining the idea.

This merger also comes about as the legislature considers the merger of the Salt Lake Tooele Applied Technology Center (SLTATC) with Salt Lake Community College (SLCC).

Both moves would potentially shake up Utah's Board of Higher Education and may very well affect UVSC. These transitions would cost money...which means the pie gets a little smaller when UVSC comes asking the legislature for a slice.

UCAT president leaves in disgrace

Robert Brems stepped down from his position as president of the Utah College of Applied Technology today, after a state-ordered audit found some, shall we say, suspicious fiscal irregularities.

UPDATE: UCAT president resigns after audit

If you need a refresher on the scandal within UCAT and the Mountainlands Applied Technology Center head here.

Something stinks across the I15: MATC scandal blows up

For the past week or so there has been some quiet articles bouncing around the local papes concerning possible fiscal wrongdoing at the Mountainlands Applied Technology Center. But now it seems that where there was smoke a fire has been found, and that means Utah College of Applied Technology president Rob Brems, and MATC president Clay Christensen have some 'splaining to do.


UPDATE: Audit shows MATC officials broke laws (Daily Herald, August 22 2007)
Audit alleges illegal use of funds, cover-up by college presidents (Salt Lake Tribune, August 22 2007)


Other than the proximity of the two campuses, there isn't much of a UVSC connection here. The State Auditor found that some of the money Brem had received as part of a compensation package when he left MATC to run UCAT had been put into an endowment that his dependents used at UVSC.

But it should serve as a reminder to administrators need to operate above reproach. And favors to powerful folks like the Utah Republican Party will not go unnoticed.