UVSC growth irks residents

OREM — Student growth at Utah Valley State College is a hot-button issue of late for some Orem residents.

Skyrocketing enrollment — now at 24,000 and more than double the 10,000 who attended in 1993 — has impacted traffic, housing and parking near the college, which had residents at Tuesday's Orem City Council meeting grumbling.

"UVSC is, at best, a barely tolerable neighbor," said Paul Wakefield, a resident of an Orem neighborhood who was asking the council to consider issuing residential parking permits to curb the infiltration of students' cars. "They have 20,000 people in a space that was not meant to accommodate that, and that's projected to grow to 30,000. As far as I'm concerned, the traffic and the parking are abysmal right now, and so to dump another 10,000 people in there as foolish. Enrollment needs to be capped, and it should have been capped already."

Cameron Martin, assistant to the president, said UVSC will maintain an open enrollment policy, but is planning ways to better manage that growth. "It's a big bubble that's coming through and we need to be prepared, we need to have an infrastructure in place that will help us meet that demand," Martin said.

Wakefield and others concerned about the impacts from the Orem campus will get a chance to talk directly to school officials at a public forum set for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Provo City Council Chambers. A similar forum was held Thursday night at UVSC's Wasatch County campus in Heber City.

Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn says he welcomes the chance to talk directly with school officials at the Tuesday forum.

"We'll be looking at such things as trying to improve access management, through roads and such," Washburn said. "We like to work with the college to identify needs early, such as housing, promoting better student awareness and working with the college to minimize impacts on the neighborhoods."

Martin said one measure UVSC is planning to implement is an ACT requirement for applicants next year. A minimum score won't be required, just completion of the test so the college can evaluate placement for students.

"The ACT will help us to identify students that need remediation," Martin said. "It's not a means of screening people out. We still will have open enrollment, but what we're trying to do is change the perception to an opportunity model: anyone who wants to, we want you to come, we'll assist you in achieving your higher ed goal."

Martin said it is possible the measure could result in an enrollment dip, but that isn't the objective.