75 Years of Transforming Lives It’s all about changing lives in a way that changes the community and the world for the better, and that is not a hard sell for Peterson to make among community members. He has rolled out a two-prong plan to revive the Eastern Utah region over the past 18 months, including the Four-in-Four program; a joint university/community initiative to increase college enrollment to 4,000 in four years that builds new community alliances in the process.
makes a case for community partnering with the campus for much-needed building upgrades to improve the college’s overall curb appeal.
that a baccalaureate offered in Price or Blanding is a USU baccalaureate.
Four goal,” he said. “If we start cranking out 40 to 60 baccalaureates every year, people will start thinking of us not in terms of a small community college, but in terms of an emerging baccalaureate producer, like the young Weber State and Utah Valley University.”
As the community changes, adapts and grows, Peterson said, the college will be there every step of the way.
“It is our win,” he said. “It is our victory. It’s the university’s victory if Price and Blanding are able to rise up and provide this.”
It is a promise he can make because he knows that USU Eastern is, as USU President Stan Albrecht envisioned, part of one university that is geographically dispersed. The spirit of that message is
The potential of USU Eastern is to be a destination baccalaureate institution in the same way that Logan is a destination baccalaureate and graduate institution, he said. “We talk about the Four-in-
A second program he launched earlier this year is an ambi“As the community changes, adapts tious building program for the and grows... the college will be college. USU Eastern’s Building Vitality Campaign lays out the there every step of the way.” college’s vision for economic --Joe Peterson and educational vitality. It
Tons of sedimentary rock have never stopped anyone before in this region. If they support it and want it as badly as their chancellor does, they’ll roll up their sleeves and get there, eventually. _____________ Writer: John DeVilbiss
USU Eastern (John DeVilbiss photo)
3