Many around the state still look at the University of Utah as the ivory tower on the foothills, where rich east siders get a nice education and the west-siders make their lunch, answer their phones or clean their offices.

While this may, in part, be true, it doesn’t please U President Bernie Machen or Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, and they plan to do something about it.

The two leaders have created separate West Side Initiatives aimed at bringing an education to Salt Lake’s economically disadvantaged.

Through conversations with the late Sen. Pete Suazo, a fighter for all minorities, Machen realized that the U had no presence on the city’s poorer west side.

To rectify the problem, he has hired Irene Fisher, who single-handedly built the Bennion Community Service Center into a world-renowned institution.

She will now focus her energies on building bridges between Salt Lake’s poor and the ivory tower.

This effort is long overdue, and it is truly sad that past U administrations never started a similar initiative.

While Machen and Anderson are still in the planning stages, they have shown a commitment to bettering all of Salt Lake’s residents, not just those who can afford an education.

If successful, such an initiative will improve the diversity of the U’s student body, which will in turn add to the educational dynamic of the state’s flagship institution.

But for Machen, it is not all about the campus.

Fisher is planning to create a community house in the west side that will work with its neighbors to foster educational experiences.

This is vital. Many poor west siders look at the U as out of reach. Bringing a piece of the institution to their neighborhood will show that the U cares about them and that they can get a top education at a top university.

The West Side Initiative will help the U fulfill its state-given role of providing an education to Utahns who fulfill the academic requirements. Everyone deserves to have an opportunity to get educated, and the U shouldn’t expect everyone to come to their door. The West Side Initiative is exactly what Salt Lake needs. The ivory tower is heading for the west side.