Changes outlined for UVSC campus

OREM — If Utah Valley State College grows to 40,000 students, as administrators have projected, its current location will not be large enough to accommodate the people and traffic.

"When you start talking about traffic, that's someone getting in a car and coming to campus, that has an effect on infrastructure on campus," said Val Peterson, UVSC external affairs vice president. "We recommend looking at a north campus and a south campus."

UVSC has satellite campuses in Lehi and Spanish Fork, Peterson noted during a presentation Thursday night before the college's Board of Trustees, which approved a revised master plan for the school.

The master plan is an architectural vision for how the Orem campus will look in 15-20 years. The plan includes new roads, buildings and gathering places for students and was developed with input from the city of Orem, faculty and staff, students and neighbors.

College officials usually update the master plan about every 18 months to keep the public aware of future plans. But the master plan approved Thursday is a major revision, Peterson said. It also will be adjusted over time.

"When we get up to the north end (of campus), we just have a mass of parking lots," UVSC President William Sederburg said. "The heart of this plan is what are we going to do on the north end of campus over time."

The campus will also expand to the west side of I-15, and college administrators hope an efficient way to connect the east and west parts of the campus can be achieved.

"We've talked about a gondola," Peterson said. "Regent David Jordan (a higher-education policy maker) talked about a monorail."

UVSC officials also are talking with planners at the Utah Department of Transportation about an interchange spanning the freeway and a "collector distribution system" near the Orem 800 North exit in which vehicle traffic could enter and exit the freeway.

Also included in the plan is a state-of-the-art "Digital Learning Center" library, which UVSC chiefs have been pushing the Legislature to fund. The center would enable graduate research, which could pave the way for UVSC obtaining university status.

Near the Digital Learning Center would be a "quad" plaza with waterfalls and a bell tower. Future buildings would surround the quad, Peterson said.

Four buildings on campus would be expanded, including the health and science building. That is the No. 2 priority on UVSC's building list, after the Digital Learning Center. UVSC wants to expand the building by 100,000 square feet at a cost of $20 million.

"That cost could probably go up," Peterson said.

No football stadium is planned, although many members of the community have requested one. Instead, the master plan offers a circular track and portable bleachers.

If a football stadium is eventually built, it would likely be located on the west side of I-15, Sederburg said.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com