UVSC bucks statewide trend with positive enrollment numbers

The state Board of Education has released enrollment numbers for Utah's public colleges and universities, and while overall the numbers are flat UVSC gained the most students and had the second highest percentage of growth over last fall's numbers.

Enrollment remains flat at Utah colleges
Recruitment to become more competitive as numbers stay steady
(Salt Lake Tribune, October 12 2007)

While this news is no big surprise for UVSC, it is nice to see what numbers other schools are posting. Here are the headcounts for all nine schools:

U of U: 27,685 -2.15%
USU: 21,455 +1.10%
Weber: 17,089 -1.16%
SUU: 6,410 +4.94%
Snow: 3,202 -9.65%
Dixie: 5,209 -2.43%
CEU: 1,799 -3.95%
UVSC: 20,959 +3.44%
SLCC: 23,824 +0.01%

Higher Ed
Total: 127,632 -0.09%

If that number seems a little low for UVSC, who usually boasts of having 24,000 students we can only assume the state is not counting high school students taking in concurrent enrollment classes.

Dixie plays the all-too-familiar Name Game

Last year when UVSC was bucking for a promotion there were a few discussions about what to call the damn thing if it indeed became a univeristy. But Sederburg and the legislature settled on Utah Valley University pretty early on, and that was that. And since that time nobody has really made too much noise about it.

But now the Name Game is beginning down south as Dixie State College looks to hook up with the University of Utah. The situation in St. George is a little more convoluted when you consider that the region has been called Dixie since the time of Brigham Young, and that some object to it's Confederate connotations.

If St. George school hooks up with U of U, it may not be whistling Dixie
(Salt Lake Tribune, September 27 2007)

So you want to be a U? Dixie State ponders future

Dixie State College announced last Friday that it is considering hooking its wagon to the University of Utah and becoming a satellite campus in an effort to expand the possibilities of higher education in Washington County.

Dixie says it weighs becoming U. satellite
(Salt Lake Tribune, September 8 2007)


Dixie State seeks partnership with U of U
(The Spectrum, September 8 2007)

Dixie State College Announces Plan to Pursue Enhanced Affiliation with the University of Utah
(From the Dixie State College website)

Essentially Dixie could very well follow the path of UVSC and become a university with a community college emphasis and open enrollment. Which leads us to a very interesting question, will UVSC support this move? Just because Dixie and the U have talked about it doesn't mean it's a done deal...far from it. The proposal will need to get approval from the Utah Board of Regents and the legislature.

And that process could be moved along considerably with the help of UVSC's voices on the Board of Regents (Marlon Snow, Jack Zenger, and Lucille Stoddard) and Utah County's all-powerful caucus (Senate president John Valentine tops the list).

And we might have a little quid pro quo action happening here. You might recall at the signing of SB 70 this past March that St. George representative Dave Clark was not only present, but spoke, and was widely praised by others for his support of UVSC's transition. At the time the Pipeline thought it seemed a little fishy for a St. George guy to be all buddy buddy with Utah County. Our bet is that UVSC and all its cronies will be backing up Dixie's move 100 percent.

And perhaps that is not such a bad thing. One thing is for certain though...the transition is going to cost money.