"Unfortunately, Utah is going in the wrong direction," he said. "We've just seen out of a $1 billion surplus state legislative session, there was no investment in the core higher education arena other than USTAR (Utah Science, Technology and Research initiative) and the library at UVSC. Now, we're delighted with the library at UVSC — we celebrate that — but with a billion-dollar surplus, there should have been improvement in the work force development capability of all the institutions here in Utah."

Sederburg said the Legislature "just doesn't understand" higher education institutions' role in building regional economic development.

"That, coupled with the dropping percentage of students wanting to go on to college, is very problematic. So we have a little work to do, I think, to turn around attitudes," he said.

Another problem for Utah's economic development is the falling percentage of women attending college, he said. UVSC once had women as 50 percent of its enrollment, a figure that has slipped to 42 percent. Nationwide, the percentage is 58 percent for comparable colleges, he said.

"We have gone downhill in the percentage of young ladies seeking a college degree, and that occurs in the majority population. It isn't a Hispanic phenomenon. It's not any other issue. It's that sociologically, for some reason, young ladies are dropping out of college, wanting to get married."

He noted that a wedding show is one of the biggest events at UVSC but said it may not be a long-term economic benefit for the state that "you have so few percentage of young ladies enrolled in college."

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