Utah Valley University

Utah Valley University
Motto	"Engage"
Established	1941
Type	Public
President	Matthew S. Holland
Undergraduates	33,395
Location	Orem, Utah, USA 40°16′40″N 111°42′50″W
Campus	Suburban
Colors	Green & Gold (Yellow), with White trim
Mascot	Wolverines
Website	www.uvu.edu

Utah Valley University, or UVU, is a publicly funded university located in Orem, Utah, United States with a current enrollment of 33,395 students as of 2011. Utah Valley University is now the largest public university in the State of Utah. UVU is a teaching institution which provides opportunity, promotes student success, and meets regional educational needs. The university currently offers approximately 58 bachelor degrees, 66 associate degrees, 21 certificate/diploma programs, and 3 high-demand master degrees in education, business, and nursing.

The university’s Wasatch Campus in Heber City, Utah, also offers bachelor degrees in business management, and secondary education, as well as associate degrees in accounting, behavioral science, business management, elementary education, and general education.

Utah Valley University is a teaching institution that prepares students through a combination of academic and hands-on learning, a process dubbed "engaged learning" at UVU. The institution was awarded the Community Engagement Classification by the Carnegie Foundation in 2008.

Previously called Utah Valley State College (UVSC), the school attained university status in July 2008, changing to Utah Valley University. Matthew S. Holland, appointed as the first president of UVU, officially began his duties on June 1, 2009.

History

UVU was founded in the fall of 1941, when the Utah State Vocational Office consolidated federal work program classes into one campus in Provo. At this time, the school was known as the Central Utah Vocational School. Growth brought numerous changes to UVU over the following decades, and the school was renamed several times to reflect its changing role. In 1963, the name was changed from Central Utah Vocational School to Utah Trade Technical Institute. In 1967, the school became Utah Technical College at Provo, and was given the authority to confer associate degrees for the first time. In 1977, the institution began moving to its present location beside the I-15 in Orem. In 1987, it became Utah Valley Community College.

It wasn't until 1993 that the school was named Utah Valley State College and began awarding four-year degrees. The Utah legislature approved renaming it as a university in February 2007 (effective July 1, 2008), allowing it to begin offering master's degrees, although the school continues to place particular emphasis on its two- and four-year degree programs.

On July 1, 2008, the institution was awarded university status and changed its name to Utah Valley University to reflect the shift.

UVU is Utah's largest public university, and the largest employer in Orem with over 1,400 full-time faculty and staff, and over 3,200 part-time faculty and staff.

When it was a community college, the school had approximately 8,000 students enrolled, growing by approximately 3,000 students a year. Currently there are 32,670 students enrolled for Fall semester 2010 at UVU.

Academics

Accreditation and admissions

UVU was accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Northwest Association of Schools in 1969, and had its accreditation renewed in 1984, 1995, and 2005. Vocational accreditation was granted in 1976, and renewed in 1990 and 1995 by the Utah State Office of Vocational Education. In December 2006, the UVU School of Business received accreditation from the AACSB.

UVU is an open enrollment university and despite the University's size and growth it looks as though administration will keep enrollment open for the time being.

About 88% of UVU students come from Utah but an increasing number of students are coming from different countries and states. In 2009, UVU students represented all 50 states and 67 countries.

Faculty

Notable faculty include Scott Carrier, an author and radio producer whose stories have been featured on "This American Life", Marty Val Hill, a NSA national outstanding professor of the year, Craig Huish, a AHLEI national Lamp of Knowledge award winner as an Outstanding U.S. Educator, and Jay DeSart, a geocacher, who created an election forecast model cited by The Wall Street Journal in predicting Barack Obama’s presidential win.

Rankings and awards

University rankings (overall)
National
Forbes	443

UVU has chosen not to participate in U.S. News & World Report college and university rankings. Since 2001, UVU student teams have placed first or second overall in the national SkillsUSA competition. Each year, students from UVU place well in national Phi Beta Lambda and Delta Epsilon Chi business competitions. At the 2008 national Phi Beta Lambda conference in Atlanta, Georgia, UVU students were awarded twelve top-ten finishes.

Campus

UVU's main campus is located in Orem with satellite campuses in Heber City, Spanish Fork, North Orem, Provo airport, and Lehi. UVU's main campus encompasses 228 acres (0.92 km²) and includes 48 buildings. Each building has been built using the same style of unfinished concrete with all ten of the major buildings on campus connected by 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) concourses. UVU has beautiful grounds including two reflecting ponds on the west side of campus, a stream running through the east part of campus, and a multi-dimensional fountain in the middle of campus.

UVU is home to the Utah Community Credit Union Center, formerly the David O. McKay Events Center which was built in 1996 with a capacity to seat 8,500 people. The events center is governed by a board consisting of representatives from UVU, Utah County and Orem City. It not only holds campus activities and sporting events but also community events such as major concerts, trade shows and expos, high school sports tournaments, family shows, graduations, and banquets. It is not only the headquarters of the UVU athletics department but also the NBA’s Development League Utah Flash. It is also home to UVU’s renowned culinary arts program, including Greg’s Restaurant. On average, the Events Center hosts 150-170 events per year. As many as 360,000 people patronize the Events Center on an annual basis. The new library or UVU's Digital Learning Center is often referred to as the "jewel" of campus being the newest addition to campus.

Digital Learning Center

In September 2006, the school began construction of a new Digital Learning Center to replace the 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m²) Losee Resource Center (library). The "DLC" is 180,000 square feet (17,000 m²) and is located northeast of the Liberal Arts building. It opened on July 1, 2008. UVU President William A. Sederburg hired Cooper, Roberts, Simonsen and Associates and Layton Construction as the design/build team for the new Digital Learning Center, with acclaimed New York architect Jacob Alspector as lead architect. “We chose the design we’re going with because it was an exceptional design that still kept a lot of the same features of our current campus. So it looks like it’s supposed to be there yet it stands out,” said Jim Michaelis, associate vice president of Facilities Planning. The $48 million project includes networked computers, computer labs, a computer reference area (Information Commons), media center, 31 study rooms, and wireless internet throughout the building.

The library is the “greenest” state-owned building in Utah, and won two 2008 awards from Intermountain Construction magazine for its energy efficiency.

Organization

The university is part of the Utah System of Higher Education. The primary colleges and schools at the university are:

• College of Humanities & Social Sciences
• College of Science and Health
• College of Technology and Computing
• School of Public Services
• School of the Arts
• School of Education
• University College
• Woodbury School of Business

Other academic support programs include Distance Education, Extended Studies, Summer, concurrent, Community and Continuing Education, and Honors.

Performing arts

Dance

UVU is home to one of the largest public collegiate ballroom dance programs in the United States. Over the last several years, the Ballroom Dance Company has grown into a premiere performance troupe. The company has over 130 members divided into four teams; one touring team, one reserve and two back up teams. The backup teams provide the students with the training and performance skills necessary to meet the demands of the touring team. The UVU Ballroom Dance Company has received numerous awards, honors, and accolades as they have performed and competed throughout the United States and abroad including recently winning the first ever College Dance Championship on ABC's TV series Dancing With The Stars. The team is currently directed by Scott Asbell with Tara Boyd as the head choreographer.

Athletics

Main article: Utah Valley Wolverines

The school mascot is the Wolverine, and the colors are green and gold.

The school competes in most major sports at various levels. The school's NCAA sports are men's and women's basketball, men's and women's track and field, men's and women's cross country, baseball, wrestling, softball, women's soccer, and women's volleyball. The school also fields several club teams including, men's soccer, men's volleyball, men's lacrosse, and men's and women's rugby. The UVU student section is called the Mighty Athletic Wolverine League, or MAWL, a name created by former executive vice president of student government Justin Davies.

The Wolverines play their home basketball games in the 8,500-seat Utah Community Credit Union Center. The men's basketball team finished the 2008-09 season with a 17-11 record, which capped off its 26th winning season in a row. The UCCU Center is also home to the Utah Flash of the NBA D-League and the Utah Valley Thunder of the American Indoor Football Association.

The baseball team plays at Brent Brown Ballpark, a 2,500-seat facility (3,000 additional fans can sit on a grass berm that wraps around third base and left field, bringing total capacity to 5,500) that opened on March 25, 2005. Brent Brown Ballpark is also the home of the Orem Owlz, a minor-league affiliate of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, that competes in the Pioneer Baseball League. The athletic program is in NCAA Division I. After numerous years of playing as an independent team, the Wolverines are now affiliated with the Great West Conference, which began its inaugural all-sports season in 2008-09.

The school dropped its men's club ice hockey team in 2009, it competed in ACHA Division 2, and played its home games at the Peaks Ice Arena, a 2002 Winter Olympics hockey venue. A grassroots effort by the student body and the community is underway to start an NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey team, if successful it would be the first such program in the state of Utah. As college hockey continues to grow, especially with the additon of an NCAA Division I program at Penn State to begin play in the 2012-2013 season and the newly formed Big Ten Hockey Conference more and more schools out west are clamoring for exposure.

Media

The school has an independent, student-run weekly newspaper called the UVU Review. The newspaper began publishing under the name on June 30, 2008, the day before the university transition became official. UVU Review's Editor-in-Chief was Jack Waters for the 2008-09 year, followed by Jennie Nicholls-Smith in 2009-10. The 2010-2011 staff is headed by David Self Newlin. The school is also the subject of the documentary This Divided State.

Fire Academy

The school is one of few Utah universities which provides free training to Utah fire agencies. In August 2009, the university unveiled a 53-foot-long (16 m) Mobile Command Center, acquired by federal grants. The Utah Valley University Fire Academy Mobile Command Training Center cost an estimated $200,000 to $300,000 and provides both students and firefighters with realistic fire training.

Alumni

• Ricky Allman - Internationally renowned painter
• A.J. Cook - Actress Criminal Minds
• Gregg Hale - former guitarist for the band Spiritualized
• Travis Hansen- former basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA
• Chelsie Hightower - Professional dancer on hit TV series Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance
• Mitch Jones - Major League Baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates
• Christina Lowe, Miss Utah 2010, A Miss America Semifinalist
• Michael McDonald - former basketball player for the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA
• Kam Mickolio - Major League Baseball pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks
• Noelle Pikus Pace - World Cup gold medalist in Skeleton (tobogganing)
• Matthew S. Petersen - Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, and former Republican chief counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
• Ronnie Price - basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA
• Wesley Silcox - World champion bull rider

References

"UVSC celebrates first 'unofficial' university grads"; Salt Lake Tribute,http://www.sltrib.com/ci_5767536

External links

• Official athletics website
• United Basketball Conference
• Utah System of Higher Education
• UVU Review (student newspaper) website
• UVU Institutional Research and Information