UVSC has to make changes if it's to be U

OREM — The chief of the system that oversees Utah's public colleges and universities has outlined eight issues that Utah Valley State College must address if the Orem school wants to continue its quest to become a university.

Utah Higher Education Commissioner Richard Kendell told UVSC President William Sederburg in a recent letter that any action by the school toward gaining university status should be taken only with the blessing of Utah's Board of Regents, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and state lawmakers.

Kendell wrote the letter after two meetings with Sederburg during which they discussed "the shared assumption that Utah Valley State College should prepare for university status," according to the three-page Sept. 12 letter.

The eight issues outlined in the letter range from the school's library to the number of academic advisers at the school.

Sederburg said that the letter is encouraging and that such issues should be resolved to strengthen the school, which became accredited to offer four-year degrees 10 years ago. Before that, it was a junior college. And it became a junior college after its founding as a school that focused on vocational training.

"We're pleased, and I'm looking forward in working with the commissioner to get some of these issues out in the open and discussed and resolved," he said. "It's really related to having a quality undergraduate institution, improving quality."

In November, a team of three education consultants will visit UVSC and study what steps it needs to take to become academically prepared to gain university status.

The team will be headed by Ken Mortimer, former president of Western Washington University and University of Hawaii and a well-known consultant who works for the National Center of Higher Education Management Systems.

Also on the committee are Jack Newell, a professor emeritus at the University of Utah and former president of Deep Springs College in California, and Paul Reichardt, provost at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Reichardt is familiar with UVSC because he was the chairman of the team that deemed the school worthy of endorsement from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, which accredits UVSC to give college degrees.