Headfirst into high tech

In 2000, Leavitt's administration launched the $102 million five-year "engineering" initiative, with a goal to double the number of higher education graduates in engineering, computer science and related technology by 2006.

So far, the initiative, which has stumbled due to lack of funding has resulted in a 23 percent increase in the number of students studying those fields.

Like the burst of the high-tech bubble, the state's sluggish fiscal health is largely beyond Leavitt's control, but he thinks his administration accomplished what it needed to in the technology arena.

"I would like to be viewed as the governor who guided Utah through the transformation of the Information Age. All that really matters is that I feel I have done my part."

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