America’s faltering economy has put the future of a possible University of Utah-St. George on hold.
The Utah Legislature approved funding three years ago to create a graduate program partnership with Dixie State College in St. George with the U. As a first step in the partnership, the college began offering several U graduate programs on their campus, including nursing and education. The Board of Trustees for each school had a larger vision: renaming DSC as U of U8212;St. George and transforming it into a satellite campus that would serve under the U and its president, Michael Young.
However, after the Legislature cut state education budgets earlier this year, Dixie State no longer has the financial ability to undergo such a transformation, said Chuck Wight, an associate vice president of academic affairs and a chemistry professor who was chosen to help lead the task force to examine a larger partnership.
“My guess is that they won’t decide if they can go forward for at least another three to four years,” Wight said.
Prior to the budget cuts, a transformation of the Dixie State campus into a satellite university was estimated to cost anywhere between $5 million and $10 million, Wight said. No one knows how bad this recession is going to get or how long it will last, so Dixie’s transformation could be put on hold indefinitely, he said.
Neither school has been able to pinpoint an exact price for the transformation, but the recent financial strain is enough discouragement to lower its priority, said DSC spokesman Steve Johnson. Even if the economy were to turn around overnight, it might still be a challenge to bring the school under the U’s umbrella. There have been pockets of opposition in the St. George population that does not want to lose the Dixie name and the tradition it carries, Johnson said.
He` said opposition might rise again. Groups of St. George locals have voiced their disapproval to the local school as well as the U, but the name change decision would ultimately be up to the Legislature and out of either school’s hands, he said.
Until then, DSC students interested in a local U education can utilize the new U Graduate Center in St. George, which officially opens today. During the summer, the U spent about $272,000 to remodel the University Plaza building a block away from the Dixie State campus, which will house U graduate programs in business, nursing and education. Despite the misleading name, The Dixie Foundation, not the college, previously owned the building.
Thanks to new video conferencing equipment, the center will allow Dixie students to participate in graduate classes even when the instructor is in Salt Lake City. The technology will also allow students to interact with their professor through new microphones connected to the Internet, said Brandon Garcia, a spokesman for the U’s continuing education program.
Young will attend the official ribbon cutting for the new center today at 5 p.m.