Machen is making this happen: The university is renovating an old chapel at Fort Douglas for use as an interfaith church. "It's another one of those things that makes me think I'm nuts," he says. "No university has anything to do with a religious entity. This is a land mine because of all the issues of church and state. The ACLU will call. And wait till the Sisters of Satan want to use it.

"But I hated to give up the concept that spirituality is an important dimension of college education," Machen says. "I'm a big believer in mind, body and spirit. We're going to get bumped around about this to make religion a more open concept around here."

There's no end to other problems, as well, while trying to accommodate Muslims, Jews, Methodists and Catholics in the same chapel. Pews will be detachable (to make way for rugs). Ditto for crosses and altars.

"I'm going to get nailed," says Machen. "I've talked to several attorneys and legal scholars. They said, 'You've got problems here. If you want a clear road, don't go here.' For a while I wondered, 'Do I need this?' "

Machen made this happen: Good relationships with the Legislature and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both relationships had deteriorated at the university in the years before Machen arrived, and he set out to correct it. He visited more than half of Utah's 100 legislators, most of them on their own turf. He met then-House Speaker Mel Brown at his dairy farm in Coalville, for instance, visiting over a glass of chocolate milk. Machen, accompanied by his wife of 34 years, Chris, also met with the LDS Church's First Presidency, and he has developed friendships with many members of the church hierarchy.

The big picture

Machen, intense and confident, plans to make other things happen at the university. He prefers to think of himself as a big-picture man. He spent part of last summer in London on sabbatical. Each day he went for long walks alone to think about what he wanted to accomplish at Utah, and at the end of each walk he recorded his thoughts in the lab books he uses as journals. He also visited with faculty and presidents from Cambridge and Oxford, as well as the presidents of Michigan, Princeton, Cal, Harvard and Yale.

"The collective experience, including walks in the woods and time in the pubs, helped me focus on the situation at the U.," he says.

Among the conclusions he noted in his journal:

• Utah's goal should be to become recognized as the best research university in the Mountain West.

• Compared to its peers, the university is significantly under-funded by the state.

• The environment/culture in Utah spends too much time focusing on religious differences, and the U. is unfairly accused of being biased one way or the other. The best way to rise above such distractions is to emphasize diversity and tolerance.