“College town magic,” diversity, equity and inclusion and free speech were all topics discussed by University of Utah President Taylor Randall at a press conference with The Daily Utah Chronicle on Friday.
Goals for the School Year
To kick off the conversation, Randall and U Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Mitzi Montoya shared their goals for the upcoming year.
“We have a lot of new things going on focused around student success,” Montoya said. “We have a whole initiative that we’ve launched called Navigate U.”
Navigate U was launched in 2023 to increase student success outcomes. In the future, Montoya hopes to expand this initiative to create Navigate U hubs on campus.
“The idea is to create a common suite of services that every student would have access to,” Montoya said. “That includes advising, student success coaches, career coaches, mental health counselors and financial wellness counselors.”
Montoya added that she hopes to expand the U’s career services to serve alumni.
“Say you leave and you want to change jobs in five years,” she said. “We can support you with that, as well, reaching through our network.”
Speaking on his plans for the year, Randall said he has to complement Montoya’s work. That means working with “this intense focus that all of us have on improving the student experience,” he said.
“The things that I’m looking at that are complementary to that would be the building out what we call ‘college town magic,'” Randall said.
College Town Magic
“College town magic” means bringing more students to live on campus and shifting away from the U’s long-time dependence on commuting. But it’s also about creating experiences, Randall said.
“There are a couple elements to it,” he said. “It’s not only the infrastructure build, but it’s also the culture building and the activities.”
Randall explained how new student activities and opportunities will become available as new buildings are constructed. He pointed to the Impact and Prosperity Epicenter as an example.
The Epicenter will host activities much like Lassonde Studios does already. These events are available to all students.
“So it’s not just the infrastructure, but it’s broadly what we do with students to make them a part of our campus and feel like they find their passion for what they want to do,” Randall said.
Alongside creating “college town magic,” the U is also developing a new master plan to address transportation and parking issues. While no definite parking plan has been established, the U has been considering several ideas.
“One is planning on building a set of lots in strategic locations around campus that are probably distant from the core,” Randall explained. “The core becomes more of a walking core, [then we try] to make that parking less expensive.”
Randall said this idea might also include expanding shuttle systems to pick students up from distant parking lots and deliver them to the main campus.
This concept has already been piloted after the closure of the Kahlert parking lot. Spots from this lot were replaced one-for-one by spaces in other locations like Lot 111 in Research Park. Currently, Safe Ride can pick students up from this lot and drop them off at various on-campus housing locations.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The U closed several resource centers this summer in the aftermath of H.B. 261, an anti-DEI bill. These resource centers were replaced with two new centers in Student Affairs: The Center for Student Access and Resources and the Center for Community and Cultural Engagement.
Based on guidance it received about the bill, Randall said the U believed creating one new umbrella organization for cultural engagement would be the “best chance of getting these cultural centers approved” by the Utah Board of Higher Education.
“It is very clear that the legislative body has a variety of different opinions about how this should be implemented,” Randall said. “[They] have said ‘if it’s not implemented the way we think … we will come back and redo the bill.'”
However, Randall noted that how the lawmakers think H.B. 261 should be implemented is still unclear.
“We could have taken other centers forward,” Randall said. “We just thought if all the universities did that, there was a high likelihood they would all get rejected. That is just purely a judgment call on our part.”
Lori McDonald, vice president of student affairs, said that the U will apply to be heard at the Utah Board of Higher Education’s October meeting to see if the CCE can be approved. If it’s not, the U will have to adjust the center and reapply for approval.
“I think that’s a thing here that’s important to keep in mind,” Montoya said. “It’s dynamic. We wait for guidance. That guidance comes in. We all try to respond. But the guidance isn’t a ‘do X, Y, Z;’ the guidance is more interpretation.”
Randall did say, however, that if the CCE gets approved, the U will ask the Board of Higher Education to approve an adjusted Black Cultural Center and LGBT Resource Center.
“Our plan is, we get this umbrella center approved, and then you will actually see, in relatively short order, a Black Cultural Center and LGBTQ Center that will come up underneath it,” Randall said.
Free Speech
As the fall semester began, the U released several articles and resources for students to use to understand free speech on campus. The U, as a public university, is required to protect free speech. However, the U also has a set of regulations that speech must comply with.
“What I’m hoping is we’re very transparent and that, as a campus, we learned what those regulations were,” Randall said. “[I hope] that free speech and people’s voices can be heard and protests can occur under those guidelines.”
He added that “with the right of free speech comes a responsibility.”
“It’s also a great opportunity,” he said. “We all ought to participate in this democratic process and how our voice is heard.”
McDonald said the U is also working to give students access to resources that will help them build constructive conversations around hard or emotionally charged topics. One such resource will be a set of virtual workshops made possible with the Constructive Dialogue Institute.
“Students can do [it] in their own time,” McDonald said.
She added the goal is to teach students how to “dialog across difference” and come to an understanding before attempting to change any minds.
The U will also roll out a canvas module on free speech and protesting this October.
“What we learned, different than other campuses, is our campus had a set of regulations,” Randall said. “[Like] the camping regulation, and people would ask, ‘Well, can you put a freedom of speech zone out there?’ We could, but that would have to go to the state legislature, right? ‘Can we divest?’ Turns out there are non-divestment laws.”
For example, the 2021 Anti-Boycott Israel Act forbids public entities in Utah from engaging in any boycotting with the state of Israel.
Montoya encouraged students to use these resources to learn how to exercise their right of free speech effectively.
“Learn how to affect change. That means you have to understand the system within which you operate in order to change it,” Montoya said. “If you find yourself unable to participate in the process because you’ve done something that violates the system … you’re not going to be able to affect change.”
