OREM — The president of the Utah Senate says Utah Valley State College should be a university.

"In my mind, it's not if — it's when," Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, said Friday afternoon while meeting with students and faculty at the Orem campus.

Valentine's public statement — made while discussing a proposal to add a four-year engineering degree at UVSC — was his first regarding the college's not-so-secret quest to gain university status.

College administrators have long said they have met with the senior legislator to discuss plans to move past its ranking as a four-year state college.

On Friday, Valentine told the Deseret Morning News that he has had "several dozen meetings" with UVSC President William Sederburg to talk about the issue.

"A degree that comes out of Utah Valley University will mean a lot more," he said.

Another Utah Valley legislator, Sen. Parley Hellewell, R-Orem, echoed Valentine's statements.

"As Sen. Valentine said, it won't be long until (UVSC) becomes a university," said Hellewell, who also meet with students to talk about the engineering-degree proposal. Hellewell graduated from the school in 1972 in business management and marketing.

The criteria for designation as a university varies from state to state. In Utah, a college must offer graduate degrees before the governor-appointed Board of Regents gives it university status.

Utah County, with more than 360,000 residents, is the "second largest county in population," Hellewell said. "We have a private university, but we don't have a state university. It's kind of crazy."

Valentine said he does not have a timetable for when the school, which counts more than 24,000 students, could obtain university status.

Among the factors that will play into the school's possible college-to-university transformation will be the perception that the school has liberal leanings, Valentine said.

"When you're in the process of trying to make university status and you ask the taxpayers to be supportive, you have to be reflective" of the community, he said.

Last year's visit by "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore, performances of "Vagina Monologues," concerts by rap-music stars, and the offering of a gay literature class on campus have upset many Utah County residents, considered among the most conservative in the state.

UVSC cannot pretend to be an "East Coast or West Coast" school, Valentine said. Activities on campus cannot deviate from the community's values.

"I'm not against having a diverse education," he said, "but the major mission of this institution can't get lost in the quest to be fair and listen to diverse views."