Students and faculty proud of education

KAYSVILLE — It's about respect — not an easy thing to come by in the realm of higher education, whether you're a student, professor or an entire school.

If you're the Utah College of Applied Technology, that mountain gets a little steeper and higher.

But if you tour the UCAT's Davis Applied Technology College and start asking a few questions, you immediately sense a fierce pride on the part of students and teachers.

Students say they're not only part of higher education in Utah, but that they're also better prepared for the work force than peers who take the same courses at four-year institutions or other nationally accredited colleges.

Faculty here say their qualifications to teach are on par with those you'd find at Utah's nine other public colleges and universities.

But after three years, the UCAT is still trying to earn respect while it tries to find its place in higher education.

It has found a home in Utah's work force.

According to UCAT President Greg Fitch, 926 Utah companies ultimately benefited from students who took UCAT courses over the past year.

That includes 400 manufacturing companies alone in Utah, and a lot of the UCAT students are becoming machinists.

"Employers want machinists more so than I've seen in the past 10 years," says DATC President Michael J. Bouwhuis.

The UCAT campuses, including Davis, are also producing new nurses in a state where the most recent count showed 1,000 positions going unfilled.

Bouwhuis says he could churn out more nurses, if he had more state funding. Instead, his campus has to turn away applicants by the hundreds.

In short, the UCAT is under the same state funding gun as public and higher education.

The DATC filled 40 slots for a nursing program this fall, but 389 people applied. Most will have to wait for an open slot or try to get on at other schools, which are also funding impaired and unable to expand their programs to meet demand.

Bouwhuis said he needs three master's-prepared nurses to expand his program. But instructors at that level can expect between a $70,000 to $100,000 annual salary, while the DATC can only pay about $40,000 to $70,000.