How will changes at BYU shape valley?

Last week you might have caught the story in the Herald about BYU blocking You Tube. This action might have students up in arms, but it was another story that should have got their attention.

The Deseret News's Tad Walch, the valley's resident reporter on town and gown issues, wrote an article on BYU's student housing plans. While the South Campus Area Master Plan has been around for awhile, it looks like BYU will be enforcing these boundaries come April, and possibly constricting them further.

This has to make Provo city happy as they have made it known that they see student housing as the city's greatest burden. If the school is going to create a smaller box for the all-important BYU-approved housing, then Provo will be happy as clams.

But there are a few unknowns that should be considered by all sides. First BYU might find itself in a bind in 5 or ten years when this limited space has been carved up and additional capacity becomes an issue. Traffic is this part of Provo is already bad...imagine when every single BYU student has to live there.

Provo city should also keep in mind who will be taking the places of students at outlying apartment complexes. Without BYU students keeping prices inflated on the outskirts of SCAMP it is probable that a very different demographic will move in. Good, bad, or whatever...there will be a very different culture in these complexes in a very short amount of time.

But the reason why The Pipeline is even bringing this up is how it will effect UVSC students. As demand increases in the limited space around BYU you will see UVSC kids being forced out of "Approved" housing. This is not a minor issue...UVSC kids make up a strong contingent amongst BYU approved apartment complexes. With no where else to put BYU students UVSC students will continue migrating to Orem. And currently Orem has a moratorium on new "student" housing around UVSC. With Parkway Crossing no longer adding phases, and an expected surge in students as the school becomes a university, will there be adequate, affordable housing for UVSC students? How about in the next few years as local high schools graduate record numbers of students? The baby boom that educators have been warning us about for years will soon be knocking on UVSC's open-enrollment door.

Dean Tom McFarland leaves UVSC

School of Technology and Computing dean Tom McFarland has announced that he will be leaving UVSC at the end of February. Here is acting VPAA Karl Worthington's awkwardly worded e-mail, that was forwarded to all school employees school by president Bill Sederburg:


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "President Sederburg"
To:
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:32:02 -0700
Subject: T&C Dean Announcement

This is the official "Thank You!" and "Best Wishes!" to Dean Tom McFarland who has resigned the position of Dean of the School or Technology and Computing. Dean McFarland's last day will be February 28, 2007. Tom is moving to New Mexico for family reasons and we wish him the very best as we also express appreciation for his unique and valuable service to UVSC. A reception will be held to honor Tom's service and to meet with him on Monday, February 26, 2007 in Center Stage.

Dr. Ernest Carey has accepted our request that he serve as the interim dean of the school. We are grateful to Ernie for his willingness to serve where he is needed for as long as he is needed-up to a point! Ernie's long service as a faculty member, including service as President of the Faculty Senate, as a department chair, and as an associate dean is a fine record and Dean McFarland has included Ernie in a lot of his activities the last while to prepare him to assume this role well. I urge all of us, and particularly the faculty and staff of the School of Technology and Computing, to give a little extra in support of Dr. Carey as he directs and moves forward the initiatives underway and planned for in the school.

A search and screening committee will be put together soon to begin the process of searching for a new dean. It certainly is conceivable that this dean selection may be one of the first new personnel decisions of the new VPAA.

J. Karl Worthington
Interim VPAA

The move seems quite sudden, as it is midway through semester. Worthington's e-mail says the move was prompted by "family reasons". The Pipeline has heard that McFarland has family that lives in the area, and also that the move was in conjunction of a potential job there. The Pipepline will keep you updated if more reasons are given by the involved parties.

In the meantime Dr. Ernest Carey will be standing in as interim dean until a search committee can come up with some candidates for new VPAA Liz Hitch to look over.

Sederburg names new VPAA

This morning Utah Valley State president Bill Sederburg announced his pick for the vacant VPAA position. Here is the e-mail he sent out to employees this morning:

I am pleased to announce my selection of Dr. Elizabeth J. Hitch as the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Hitch joins UVSC from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse where she currently is serving as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. For your reference, a copy of the press release with additional information about Dr. Hitch and UW-LaCrosse is attached.

As I reviewed the finalists, I decided that Dr. Hitch provides us with the experience needed to move the institution to the next level. She is the academic leader of one of the most respected regional universities in America. She oversees a school of 20 graduate programs, with impressive graduate programs in education, science and health, and business. She has experience as an academic administrator with having served for seven years as a Dean and five years as a Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Finally, I felt that I and our leadership team would enjoy working with her and gaining from her experience, enthusiasm and leadership.

Dr. Hitch will assume this assignment July 1, 2007; however, she will be on-campus several times between now and then. Plans for a reception late afternoon of Friday, March 9 are underway; more information on this will be forthcoming.

I greatly appreciate the fine work of the search committee lead by Dr. Numsiri Kunakemakorn and Dr. Ian Wilson. I encourage all members of the UVSC community to join with me in warmly welcoming Dr. Hitch to campus and offering her your enthusiastic support. I am confident she will provide outstanding support and leadership to Academic Affairs and Utah Valley State College.

Of course this announcement will no doubt launch a thousand e-mails, with a very vocal majority of faculty having been such staunch supporters of in-house candidate Bill Evenson. You can count on some backlash.

The Pipeline has heard that at a recent Dean's council meeting the deans expressed their unanimous support for Evenson. At the end Sederburg stood up and said something to the effect of "well it sounds like you all agree that all three candidates are qualified, so it doesn't matter who I choose."

It is The Pipeline's humble opinion that Sederburg had to hire a woman for this job. When he came in three years ago he received flack for "re-assigning" female VPs and since then hiring white males for top positions. This perception that Big Bill took care of the boys no doubt rubbed plenty of faculty the wrong way. The fact that so many faculty members backed Evenson indicates that he was supremely qualified, so much so that professors who might normally have preferred to see a woman in this post chose Evenson over Hitch. This probably also speaks to how unimpressed many professors felt during last week's meet-and-greets with Hitch.

Hitch had been recently censured by her own faculty senate at her current position at University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. To her credit Hitch was quite up front about the incident, which she said came about because of a botched hiring process that hadn't followed school procedure. She told professors to feel free to call the faculty senate president at UW-L and ask about the censure.

What has to be in the back of most professors' minds is how Hitch will handle the often sticky issue of academic freedom, particularly in an environment that has had its share of town-and-gown issues. It is clear from the e-mails that have been circulating around that the faculty at UVSC are wary of someone who appears to be more of an administrator and less of a scholar. Will she fight for academic freedom or will she bend to pressure from donors, community members, and legislators? We will have to see.

It will be interesting to see if a real fuss is made over the issue before Hitch steps up in July. Sederburg has made it clear that he wants the troops to rally behind his choice. Who will stick their neck out?

UVSC faculty voice their opinion on VP hire

E-mails are piling up in UVSC faculty inboxes lately, and they aren't forwarding the latest funny movie on YouTube. Instead faculty are buzzing over President Bill Sederburg's upcoming hiring
of a new VP of Academic Affairs. Here is the one e-mail that is getting the most attention:

Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:56:21 -0700
Subject: Re: VPAA Search, serious concerns about the process and criteria
Dear President Sederberg,

Yesterday I sent you my email comment about Bill Evenson as the most qualified candidate, in my opinion, for the position.

Your message this morning laying out the criteria you intend to employ as you make the final decision leaves me wondering about the criteria I had in mind as I read the vitae of the candidates and listened to their presentations.

You noted the following: "The first is the candidate's concurrence with the mutually-developed institutional mission and vision identified through the Strategic Planning Process, PBA process, master plans, and institutional work plans. The second is the candidate's compatibility and partnership with our institutional leadership team. Finally, given the scope and amount of work facing UVSC and Academic Affairs, the candidate's ability to provide the dynamic, energetic leadership required."

As a faculty member for whom this appointment is crucial (as I teach and do research and build academic programs through curriculum and hiring -- all directly affected by this Vice President), I have a few thoughts that I hope will expand your set of criteria:

1. What is the candidate's experience with academic freedom? Does the candidate have a record of dealing with difficult academic freedom issues? Can the candidate speak with depth and insight about academic freedom? In terms of two of the candidates rather tepid responses to questions about academic freedom, and in light of Bill Evenson's robust discussion of the issue and his experience with and active membership in the AAUP, he is the clear choice by this criterium.

2. Is the candidate a scholar engaged in research in his or her discipline? Was the Ph.D. a means to a scholarly or to an administrative end? Does he or she understand what it is faculty members do? What is the scholarly record? Is the candidate equally interested in working as a professor in a discipline and in working in administration? Did the candidate emphasize this kind of academic work in his or her
presentation? Bill Evenson is far above the other two candidates in this area.

3. Can the candidate relate well with fellow faculty members (I'm phrasing this differently from your "dynamic, energetic leadership" on purpose, to indicate that university faculty see this issue through a very different lens.) Another way of asking this is whether the candidate has the academic/scholarly experience to lead a faculty of increasing intellectual ability or whether the candidate will be at a
lower academic level than the faculty he or she is required to lead and thus always at a disadvantage. Does the candidate read widely inside and outside his or her discipline (and I'm not talking about books about leadership). Again, no question but that Bill Evenson is the better candidate.

4. Does your sense for the "candidate's compatibility and partnership with our institutional leadership team" take into account the Deans of HASS, Science and Health, General Academics, Business, etc. -- the Academic Deans? Does it take into account the Chairs of all the academic departments? If you were to ask these Deans and Department Chairs (and they are certainly critical parts of the "institutional leadership team") which of the three candidates was most compatible with them, you
would find overwhelming support for Bill Evenson.

5. Will the candidate bring skills into the administration that are different from the ones already present? Will he or she broaden the scope of the administration or simply add more of what we already have? It seems to me that our current strengths are in reaching out to our legislators and to the public. Will the new VPAA be able to complement that with outreach to other academic vice presidents at the U of U and
USU, to the strictly academic constituency that responds best to the speech and arguments and demeanor of a fellow scholar and teacher? Candidates Hitch and Hanks have good skill, but they seem to overlap largely with those already present on campus. Bill Evenson has many of those skills himself, and also the important academic skills that will represent us well in the company of other academic vice presidents.

Thank you for considering these thoughts. I'm sending them also to many of our colleagues across campus, hoping there will be the kind of continuing discussion that will bring us the best possible VPAA.

all the best,
Scott Abbott

Clearly Big Bill's e-mail from earlier in the day struck a chord with Abbott and other faculty members...and perhaps it was a line like this "When the decision is announced, I ask everyone to rally around whomever I select." that rubbed them the wrong way.

This is where it gets surreal. Monday morning on nearly every bulletin board on campus you could find a cartoon featuring Sederburg in a track suit with the message "Follow Your Leader". There are some different versions of this poster...all with VPs like Cory Duckworth, Val Peterson, and Val Hale....all with the same "Follow Your Leader" message.

If you get a little Orwellian shudder going up and down your spine, that is totally normal. Just take another swig of Victory Vodka and throw Brad Cook's legacy down the memory hole.

The life of UVSC faculty

Over the weekend there were two rather interesting articles that look at UVSC faculty. One was an opinion piece in the Salt Lake Tribune and said that university professors are under-worked and over-paid. It is a response to UVSC's own David Keller, who wrote an editorial in last week's Trib calling for funding to match the school's new mission.

Obviously the author hasn't been around UVSC much (he says that it is located in Provo not Orem...a small mistake to be sure, but telling). He talks about his own experience as a professor at a research university, noting that his work day was over by noon, allowing him to enjoy free swimming and cheap golf. A tour of UVSC's, shall we say, spartan facilities would have been helpful before writing such an article.

There is no doubt that some professors, and let's go ahead and say some UVSC professors, take advantage of the unstructured culture common among colleges and universities. You won't find professors punching time clocks, or doing much heavy lifting. But I would say that the vast majority of professors at any college work hard and earn their salaries and any extra accouterments that get thrown their way.

The other article worth mentioning comes from the College Times and deals with the subject of tenure. This isn't a groundbreaking article, but is nice to let students in on an important part of college life. And you can gaurntee that as the school progresses to university status, the issue of tenure will become more heated.

So far so good

As the short legislative session rolls along it appears UVSC's push for university status is gathering momentum. On Friday the senate voted 29-0 in favor of SB 70 which paves the way for UVSC to upgrade to a level II institution. The bill will get one last floor read before heading to the house, where it might facing some tougher challenges.

The Pipeline caught up with Bill Sederburg on Thursday morning and he gave every indication that he was confident of the senate vote, and optimistic about the house. His righthand man Jared Sumsion said that they are begining the process of identifying their proponents, marking these legislators with a UV pin if they have their vote.

Of course all of this activity is happening right in the middle of a crucial hire for the college, as Sederburg looks to fill Brad Cook's Academic VP position. This will most likely be the biggest personel decision of his tenure, and will greatly shape the future of the institution as it progresses into a new role within the state.

Friday morning Big Bill sent out this e-mail to employees.

Updated information on Search for Vice President for Academic Affairs



I want to thank everyone who has been involved in the search for Vice President for Academic Affairs . The search committee under the excellent leadership of Numsiri Kunakemakorn and Ian Wilson have provided three excellent candidates for final consideration. I have been very impressed with each person.



Yesterday, I met with the search committee, the vice presidents, the deans, and the Board of Trustees; reviewed the written comments from the open forums; and responded to many e-mails. Additionally, I have reviewed the candidates' qualifications with a variety of people and have done extensive reference checking. I am continuing to talk with others throughout the state and nation who know the candidates and can provide additional input.



You should know that three variables will drive my final decision. The first is the candidate's concurrence with the mutually-developed institutional mission and vision identified through the Strategic Planning Process, PBA process, master plans, and institutional work plans. The second is the candidate's compatibility and partnership with our institutional leadership team. Finally, given the scope and amount of work facing UVSC and Academic Affairs, the candidate's ability to provide the dynamic, energetic leadership required.



I will be out of town making a presentation and will not return until mid next week. Thus, I may not have my final decision ready for announcement until late next week. As this is an important decision, I appreciate your patience during this review and decision-making process.



When the decision is announced, I ask everyone to rally around whomever I select. The committee has presented us with three excellent candidates; it is a fun decision to make.

Sederburg gives short list for new V.P.

UVSC President William Sederburg has tipped his hand and shown us all his final candidates for the VP of academics spot vacated by Brad Cook. An e-mail went out to employees this morning with the names of the three candidates, their bio information, and times of various meet-and-greets.

The bios are included below:

Dr. Elizabeth J. Hitch

Liz Hitch came to the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse (UW-L) in July 2002 as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs after serving for seven years as Dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois. She served as Interim Chancellor for UW-L from July 1, 2006, to February 1, 2007. Previous to her work at Eastern, she served for 15 years as a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Studies (achieving tenure and rank of full professor) at Central Michigan University. At CMU, she also held positions as Director of Teacher Education; and Associate Dean of the School of Education, Health and Human Services. Before entering the faculty ranks at CMU, she was Manager of Instruction Design in the School of Medicine at The University of Michigan. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Human Ecology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from The University of Michigan.


Dr. Bill Evenson

Bill Evenson has been a university administrator for 11, an administrator at Utah Valley State College for 3 years, and a faculty member for 37 years, most of which he has been deeply involved in teaching and research in his field of physics. He is currently Associate Dean of Science & Health and Professor of Physics at UVSC, where he also led the College General Education Committee for the past two years. He was Interim Associate Vice President for Scholarship and Outreach in 2004-05. He was Professor of Physics at Brigham Young University for 34 years and served there as Associate Academic Vice President in charge of General Education, Honors, Continuing Education, Religious Education, the BYU Jerusalem Center (overseeing the establishment of programs there when the new building was first occupied), and with shared responsibility for international programs. He was also Dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and Dean of General Education. One of his strengths as an administrator has been the ability to work effectively with all constituencies – students, staff, faculty, advisors, and administration – in a collegial relationship to strengthen the institution and solve problems as they have arisen.

Evenson received his Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics from Iowa State University in 1968, and B.S. in physics from Brigham Young University in 1965. He was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania with J. R. Schrieffer. His physics research now deals mainly with studies of surfaces, nanostructures, defects in materials, and inverse problems in statistical physics. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar (research) at University of Konstanz, Germany, for 1998-99. He has had other visiting appointments at University of Hawaii and Oregon State University, and he was George and Caroline Arfken Physics Scholar in Residence at Miami University (Ohio) in November, 2002. He continues his research in physics and work in history of physics along with his current administrative position. He has published approximately 95 papers and one book in physics.

Evenson is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).and has been an officer for many years of the APS Forum on History of Physics and the APS Four Corners Section. He was editor of History of Physics Newsletter for 6½ years from 1997 to 2003. He is a current member of the Editorial Board of the journal Physics in Perspective. His long-standing interest in the history of physics continues in parallel with other activities in the physics community: founding chair of the APS Four Corners Section, where he instituted and promoted a strong focus on student participation and a successful program of public outreach lectures connected to the annual section meeting; currently Chair-Elect of the 3,500-member Forum on History of Physics; APS Panel on Public Affairs (POPA) from 2001 through 2003.

He has active collaborations with scientists in Germany, China, and several universities in USA. He is Chair of the Executive Committee for International Conferences on Hyperfine Interactions and Nuclear Quadrupole Interactions (2004-present). He was on the Program and Organizing Committees for the 13th International Conference on Hyperfine Interactions, Bonn, Germany, August 2004, and he chaired the Program and Organizing Committees for the 12th International Conference on Hyperfine Interactions, Park City, Utah, August 2001. He participated in the Hydrogen Initiative Workshop Panel of POPA in San Francisco, December 5-7, 2003, writing one of four major sections of the report on research required for hydrogen energy development. He currently shares an NSF grant focused on undergraduate research experience with a colleague at Northern Kentucky University that now involves two UVSC physics majors and one other faculty member.

Evenson published a small book dealing with science and religion at the end of 2005: Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements, William E. Evenson and Duane E. Jeffery (Kofford Books, Salt Lake City, 2005).


Dr. Steven H. Hanks


Dr. Steven H. Hanks is Vice Provost at Utah State University. He began his academic career teaching at Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University). He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Utah, specializing in the areas of Business Strategy and Human Resource Management. He joined the faculty at Utah State University in 1988 where he has taught extensively at the graduate and undergraduate levels, courses related to strategic management, global business, applied research, and entrepreneurship. His research has centered on issues related to strategy, structure and leadership in emerging business ventures and his work has been published in the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice, the Journal of Small Business Management, as well as other journals, reports and conference proceedings.

In addition to his faculty roles, Dr. Hanks has carried numerous administrative assignments, including service as Director of the Utah State University Small Business Institute, Associate Dean in the College of Business, Faculty Senate President, Vice Provost for International Affairs and Director of Distance Business Programs. During the 2001-2002 school year, Dr. Hanks was on assignment in the West Bank where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Administrative and Financial Sciences at the Arab American University in Jenin. In his present role as Vice Provost, Dr. Hanks carries a broad portfolio of assignments related to international and academic affairs. He is familiar with critical issues in higher education in the State of Utah and the Utah System of Higher Education, serving as point person for USU in communications with the Commissioners Office and the State Board of Regents in areas related to academic affairs.

A step closer to University for UVSC

It might have been easy to get swept up in the multitude of articles about UVSC's pending status in this morning's Daily Herald, Deseret Morning News, and Salt Lake Tribune. All three featured good sized articles about Senate Bill 70 clearing the Education Committee with a vote of 5-1. And while the bill mentions $10 million to make the transition happen, it doesn't really hand the money out.

In fact if you look closely at SB 70 you will see that the bill, which now must go before the full Senate, is mostly a procedural bill, editing the State System of Higher Education's code to allow for an eventual name change, the eventual granting of university status, and requisite change of mission to that of a Type II institution similar to Southern Utah University, and Weber State University.

The one no vote came from Howard Stephenson Draper-R, who tried to come across as a "don't rock the boat" kind of guy, saying that "We haven't had a dearth of students coming to that institution. We haven't had to advertise to get more kids coming to those slots. It's a system that has worked."

But instead Stephenson showed his ignorance when it comes to the realities of UVSC and the needs of Utah Valley. At one point he said that "UVSC has always been Utah's low-price leader in quality higher education."

Higher Education Commissioner Rich Kendell responded saying that the UVSC model is only working because students are paying a higher percentage of total funding. UVSC students still pay 51 percent of their education, while the state average has most Utah higher ed students paying 35 percent.

Stephenson forgets of course that just because the state has gotten a good deal out of UVSC the last 5-10 years, doesn't mean that someone else hasn't been paying the piper. Kendell pointed out that in the past 10 years tuition at UVSC has gone up 130 percent. UVSC's current tuition, which will surely go up if the move to university is made, is on par with tuition at Weber and SUU. Currently UVSC students pay just a hundred dollars less than their peers at Weber and SUU, and just three hundred less than Utah State University.

So will it pass the full vote of the Senate? Well considering that this Senate President John Valentine's baby, and he lists 26 senators as cosponsors, and there are only 29 senators total, than we would say: "Yes, the chances of the bill passing the senate look good." Even Stephenson is a co-sponsor, despite his nay vote.

But remember, this bill commits no funding (instead points out the need for it) and does not grant UVSC a change in status. It merely cleans up the books so that UVSC's mission-change can progress forward. It is a step closer, but its a small step.

The Numbers Game

For the past few years the actual number of students at UVSC has been something of a mystery. While the school's Institutional Research office keeps enrollment data handy on their website, it is sometimes not up-to-date. Why does the simple task of counting heads give us such a hazy picture? And what could be the reasons behind cooking the books when it comes to enrollment data.

In fact, up until about a week ago the numbers for the Fall 2006 semester were not available on the website. And these were numbers due in mid-September (The precious "3rd week" enrollment numbers). But a check by The Pipeline at the beginning of 2007 revealed that the numbers had not been updated. If you view the source data for the Fall 2006 page you will see that it was last updated on January 10 2007. We can only assume that the numbers for Fall 2006 were finally updated at that time. Keep in mind that these numbers are not the headcount at the end of finals...they represent the headcount for the third week of classes, when people have set their schedules and are attending class.

Now of course data had been released to the public earlier than that. A story in the Des News from this past October said the college had 20,262 students currently enrolled in at least one class. The 3rd week numbers on the website give a different total: 23,305. Where did those 3,043 students come from? We'll get to that in a minute.

The other thing that is interesting about this discrepancy is that the D News story says that UVSC was one of the few schools that actually had enrollments rise over the previous year, claiming that Fall of 2005 saw 19,836 students attending the school. The article even went so far as to say that the school was "relishing" in their 1 percent increase. But this Fall 2005 number of 19,836 is quite a bit different from the numbers posted by Institutional Research office for the same time period. Their third week total for Fall 2005 is 24,487. So instead of an increase in total enrollment from 2005's 19,836 to 2006's 20,262 we see it going from 24,487 in 2005 to 23,305 in 2006. That's an almost 1,200 student decrease. Not a 1 percent increase...a 5 percent decrease!

So why the funny numbers? Well, what makes these equations so messy sometimes is that on occasion it isn't UVSC students they are counting at all. Sometimes the school posts numbers that include the thousands of Utah teens taking concurrent enrollment courses at their local high school, getting UVSC credit for classes taught by your average secondary-ed teacher. (classes that other schools do not recognize as college level coursework and will not use as transfer credits).

Another scary feature of the concurrent enrollment program: These students are not in special classes, they are mixed in with students who are taking the same course just not for UVSC credit.

Most of the classes are taught on high school campuses by high school teachers who must have a master's degree, Sederburg said. Many are mixed classes, meaning some students are seeking college credit, and others are not. "Right now, the huge percentage of our enrollment is in mixed classes where there are relatively few students taking the course for college credit. In many of those cases, no additional work is being required of the student. We want to move toward the majority of the students taking them for college-level credit and that the teaching is a college-teaching level and not a high-school level." From the Feb 27, 2006 Daily Herald.

So how many of the 24,487 UVSC students in the Fall of 2005 were actually high schoolers getting UVSC credit? Well a Daily Herald story from this past August said that in 2005 there 6,558 students enrolled in the school's concurrent enrollment program. If these teens are indeed counted in the total enrollment numbers, and another Herald article says that is the case (The school claims that the drop from 24,487 to 23,305 as noted above was due to changes in the concurrent enrollment policies), then at least back in 2005 one out of every four UVSC students was actually a high school student.

And these high school students paid a one-time fee of $30 to enroll in the program (it has since been raised to a whopping $35). During 2005 these 6,558 took 46,324 credit hours...meaning on average they took around 7 credit hours each. If you were to take 7 credit hours as a normal student at UVSC it would cost you around $800 (and another $200 in student fees). Do the math and you'll see that UVSC is missing out about 6.5 million dollars, by letting high school kids take their credits at high school. Last year Sederburg asked the legislature to allow UVSC to charge high school students 30 dollars a credit hour. At the time it cost the school about $60 a credit hour and the state was only picking up half of that ($35). That means the 46,324 credit hours attempted in 2005 actually cost the school about $1.5 million. By the way...the state legislature said no to that plan.

So not only does the school miss out on charging these kids full price, but it costs them money to lose this money. No wonder business people look at colleges and scratch their heads.

But of course the most important numbers are the FTEs: The Full-Time Equivalents. This number is reached by combining part time students to equal the hours taken by their full-time peers. It is this number that is used by the state to calculate UVSC's funding. A drop in FTE means less money to go around.

So the FTE numbers should be iron-clad, and they should show that UVSC is increasing enrollment, right? Depends on which numbers you look at. Back in October The Daily Herald ran this story that said that the Fall 2006 FTE number was 13,877, which was a slight raise from 2005's FTE which was 13,739.

Of course the numbers on the Institutional Research site tell quite a different story. Those numbers say that in the Fall of 2005 UVSC had 16,081 FTEs. And this year the school has 15,668 Full-Time Equivalents. That is a difference of -413 or 2.5 percent. Not the growth that has been bragged about in the papers, and certainly not the growth that is being talked about on the hill right now.

Of course The Pipeline admits that the numbers discussed here are only as good as the information provided. If the school has other numbers we would love to see them. If the school would like to share exactly how many high school students are being used to bolster total headcounts, we are all ears.

This much is for sure...The school often throws around that 24,000 number, so often that it is just taken for granted. But the truth is the school has no where near that many students, and it never did. To say otherwise does students, parents, and the state of Utah an injustice. Honesty is the best policy.

Legislature listens to UVSC's request for additional funding

Stories in both the Deseret Morning News and The Daily Herald focus on UVSC's bid for university status and the money they are asking for to make that a reality. The story in the D News seems to be a much more informitive and balanced piece...and the one in the Herald is just plain awful.

On Monday UVSC president Bill Sederburg went before the Utah Legislature and laid out his case for the school's move to University status and the money that will be needed to accomplish such a transition. Utah's commissioner of higher education Richard Kendell joined Big Bill in the hot seat and reassured legislators that UVSC would remain a teaching university and avoid the temptations to creep toward a research institution.

This pledge to remain a "teaching university" may come back to bite as critics of the school's "far-left secular agenda" can point to any faculty research that doesn't please them and accuse them of "mission creep". Don't think it can't happen.

A reality check for Trades at UVSC

The Deseret Morning News has milked yet another story out of the fact that UVSC pioneer Wilson Sorensen is displeased with the school's desires to become a university. This issue of the college's original mission and the realities of today cuts to the core of many of the internal rumblings on campus.

Old timers like Sorensen and others complain that the administration, "will eventually eliminate the trade and technical programs," and that "We'll completely lose our identity" as "Liberal Arts takes over."

But anyone who has spent time at UVSC in the past 15 years will tell you that it isn't Liberal Arts that is taking over Trades, it is Trades that has failed to adapt to the changing needs of students looking to stay competitive in an increasingly specialized work place. Some months ago The Pipeline spoke to an administrator at the Dean level who has practically grown up in the halls of UVSC. His father spent his entire working life in the school's Trades department. He said that the old guard has continually refused to update their programs to match the training indicative of a college campus. Efforts have been made by the administration to encourage those in the Trades to modernize curriculum, including offering NASCAR certification for the Auto Program.

It is the opinion of The Pipeline that the old guard of UVSC's Trade programs have refused modernization and as such have relegated themselves to increasing attrition. Sorensen is quite right...One day UVSC will no longer offer trade programs, but it is not Sederburg's fault, nor is it the influences of the Liberal Arts. The blame lays squarely at the feet of dinosaurs that refuse to evolve.

Take a look at a map of UVSC. The Sparks Automotive Building has the largest footprint of any building on campus (not the most square footage...but it does take up the most physical space). The Pipeline believes that all trades programs that don't offer curriculum that falls in line with a true university experience should move across I-15 to the MATC. Let's open up this valuable real estate to relevant programs with high student demand.

The college often romanticizes its Trade School past, pointing to it as evidence of their hard work ethic, a hands on approach to learning, and the nobility of blue collar sweat. They should be proud of the school's heritage. But that should not blind UVSC from its true mission...preparing today's young adults to be valuable workers, informed and involved citizens, and decent human beings. All of these skills can't be taught at the work bench. A comprehensive degree program is best suited to instill these values. Let the MATC fufill its mission of providing our community with trained trades people and technicians.

Big Bill lays out his case

UVSC president William Sederburg has written a lengthy Op-Ed in this morning's Daily Herald spelling out his reasons for wanting to move to university status, and sheding some light on what UVU might look like. It is a good piece, and obviously folks at the capitol have been listening to Big Bill's spiel because it looks like progress is being made. This past Tuesday the Senate Education Committee gave their approval on SB90, a bill that will split 10.5 million bucks between the state's 9 colleges and universities with UVSC recieving the lion's share with $3 million in ongoing funding. In a Deseret Morning News article on Wednesday, Senate President John Valentine said he considerred the increase a "down payment" on UVSC's move to university status, with the money going toward more faculty and staff hires. The bill now moves on to debate in the full senate. Look for opposition from Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, who says the round dollar ammounts for each school sound fishy. The Pipeline expects the bill to pass, as it throws much needed funds at all 9 public schools.

Some of you may have caught the KSL story about SB90 which mentioned that Brigham Young University would also be getting $1 million. It appears that whoever wrote the copy, when they were adding up Utah's 9 public schools they forgot all about Weber State and so included BYU instead. We can forgive Mormon Church-owned KSL for being a little BYU-Centric, and Weber is easy to forget. But it did provide much fodder on KSL message boards as people wondered "Why in the hell is BYU getting state funds!"

Sorensen slams UVSC's plans

Well, forget about Sorensen State University. In an article in Thursday's Des News UVSC pioneer Wilson Sorensen had some harsh critiques of Bill Sederburg's push for university status. It seems the 90-year-old Sorensen is none to pleased that his beloved trades programs are losing ground to more traditional college fare.

"They cut the welding program. Eventually, the liberal arts will take over," said Sorensen in the article.

Sederburg is quick to point out the flaws in Sorensen's logic, citing the declining numbers of students in trades as the reasons programs have been cut. Big Bill also points out that that many students interested in trades choose to attend the MATC across the street from UVSC, where classes can cost as little as $50, and they don't make you do all that fancy book learning.

While Big Bill is right on the money about the decline of trades, it was a poor move on his part not to get the Patron Saint of UVSC to sign on to the whole university thing from the get go. Instead of having this respected (yet senile) education pioneer singing your praises, Bill has to play defense and the school gets another front page story about being too big for its britches.

A University by any other name would smell as sweet

In all of the hoopla over Utah Valley State College becoming a university the thing that garners the most attention is what to call it when it happens. Utah Valley University is supposedly the working title that the administration and the legislature are working under now, but things could change. Recently, The Daily Herald ran an editorial calling for the name to honor UVSC's founder Wilson Sorensen.

While we sort of like the sound of Sorensen State University one problem might be that SSU sounds a lot like SUU (Southern Utah University). And for a school that has always had an identity crisis, not having its location in the name doesn't exactly put them on the map. But Sorenson State might still have a chance as one administator mentioned the possibility in passing last month.

Others have suggested Utah Valley State University or UVSU as a viable candidate, and keeping the shorthand Utah Valley State (a moniker that Bill Sederburg insisted on when he came to UVSC...going so far as to chip the word college off of signs around campus). One problem with the abbreviation UVS is that it is already used by the Utah Valley Symphony.

Still others claim that the school should honor its technical roots and go by Utah Tech (like Georgia Tech or Texas Tech). This actually sounds pretty cool and it is easy to see students calling it U-Tech. But an administrator told The Pipeline some time ago that they had investigated the other Techs and had found that in order to be called a Tech you need a certain ratio of technical degrees to regular degrees, something UVSC doesn't currently qualify for. It also ignores the very reason most believe the name change is happening anyways. People want "University" on their diploma. You could call it Utah Technical University, but then it starts to sound like a unaccredited private college like ITT or Devry. Besides www.utu.edu is already taken by the Ulster Teacher's Union in Ireland.

Most who oppose the name Utah Valley University claim that that it is too location-specific, and that the school wants to be seen as a viable option from people outside Utah Valley. But Utah State University and The University of Utah, the two most general names, are already taken.

In the end it will be the State Legislature that will decide the name change, and you can count on legislators from Salt Lake, Ogden, Cedar City, and Logan protecting their turf. Most of them don't want to share "University" with UVSC in the first place. But if State Sen. John Valentine forces the issue and they are backed in a corner, look for the name game to be a big part of the negotiating table. In which case a dark horse like Sorensen State University might have a chance.

UVSC students protest Bush's Iraq plan

Today's Daily Herald featured a short piece on a small student protest at UVSC concerning President Bush's new plan for Iraq. You can find the artilce here. While The Pipeline applauds these 5 students courage to stand up against the majority, we think the Herald has a vested interest in making a small event into something much bigger...As the state legislature gets ready to start their session, and with UVSC's future in the balance, The Herald can do a lot to rile the electorate against UVSC and their quest for university status.

The problem is that UVSC is facing enough detractors from outside the valley. Too much eroding of Utah County support, as we saw in 2005 with the DLC, results in UVSC getting left out in the cold. And a very vocal minority in this county has made it quite clear that their support is based on UVSC's behaivor.

Just yesterday The Herald ran a letter from a vocal local who brought up the ghosts of liberal past, complaining of Michael Moore and The Vagina Monologues...and how such attrocities deserve the county's scorn.

But if there is a knock-down-drag-out over all this stuff, The Herald will have all their stories written for them for the next two months. Be on the lookout for more UVSC coverage from both the Herald and The D News in the next few weeks, especially things that conservatives can point to and scream "liberal bias". Trust us...the storm is coming.

Hateful Things

If you have a few minutes during the day be sure to check out the Hateful Things exhibit on the Fourth Floor of the Library. It comes to UVSC courtesy of Ferris State University's Jim Crow Museum, and will be on display until the end of the month. You might recognize the piece pictured here...its from Salt Lake City's own Coon Chicken Inn.

Could an article undo UVSC's lobbying efforts again?

When Professor Jeffery Nielsen was fired from Brigham Young University last year, he did what many others have done when the Lord's University has no more use for them...he joined the faculty at Utah Valley State College. A new article from the Salt Lake Tribune's Utah County reporter Todd Hollingshead catches up with Nielsen, who was ousted from BYU after writing an Op-Ed in the Trib criticizing the LDS church's stance on homosexuality.

Nielsen now splits his time between UVSC and Westminster College in Salt Lake, and is also working with SLC's mayor Rocky Anderson on something he calls the "Democracy House Project". Nielsen sees it as multi-level marketing approach to getting more people versed in the ways of government and democracy. Check out the article...it is pretty interesting stuff.

In the article UVSC's own David Keller is quoted as saying, "His [Nielsen's] research may not be consistent with the mission of private religious institutions, but it sure is consistent with the public, secular mission of UVSC". Pointing out UVSC's secular mission, and noting it's direct opposition to BYU's religious mission, is sure to get the attention of the conservative Utah County delegation, the recently formed Friends of Utah Valley PAC, and UVSC's resident cranky old grump Norm Nielsen (who at this point is double-checking his genealogy to make sure he isn't related to Jeff). And of course this article has to come out just days before the incredibly conservative, and overwhelmingly LDS, State Legislature begins their 45-day session, with the future of UVSC's move to university hanging in the balance.

All you UVSC folks who were around during the Michael Moore War remember that a series of articles in the Daily Herald concerning UVSC's supposed liberal leanings effectively sunk the school's chances of getting funding for the DLC back in 2005. Before those articles ran the DLC was on the top of the building list. After the articles the DLC didn't even make the list. In an article in The College Times UVSC's lone voice on the State Board of Regents, Marlon "No high school diploma" Snow, confirmed that the Utah County delegation was not pleased with UVSC's recent liberal leanings. At a dinner UVSC held to thank the Utah County delegation a few months later Rep. Steve Clark stood and said. "UVSC is a great opportunity for kids to have the BYU experience. We're walking on eggshells when we say this, but we know that people want that experience." It's a good thing UVSC hired Clark this past summer to be the new director of the Small Business Development Center.

Then in November of 2005, State Senate president John Valentine confirmed that he wouldn't work for University status until he got assurances that UVSC had seen the light and returned to being BYU-Orem. In an article in The College Times he was quoted as saying "What we need to have happen is not a repeat of what happened at this institution in the last couple of years. This institution reflects the values of the community in which it resides. And if we have continual efforts to try and move this institution away from the values of this community we are going to have some problems up at the state capital."

Considering that Valentine has now made UVSC's move to university status his top priority, The Pipeline can only assume that such assurances have been made.