A College for Everyone

S A L T

L A K E

C O M M U N I T Y

C O L L E G E

A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

S A L T

L A K E

C O M M U N I T Y

C O L L E G E

A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

INQUIRY METHOD (2015)

“Inquiry Method,” Lisa Bickmore’s first convocation poem, came to her one late summer’s evening while she and her husband were walking past a sculpture called “Sky Grass,” which stands outside the Science and Industry Building. “The grass blades are opalescent, they sparkle with color when the sun hits them, and they’re reflected in the giant glass wall of the building,” says the college’s first poet laureate. “It’s beautiful. And I’m just walking on campus with my husband and thinking about what students would be doing in the few days before classes start.”

In the evening there was no one here,

the scraping together of money, the desire

no groundskeeper nor teacher nor analyst

powering each arrival, the hazard

just one woman with her dog, and us,

of effort and aim and will for a

walking around. The failing light just caught

barely trusted future? You walk here too,

the Sky Grass’s blades, so that it

just before the sky gets dark, in the quiet

in turn could reflect its blue; we saw the dry

fields crossed by walkways, lined with trees, heat

outline on the sycamore leaf. Buildings

still rising from where it has soaked into

shut up, the sun gilding their glass. Canal

the very earth. If you listen closely,

water on the northern edge gliding

you can hear it already, the beautiful

west, away from the river. When does

and difficult hum of work underway,

any story start? Tomorrow, the hour

in a thousand distinct modes: we may call

appointed for beginning arrives,

this, this place, a beginning, but it is not

the ritual with which we comply,

the first, nor will it be the last, incident

upon which we are fixed: the noise we make

in the record: and if you listen

of beginning, obscuring the chance-composed

you can hear their accounts,

music of a thousand quieter

a minim of each single song: the clocks

commencements: they will arrive on that day,

in the classroom are not yet ticking,

each from her own neighborhood, family,

or at least we can’t yet hear their driving

circumstance. She will have arranged for her

measures: for now, we only sense the soon

shift to begin when her two classes end.

to arrive, their still potent dreams as yet

He will have taken his little boy

unspoken — or unspoken to us.

to daycare. She wants to go to law school.

When do their stories begin, we ask, and

He wants to farm as his father did,

I will tell you: all stories have always

but in a better way. Another

already begun, but they also always

holds hope like a small amulet he dares

begin now.

not show anyone. For some, it’s a murmur, song made of a laptop opening, the retrieval of a pen, the unzipping of a backpack. The fermata, just before a teacher walks in, uncaps a marker, writes something on a whiteboard and turns to speak her name. When does it begin,

LISA BICKMORE SLCC POET L AUREATE 2015–2019 UTAH POET L AUREATE 2022–PRESENT

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prologue

THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT

YOU SAY YOU WANT AN EVOLUTION?

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191

PART 3

107

chapter two

chapter eight

chapter five

GROWING PAINS

7

chapter six

chapter three

ONE IN A MILLION

PART 1

133

PART 2

INTO THE FUTURE

TURBULENT TIMES

83

161

chapter one

chapter four

chapter seven

THE STARVATION YEARS

A BIGGER STAGE

A MODEL FOR ALL

prologue

ONE IN A MILLION

NATALIE KADDAS BEGAN HER COLLEGE STUDIES IN THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM PROGRAM, THEN SWITCHED TO BUSINESS. THIRTY YEARS LATER, SHE RUNS A FAMILY FIRM WITH ANNUAL SALES OVER $5 MILLION, BUT HER LEARNING CONTINUES. SLCC PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSES BECKON NEXT.

A FOREVER STUDENT Natalie Kaddas smiles when asked how she got to be the boss of Salt Lake City plastics thermoformer Kaddas Enterprises Inc. “It’s been quite a journey,” the CEO admits. “I probably wouldn’t be here had I not decided as an 18-year-old kid to sign up for courses at Salt Lake Community College. SLCC is a big part of my story, because I keep going back. I’m kind of a forever student.”

Like many high schoolers, Kaddas had no clear idea what she wanted to do after she graduated. To her father, a union electrician, the answer was simple: get a job. It was 1990.

At the time she had a steady boyfriend with a good career of his own. “You’ll get married, settle down and have kids soon enough,” her father told her.

Kaddas wasn’t ready for that, although her alternatives weren’t clear. “A lot of the women in my life didn’t work,” she notes. “Besides, I wanted to travel.”

Her boyfriend (now husband) Jay Kaddas suggested she check out SLCC. He’d studied architectural drafting and electronics there in the 1980s when it was still called Utah Technical College, and he was putting the skills he’d learned to good use in the family business.

“They offer all kinds of programs. There’s bound to be something that interests you.”

The idea of college hadn’t occurred to her.

“It wasn’t talked about when I was growing up,” she says. “Mom and Dad didn’t encourage me to go to college. Why would they? Neither of them went.” When Kaddas decided to enroll at SLCC, her parents supported her … up to a point. “But they didn’t have the bandwidth to help me, and frankly they didn’t see the value in it,” she says. Common challenges for first-generation students then as now.

“Going to SLCC really opened my eyes. Most importantly, it showed me there were options —

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“SLCC HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR ME WHEN I NEED IT. I’LL BE BACK AGAIN, FOR SURE. I FEEL LIKE IT’S TRULY EMBEDDED IN MY JOURNEY.” NATALIE KADDAS ALUMNUS AND CEO OF KADDAS ENTERPRISES INC.

NATALIE KADDAS IN HER ELEMENT AT HER THERMOFORMING PLANT, WHOSE OPERATIONS SHE SCALED UP EXPONENTIALLY AFTER COMPLETING THE GOLDMAN SACHS PROGRAM. NOW KADDAS ENTERPRISES HAS AN INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE, AND NATALIE MAINTAINS A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE COLLEGE IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.

2 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

different paths I could take,” says Kaddas, who enrolled in a travel and tourism course.

That first year, the class went on a field trip to Marriott Hotels, the international hospitality company. Kaddas was impressed. “They were a well-known organization in the travel industry with some Utah roots,” she says. “And I loved the environment there. When we toured, I thought, ‘This is someplace I can see myself working.’”

She applied and was hired full time. “That never would have happened if I hadn’t taken that course,” she says, adding that it was her first “grown-up” job. “To me it was a really big deal.”

Over the next 15 years, her career at Marriott soared, and she rose to head up a department.

“I loved every minute of it,” she says. “And I got to travel the world.” In all the excitement, she didn’t forget SLCC. “I went back several times to take part-time classes in marketing and business management. What I love about the college is the breadth of classes they offer. I can go for what I need at the time I need it.”

TROUBLE BREWING In 2008, Marriott wanted to post her to a different city, and Kaddas decided to quit. “I took the leap into entrepreneurship,” she says.

“I opened a coffee shop, which was a lot of fun.”

She learned there were many things she didn’t know about running a business, so back she

went to SLCC to bone up on bookkeeping. At first, all went well, but the timing was bad. That year, America and the world plunged into the Great Recession. Business at the coffee shop dwindled, and Kaddas needed a new source of income.

Like many manufacturers, Kaddas Enterprises was hit hard by the economic downturn. “My in-laws, Carol and John Kaddas, started the company in 1966 in their kitchen oven,” she says. “Thermoforming is basically the art of heating up plastic and pulling it over a mold. When they won a contract to make components for Boeing, things really took off.” By the 2000s, the plastics company had grown from a mom-and-pop operation into a flourishing small business creating industrial applications for the utility, aviation and transportation industries. Then came the crunch.

“My mother-in-law, who was ready to retire, was running the company at the time,” Kaddas says. “She’d done a fantastic job building it, but it was an uncertain time economically and that made everyone fearful. They had invested everything in the organization.”

Kaddas came in as CEO. “Talk about how the struggle to survive focuses the mind,” she quips. “I didn’t know anything about manufacturing. My background was in hospitality and customer service.” She found

the workforce was excellent at manufacturing products on time and on budget, but their customer communications needed work. “That was my skill set: taking care of people. For example, instead of shying away from supplychain challenges, we addressed them head on and said, ‘Okay, here’s what we’re facing. How can we work through this together?’ That way you build trust, credibility and loyalty. Once we started to focus on making customers happy, things really turned around.”

And then some. When she joined the company, net revenues were just over a million dollars a year. A decade later, Kaddas Enterprises was doing twice that in a month.

STRONGER TOGETHER In 2013, the lifelong learner turned to SLCC again. “We were having some success,” says Kaddas, “but I’d reached a point where I felt I needed something to help me take the company to the next level.” That something was SLCC’s Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, a 12-week curriculum offered to select entrepreneurs. SLCC is one of only 13 community colleges in the country offering the unique business education program.

“I heard about the Goldman Sachs program and was determined to take it. It’s very competitive, but I was not going to take no for

an answer,” she says, adding that she pulled out all the stops in her application. “I was part of the very first cohort from Salt Lake City, and it changed my life. It was truly transformational.”

Among other things, it gave her a network of business owners who share her challenges.

Since she took the course, Kaddas Enterprises has grown in dramatic fashion.

“Revenues, net profit, employees, capacity, capability — all have skyrocketed,” she says.

“I even have an independent board of directors.”

Thanks to Kaddas and the knowledge boost she got from the Goldman Sachs program, the company found that new level — just in time to take its products to the international market.

She even caught the eye of President Barack Obama, who in 2016 invited her to represent small businesses at a private dinner with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

And her relationship with SLCC continues to this day. “I’m now partnering with the college on new-hire training for our machine operators

and production employees,” she explains.

“Before they even hit my shop floor, they spend a week at Salt Lake Community College on shop safety, shop training, power equipment — the works.” The college proudly honored her in 2019 with its Distinguished Alumni Award.

Looking over the different phases of her life, Kaddas feels great gratitude. “SLCC has always been there for me when I needed it. I’ll be back again, for sure. I feel like it’s truly embedded in my journey.” Just as it is rooted firmly in the communities it serves.

Kaddas’s is only one of many thousand SLCC stories. Stories that began when a tiny fledgling vocational school opened its doors in 1948 in a rented former laundry with a few hundred students — and almost didn’t make it to its sophomore year. Look at it now. With some 50,000 students, 10 campuses and robust offerings online, SLCC has become one of the largest and most diverse institutions of higher learning in Utah.

PROLOGUE ONE IN A MILLION 3

“THE SOCIETY WHICH SCORNS EXCELLENCE IN PLUMBING BECAUSE PLUMBING IS A HUMBLE ACTIVITY, AND TOLERATES SHODDINESS IN PHILOSOPHY BECAUSE IT IS AN EXALTED ACTIVITY, WILL HAVE NEITHER GOOD PLUMBING NOR GOOD PHILOSOPHY. NEITHER ITS PIPES NOR ITS THEORIES WILL HOLD WATER.” DR. JOHN W. GARDNER FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE

PART 1

A SCHOOL OF VOCATIONS 1948–1978

chapter one

THE STARVATION YEARS

THE TROY LAUNDRY MADE WAY FOR THE NASCENT SALT LAKE AREA VOCATIONAL SCHOOL (FORERUNNER OF SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE). IN 1948 ITS HAYLOFTS BECAME CLASSROOMS, ITS HORSE STALLS, WELDING BOOTHS. TODAY, A MALL STANDS ON THE SITE.

GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS The old Troy Laundry stood at 431 S 600 East, barely a mile from the downtown center of Salt Lake City. Its two main buildings stretched almost half a block; behind them stood a disused old hayloft and stables from the days when the laundry made horse-drawn deliveries. In all, the property covered 3.65 acres.

“I guess we could convert the hayloft into classrooms and the stables into welding and auto body shops,” mused Howard Gundersen as he surveyed the setting. His companion, Jay Nelson, nodded. “We could fill in the manure troughs and use the horse stalls as welding booths.”

It was 1948. Utah’s State Board for Vocational Education had acquired a lease with a buy-out option on the Troy Laundry building to house the Salt Lake Area Vocational School (SLAVS). In February that year, the board had appointed Gundersen to set up and run the new school. Nelson was one of his first hires as treasurer/ registrar. The two had worked together during World War II in Utah’s War Production Training School program, which Gundersen had directed.

Arising from an urgent need for skilled labor during the war, the program was part of a nationwide initiative that led to the establishment of adult vocational schools across America, including in Utah and the Salt Lake Valley — the University of Utah and West High School both offered vocational training. With the end of the war, the program’s federal funding dried up, but in Utah and other states, the need for vocational training continued, fueled in part by the veterans flooding back home in search of jobs. When the U of U ceased offering vocational programs, and after several years West High School lost its funding, Salt Lake Valley was left with no place for would-be vocational students to go.

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“THE NEW PRESIDENT [HOWARD GUNDERSEN] HAD GAINED THE REPUTATION DURING THE WAR OF GOING FORWARD AT FULL STEAM.” JAY NELSON FORMER PRESIDENT

WITHOUT JAY NELSON’S DOGGED DETERMINATION TO BRING VOCATIONAL TRAINING TO THE COMMUNITY IN THE EARLY YEARS, THE SCHOOL WOULD NOT HAVE SURVIVED — AND THIS BOOK WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN WRITTEN.

IN 1948, UTAH’S STATE BOARD FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION NAMED HOWARD GUNDERSEN (LEFT) PRESIDENT OF SLAVS. HE ACCOMPLISHED THE IMPOSSIBLE, OPENING THE COLLEGE ON SCANT RESOURCES, BUT WAS GONE WITHIN A YEAR. HE WAS REPLACED BY ONE OF HIS FIRST HIRES, JAY NELSON (RIGHT), WHO WOULD RUN THE INSTITUTION UNTIL 1978.

8 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

chapter one the starvation years 9

ARISING FROM AN URGENT NEED FOR SKILLED LABOR DURING THE WAR, SLAVS WAS THE RESULT OF A NATIONWIDE INITIATIVE THAT LED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ADULT VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS ACROSS AMERICA.

ON SEPTEMBER 14, 1948, THE COLLEGE OPENED TO 246 STUDENTS IN 14 CLASSES.

BY YEAR’S END, THE STUDENT BODY HAD SWELLED TO 1,387 IN A MIX OF DAY PROGRAMS AND NIGHT CLASSES. SHOWN HERE: STUDENT BARBERS ON THE TROY LAUNDRY CAMPUS IN 1957.

10 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

In 1947, the State Vocational Board and numerous lobby groups succeeded in persuading Utah’s legislature to fund an adult school to meet the community’s need. The lease on the Troy Laundry followed, together with the rush to remodel the building; acquire the necessary supplies, materials and equipment (much of it donated by area high schools); develop training programs; hire faculty and administrative staff; and complete the countless details needed to set up SLAVS. The board told Gundersen he had seven months.

He was up to the task. “The new president had gained the reputation during the war of going forward at full steam,” Nelson remarked in his book, “The First Thirty Years.” Sure enough, the school opened its doors on September 14, 1948, with 246 students in 14 classes, from auto mechanics to dry cleaning, fashion design to welding, with another 25 vocational subjects approved pending resources.

The first days were chaotic, with instructors competing with the noise of construction and equipment installation still underway.

To save money on the hayloft conversion, contractors had built 8-foot-high partitions to create classrooms, even though the hayloft had 12-foot ceilings, which meant noise bled between classrooms and students couldn’t resist

throwing paper airplanes and wadded notes over top.

Registration was open to all over 16 years of age (including high school students, space permitting), with preference given to veterans — a primary reason for the school’s existence; the G.I. Bill paid their tuition and fees. Other students who might struggle to find the $80 per year fee ($910 in 2022 dollars) could pay in installments.

By the end of the first year, SLAVS — with 23 full-time faculty and 14 staff — had served a total of 1,387 students: 588 in day programs, the rest in evening classes. President Gundersen and his enthusiastic team had forgone overtime pay to launch the school and should have had reason to think the future was bright. Instead, they faced imminent collapse.

THE AXEMAN COMETH In 1949, the ninth governor of the state of Utah swept into office on a platform of economic restraint. J. Bracken Lee immediately set about cutting programs he thought were fiscally imprudent; education was a prime target. “We cannot afford the luxury of another educational system,” he declared and refused to support funding for the year-old vocational school or for a similar institution in Provo.

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FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II, AN URGENT NEED AROSE ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR SKILLED LABOR. ADULT VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS OPENED IN MANY CITIES TO MEET THAT NEED, AS SLAVS DID FOR THE SALT LAKE VALLEY IN DISCIPLINES SUCH AS NURSING, TAILORING, ELECTRONICS AND MORE.

The legislature ignored the governor’s attempt to scrap the school, instead approving a two-year appropriations bill, with $500,000 earmarked for SLAVS. Lee vetoed it.

This precipitated a political row. The State Vocational Board of Control, the superintendent of public instruction, veterans and labor organizations were quick to weigh in, arguing that the community’s need for trained workers could not be met without the school, and that the veto discriminated against veterans. Lee would not back down, although he did invite Gundersen to submit a trimmed-down budget, which he did. Again, the governor said no, refusing to grant a deficiency appropriation. While Lee did not have the power to close SLAVS outright, he could effectively starve it to death.

But the fight was not over. The Board of Control pushed back again, finding discretionary

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money to fund Gundersen’s new bare-bones budget. The school would be able to limp along for another two years, albeit with extreme belt tightening and some layoffs. Beyond that — with a hostile governor and no appropriation from the state government — there were no guarantees.

Amid this turmoil, Gundersen, with permission from the board, left for Germany for six months to advise the U.S. Army on vocational education. On his return in midSeptember 1949, he had a lucrative job offer in his pocket from Kennecott Copper as director of the mining company’s training operations.

As Nelson tactfully put it, “This excellent opportunity, coupled with the uncertainty of the continued operation of the school, influenced the president to accept the position.”

While Gundersen did offer to continue working part time at the school, the board wanted a leader who could devote all his energies to the crisis at hand. Gundersen stepped down, and in October 1949, the board named Nelson as acting president, giving him the full title at the end of December — and the task to guide the school through the financial storm.

So began the first of what Nelson aptly termed the “starvation years,” a two-year period during which the school had to find ways to exist without financial support from the state.

Opposition to SLAVS would last until 1957, when Gov. Lee’s second term came to an end.

chapter one the starvation years 13

JERRY TAYLOR (INSET, WITH HIS WIFE, EDNA) HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH SLCC FOR SIX DECADES, MOST RECENTLY THROUGH THE JERRY TAYLOR ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP, WHICH OVER THE YEARS HAS BENEFITED COUNTLESS STUDENTS, INCLUDING DAMIAN BARRIOS SAAVEDRA (RIGHT). SAAVEDRA, AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT FROM COSTA RICA, SAYS OF THE HONOR, “THIS SCHOLARSHIP HAS BEEN A BLESSING WITHOUT MEASURE. IT GIVES ME THE STRENGTH TO BUILD MY CONFIDENCE AND TELL MYSELF, ‘I CAN DO THIS.’”

A LIFETIME OF SUPPORT

Jerry Taylor has fond memories of the classrooms in the old Troy Laundry, the original downtown campus of Trade Tech, as the school became known in 1959. “It was all hardwood chairs and desks and really high ceilings,” he says. “We’re talking old-school. Nothing like the modern labs and classrooms they’ve got now.”

MY OWN BOSS After a stint in the U.S. military, Taylor signed up for night classes at Trade Tech in 1962. During the day he worked as an apprentice field electrician; two nights a week for the next four years he made the short trip to the school for apprentice training. “I was in a class with 20 to 25 other students. We were all in our early 20s, mostly seasoned people looking to raise our skill levels,” he says. “Great bunch of guys.

The instructors were the best too.”

When asked for a story about his student life, Taylor laughs. “About the only thing I remember from that time is we’d do three hours of lab work and then head out for a beer at a bar with go-go dancers to blow off steam.”

He passed his course at Trade Tech in 1966 and started working as a journeyman electrician for a Salt Lake City electrical contractor. By 1970, he had risen to electrical superintendent and found himself running jobs for the firm at Snowbird, one of Utah’s premier ski resorts in the Rocky Mountains. “I was up there for three or four years wiring concrete condominiums,” he says. “Then the company I was working for went bust, and I decided to go out on my own.”

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QUALITY SUPPORT In those early days at what would later become Taylor Electric — electrical contractors specializing in commercial and industrial buildings — it was just himself, a couple of apprentices and his mom, who did the books.

One day Taylor’s mother showed him an article in the newspaper about a student named Grant Marchant from his alma mater. “That’s the kind of young guy you need to hire,” she said. Marchant had won the state contest in electrical construction wiring for the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA, known as SkillsUSA today) and gone on to represent the college at the national contest, coming in second.

“His instructor later told me he would’ve come first if he’d worn hard-toe shoes instead of sneakers,” remarks Taylor.

He persuaded Marchant, who was then attending the University of Utah, to work for him on Saturdays. After several weeks, bad weather caused Taylor to suspend work for the day on the project Marchant was working on. Rather than send him home, Taylor brought the young fellow into his shop. “He was a bright kid, so I gave him a set of blueprints and showed him how to count light fixtures, outlets and all the other stuff, figuring that would keep him busy for the rest of the day. Two hours later, he’d got it all done. Whoa!” Marchant caught on so fast that after a few weeks, Taylor made him an estimator for his growing company. “He’s probably as good as or better than anyone in the business,” Taylor adds.

LEGACY That was the start of a long relationship between Taylor Electric and the college. Taylor stayed in touch with the instructors, who frequently sent him apprentices. “For four or five years they even had me judge the VICA contest. And we continue to employ graduates coming out of SLCC,” he says, adding that these days he’s retired, having handed over the reins to his son. Today, Taylor Electric boasts more than 250 employees and a firm place in the top ranks of Salt Lake City electrical contractors.

In retirement, Taylor has kept his strong ties to SLCC. In 2000, he funded the first of several scholarships at the college, now administered as the Jerry Taylor Endowed Scholarship under the Foundation Board scholarship program. “I love helping students get ahead who might otherwise not manage because of money,” he says. “And these kids — I get letters from them that just bring tears to my eyes. ‘I wouldn’t have had another year if I had not received your scholarship. I was broke.’

‘I couldn’t work enough hours to get money and still go to school’ …

I mean, story after story. It just motivates me to do more.”

For its part, SLCC in 1989 recognized Taylor’s success in building his business with a Distinguished Alumni Award. And in 2020, Jerry and his wife, Edna — who had a career in children’s television as Miss Julie on “Romper Room,” which ran on KSL-TV in the 1970s — were jointly honored by the college with an honorary doctorate of humane letters. ●

chapter one the starvation years 15

STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL Nelson wasted no time in mounting a campaign of ruthless economy in a bid for survival. He reviewed the viability of every program, charging instructors to recruit students or face closure.

He scrutinized every expenditure, raised tuition and tapped into every possible source of income.

The school curtailed evening classes and ran no summer session in 1950. During this difficult period, he noted, “All members of the staff and faculty exhibited a spirit of determination to operate the school in an exemplary fashion.”

No one received a pay raise.

The austerity measures seemed to pay off.

SLAVS even recorded a small surplus at the end of the 1949–50 school year. But the following year the crisis intensified. Projections clearly showed the school would run a deficit. Without money from the legislature, it would have to close by March 1951.

Nelson embarked on an intensive publicity campaign to garner support and to lobby the governor and legislators to approve deficit funding. The community rallied: the chamber of commerce, the various education boards, the University of Utah, union groups, and military and business leaders all added their voices, stressing the urgent need for vocational training at a time when the country was embroiled in the Korean War. Also on the table was an option to buy the school’s building, which was coming due. At $312,000, the purchase price was a

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bargain, supporters argued, since three years’ rent had already cost $110,000.

Gov. Lee was unimpressed, resisting funding requests for the school and deferring the decision to buy the building. He ran into opposition from the appropriations committee of the legislature, which recommended $275,000 for SLAVS in the coming budget, plus money for the vocational school in Provo. “Lee Loses 1st Round to Schools,” crowed a headline in the Deseret News on February 8, 1951.

The battle continued, with proposals, vetoes and counterproposals. When the dust settled, the school prevailed. Not only had the Utah legislature appropriated $37,550 to see SLAVS through the 1950–51 school year, it had also funded the school for the next two years — plus there was money allocated to buy the old Troy building.

The only fly in the ointment was the amount of the two-year appropriation. “They have shown that the vocational school can function properly without requiring the huge appropriation that was originally requested,” stated the governor in an address to the legislature, which duly cut funding to the bone.

As Nelson lamented in his book, the school’s success at running on a shoestring budget meant it would now have to manage with less than it had for either of the two previous starvation years. But manage it would.

09.14.1948 OPENING

264

STUDENTS

14

CLASSES

$

80

YEARLY FEE

($910 IN 2022 DOLLARS)

FROM THE MOMENT HE INHERITED THE MANTLE, PRESIDENT JAY NELSON FOUGHT FOR THE SURVIVAL OF THE COLLEGE, TIGHTENING COURSES, SCRUTINIZING EXPENSES, BOOSTING ATTENDANCE AND FUNDRAISING AT EVERY TURN. EVEN SO, SLAVS SEEMED FATED TO STALL BEFORE ITS FIFTH BIRTHDAY.

chapter one the starvation years 17

EVA VAN GERVEN, RICHARD TILT, TEDDY HIATT AND LYNN LISTON RIVET AND DRILL IN “SKINNING” ON AN AIRPLANE FUSELAGE. TO MODERN EYES, COURSES IN THE COLLEGE’S EARLY YEARS WERE WEIGHTED ALONG TRADITIONAL GENDER LINES, BUT FROM THE BEGINNING THERE WERE EXCEPTIONS IN EVERY FIELD.

FE ATURED FACULTY

KAREN KWAN PROFESSOR, PSYCHOLOGY

THE RISE OF GENERAL EDUCATION In the early days, students attended classes for six or eight hours, spent mostly in practical lab work: welding plates, rebuilding motors, dressing wounds — whatever their particular field required them to learn. They also received one classroom hour on theory delivered by their instructor. But something was missing.

Surveys of both students and employers in the community revealed a need for instruction in math, science, English, communications and other subjects useful to graduates once they were in the world of work. Related training, it was called back then. The problem was, who would teach these courses?

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With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy from the University of Utah, Karen Kwan serves both as a professor of psychology at SLCC and as a Utah State representative — the first Asian American in the Utah legislature. In 2014, SLCC recognized her outstanding work for the college by choosing her as its Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, an annual SLCC honor that culminates in a public presentation.

Kwan delivered an impassioned address on the bullying of Asian and Pacific American teens in Salt Lake, as well as student perspectives on how such oppressive behavior could be reduced. ●

chapter one the starvation years 19

“WE’RE SPLITTING AT THE SEAMS,” WARNS A 1959 BROCHURE, ADDING ON THE NEXT PAGE THAT “IT’S TIME TO BUILD NEW BUILDINGS AT THE SALT LAKE AREA VOCATIONAL SCHOOL.” THE COLLEGE HAD BECOME A VICTIM OF ITS OWN SUCCESS. AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR (WITH SCENES HERE FROM THE 1950s THROUGH THE ’70s) WAS A BIG DRAW FOR STUDENTS.

SPLITTING AT THE SEAMS By the mid-1950s the school had all but outgrown the converted Troy Laundry buildings, which were already in serious need of renovation when a boiler exploded in 1955.

During the inspection of the damage, a building and grounds committee member named Elmer Christensen commented that it was too bad the whole building hadn’t blown up: “It might have facilitated the acquisition of more adequate, modern facilities.” The governing board decided the $300,000 tab to bring the antiquated buildings up to par “would be throwing money

20 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

down the drain.” It authorized stopgap repairs, but the hunt was on for another campus site.

The postwar period in America was marked by a rapidly growing dependence on the automobile. It was also a time when many white middle- and working-class families abandoned inner cities, a trend historically known as “white flight.” Owning a car made it easier to move to the sprawling suburbs that were multiplying in many parts of the country, including the Salt Lake City area. More cars meant more skilled workers were needed to repair, service and paint them. SLAVS responded by ramping up its auto mechanics and auto body repair and painting courses. It was similar in other trades. Through advisory committees and other contacts with business and industry, the school kept tabs on the changing needs of the community, modifying and developing programs to meet them.

By 1959, the school had doubled in size to more than 2,000 students, with a waiting list as large as its enrollment. The school emphasized its need for more space, along with Utah’s growing skills requirements, in a brochure titled “We’re Splitting at the Seams,” which it delivered to the legislature.

With the strong support of the board, legislators responded by passing a bill allocating $200,000 for the purchase of an

initial 72 acres at 4600 S Redwood Road for future expansion. The land, with frontage on Redwood Road and 2200 West, was close to the population center of the valley, which was rapidly moving south. Over the next 12 years, further appropriations increased the size of the campus to 103 acres. The college would have to wait until 1967 before it could move to the new Redwood Campus.

The 1959 bill also changed the governance of the school. Since its inception, SLAVS’s governing authority had been the State Board of Vocational Training, which had originally put in place a board of control — consisting of representatives from all the high schools in the Salt Lake Valley — to oversee operations. At the time this made sense, because the school was seen as a center for high school vocational education. Eleven years later, it was clearly more of an adult educational institution, and legislators decided to uncouple the connection to high schools and give the board direct governance. To mark the change, they gave the school a more adult-sounding name: Salt Lake Trade Technical Institute — or Trade Tech, as it was affectionately known. As a former SLCC history professor, Ernest Randa, joked in his book, “Salt Lake Community College: A College on the Move,” it was no longer “a high school with ashtrays.”

chapter one the starvation years 21

LEARN TO EARN

What do a shot duck and a rubber dollar have in common? They were both early attempts to promote the school — and incidentally throw light on how times have changed.

GAG REEL President Nelson and his team put great stock in getting the message out about the programs they offered and the important role the school played in the life of the community. Until 1970, when Nelson hired Bryan Gardner as the first full-time public relations director, various administrative staff members stepped forward to tackle these promotional activities. They used every tool they could find, from course catalogs, posters and brochures to open houses, slideshows and even movies. Nelson rarely missed an opportunity to deliver a speech at vocational conferences, dedication ceremonies, civic clubs and, of course, the legislature, where he was frequently found lobbying for financial support.

The slogan “Learn to Earn” graced many a promotional piece into the 1970s. With its message of financial rewards for those with vocational skills, it was aimed mostly at prospective students. It was also the title of the school’s film debut, with a “massive” $1,200 budget authorized by the State Board for Vocational Education.

22 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

The 16 mm, color-and-sound motion picture “Learn to Earn” hit screens in 1952 to much fanfare. To today’s viewers, it looks hammy and dated, but it did a good job of showing high school students the college’s range of trades and professions.

The school staged a gala premier showing of the halfhour movie, complete with giant spotlights crisscrossing the sky over the theater. Staff and faculty put on stunts and skits for the delight of the crowd. Bernice Patterson, a tailoring and fashion design instructor, featured in one skit as a big-game hunter. Kitted out in safari gear, she was to fire a blank-loaded shotgun into the air and a duck was to fall onto the stage, cleaned, plucked and ready to cook. Things did not go entirely to plan. The gun went off and the duck did fall, but it landed on a pregnant woman in the front row. She was not seriously hurt, but as Nelson (groaningly) quipped, “The event started an untruthful rumor that she subsequently had triplets, which were Huey, Dewey and Louie.”

FUNNY MONEY Whether the rubber s-t-r-e-t-c-h dollar was Nelson’s idea or one of his staff’s, it was a great success as a promotional gimmick. A thin rectangle of rubber, it looked like a regular dollar bill, except for, as Nelson explained, “spoof drawings and words calculated to raise a laugh” on one side and a sales pitch for the college on the other. The idea was that attending the school would stretch your dollars — a riff on “Learn to Earn.”

The college gave away thousands of the stretch dollars — until the U.S. Treasury came calling. “Anything that could be mistaken for U.S. currency is illegal,” intoned the officious agent. Not willing to risk a fine or a federal hassle, the college public relations director pulled the successful promo. ●

FROM LEFT: AT THE GRAND PREMIER OF THE SCHOOL’S 1952 PROMOTIONAL FILM, “LEARN TO EARN,” INSTRUCTOR TURNED HUNTER-FOR-A-DAY BERNICE PATTERSON TAKES AIM AS PART OF A SKIT; THE SAME SLOGAN, CALLING FOR FINANCIAL GAIN THROUGH VOCATIONAL TRAINING, GRACED MANY A PR INITIATIVE WELL INTO THE ‘70S.

STUDENTS AT WORK IN THEIR VOCATIONAL STUDIES THEN AND NOW: SELECTING ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS FOR A HOUSE PROJECT AND OPERATING EQUIPMENT IN THE MACHINE SHOP, CIRCA 1957; MORE RECENTLY, STUDYING AN ANATOMY MODEL.

COLLEGE CHAMPIONS

THE CLASSROOM SPACE RACE When the Soviet Union put a satellite in orbit in 1957, it galvanized American political leaders into action. There was widespread concern that the USSR had moved ahead in the technological race between the superpowers. The country’s Cold War adversary had got one over on America.

The following year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act. Its goal was to boost America’s educational system to help the country compete with the USSR in science and technology. The act provided loans and grants to students in colleges and universities, including a provision called the Vocational Improvement program that targeted people with skills who happened to be on welfare. Of more significance to Trade Tech was the Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA) of 1962, which provided both training for unemployed people without skills and retraining for thousands of workers jobless because of automation and technological change.

24 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

The school taught 15 short-term courses with MDTA funds. Some, such as waitressing and stenography, lasted three months; others, like auto mechanics and auto repair, ran for a year. The school expanded its faculty considerably to manage the new course load.

The MDTA program brought in a flood of new students, and by 1965 the school was truly splitting at the seams. It was forced to rent three annexes in the city to accommodate the influx. One of the buildings, rented to conduct auto body repair and painting classes, was reputed to be a former brothel. Nelson reported that students taking the course came in for some ribbing. “Exactly what profession are you training for in that location?” they were asked.

By the end of the MDTA program in 1969, enrollment had more than doubled again to 5,400. Fortunately, by then the school had moved many of its programs to the new Redwood Campus.

THE DUMKE FOUNDATION In 1988, Kay and Zeke Dumke established the Katherine W. Dumke and Ezekiel R. Dumke Jr. Foundation “for the purpose of better and more thoughtful gift giving in the Intermountain area.” A generous donation from the foundation helped establish SLCC’s Dumke Center for STEM Learning. Opened in 2017 on the Taylorsville Redwood Campus, the 6,000-square-foot, state-of-theart resource center provides assistance to students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math. The foundation also added its financial support to the building of the $43 million Westpointe Workforce Training & Education Center, which opened in 2018. ●

chapter one the starvation years 25

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: THE REDWOOD CAMPUS OF UTAH TECHNICAL COLLEGE AT SALT LAKE, UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN 1970; STUDENTS DRAG DOWN A BARN TO MAKE WAY FOR THE NEW BUILDINGS, 1963; THE NORTH EXTERIOR OF THE AUTOMOTIVE TRADES BUILDING, 1967; THE JAY L. NELSON ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDING, MID-1970s.

OPERATION BIG MOVE The land for the Redwood Campus was purchased in 1959.

At the time it was hoped that classes could be held there by 1963, but the planning process took far longer than anticipated. There was still cause for celebration that year, though: the college held a dedication ceremony at the campus-to-be, inviting community leaders, educational representatives and the entire school staff, faculty and summer student body. A highlight of the event was the ceremonial demolition of a dilapidated barn, pulled down by teams of students hauling on ropes attached to the barn’s supports.

The first building at Redwood, the heating plant, went up in 1964, followed by the administration and classroom building in early 1967, with space for 700 students. During spring break that March, President Nelson oversaw Operation Big Move: the wholesale transfer of the school’s administrative offices and eight departments to the new building.

The move coincided with another legislated change in name, to one deemed more appropriate for the growing school, now with two campuses. Trade Tech was history.

When classes resumed on March 16, 1967, at Redwood, they were held at Utah Technical College at Salt Lake.

chapter one the starvation years 27

EXPANDING HORIZONS

Anne Erickson, who joined the college in 1967, spent much of her illustrious career advancing the role of women in higher education.

A DIFFERENT TIME “There were very few women teaching when I started at the college,” she remembers. “I was hired as part of the Manpower Development and Training Act program to teach secretarial training to women who wanted to get back into the workforce. Then I found myself standing up in front of a classroom of men in the trades, teaching them math — guys not too much younger than me — which was quite an experience. I could tell by the look on their faces that they doubted I knew what I was talking about, just because I was a woman.”

As Erickson tells it, women in higher education — and in Utah society in general — experienced gender discrimination regularly during this period. It drove her to strive for equal opportunities for women throughout her career. To this end, she joined the American Association for Women in Community Colleges, the Utah Consortium for Women in Higher Education, the International Women’s Forum of Utah and numerous other similar professional organizations. “It was a conscious effort, on my part, because I feel strongly, and have done from the time I was very young, that women were being overlooked,” she says.

“Fortunately, things have improved, but Utah still has a reputation of being one of the worst places for women and equality in the country.”

A NUMBERS GAME In the late 1970s, Erickson attended a conference at Mills College in Oakland, California, called Expanding Your Horizons (EYH). “The goal

28 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

of those national conferences is for professional women to make presentations to high school girls to encourage them to explore careers in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math,” she says. “I vividly remember flying home thinking, ‘We’ve got to get this conference in Utah!’”

Together with like-minded friends and colleagues, Erickson founded the Utah Math Science Network in 1979. For many years, it sponsored STEM events like the EYH conference. “That’s one of the things I’m proud of,” she says, adding that she’s pleased to see that SLCC has been hosting the conference in recent years with superb results. Since 2013, SLCC’s EYH conferences have drawn more than 2,500 attendees — a record 540 girls in 2016. That year, keynote speaker U of U chemist Luisa Whittaker-Brooks won the hearts of attendees with an inspiring story of her childhood struggles in Panama. And in 2018, they were wowed by Gretchen McClain, former NASA chief director of the International Space Station program, on whose watch the ISS was built (outpacing the USSR to do so).

Erickson advanced her career at SLCC from professor to associate dean to various deanships to academic vice president, a position she held from 1988 to 1997. A former Foundation Board member, she now holds emeritus status at the college.

Looking back over her long career, she is encouraged to see the progress her fight to improve the role of women has made. “It’s been three steps forward and one back, but we’re in a much better place than we were years ago.” ●

ANNE ERICKSON (INSET, IN BLUE JACKET) WAS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE PUSH TO BRING STEM (SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, MATH) TO MORE GIRLS BEFORE AND DURING COLLEGE, THROUGH EVENTS LIKE EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS (RIGHT). A RECORD 560 YOUNG GIRLS FROM DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS ATTENDED THE 2016 EDITION OF THE CONFERENCE.

29

chapter two

GROWING PAINS

GEORGE BRINGHURST, AN INSTRUCTOR AT SLAVS AND THEN SLCC FOR 30 YEARS (AND A MEMBER OF THE MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR FOR 15), OPERATES AN AUTOMATIC CUTTING MACHINE WHILE STUDENT ALVIN YOUNG OBSERVES, CIRCA 1950s.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? As early as 1959, the educational boards in Utah had discussed the pros and cons of setting up a junior college in Salt Lake Valley. Junior colleges had been around in America since the turn of the 20th century. Offering twoyear academic courses to prepare students for university, they were intended to catch those who might otherwise not have continued their education after high school. As community colleges arose to meet the needs of the communities where they were located, the two models overlapped. Community colleges, offering both academic programs and vocational job training, began to grant two-year degrees, and numerous junior colleges added vocational programs. In states like Utah, which had no history of junior colleges but had vocational schools set up during or after World War II, the push to convert them to community colleges was more of a struggle.

Utah Tech seemed to many an ideal candidate to convert from technical school to community college. As Nelson remarked wistfully, “The idea was continually reintroduced and hotly debated.” Like many others in the school and the business and trade communities at the time, he strongly opposed any move to expand Utah Tech’s role beyond that of its vocational mission, fearing a loss of focus and a subsequent decline in technical education, for which demand was only increasing.

The conversion debate caught fire again in 1965, after the Utah Coordinating Council of Higher Education published a report that concluded that a junior college was indeed needed in the Salt Lake Valley, and that Utah Tech (or Salt Lake Trade Technical Institute, as it still was then) should become part of this new college. The Utah Legislative Council struck a committee to study the issue. Various sources, including several trades councils and manufacturing associations, joined Nelson in vigorous opposition, while the presidents of several Utah colleges spoke in favor. Discussions continued throughout the year with no conclusion.

Meanwhile, thanks to the postwar baby boom, enrollment soared at Utah’s schools of higher education, including Trade Tech, along with waiting lists for vocational training courses. As a result, the pressure to merge the school with a junior college faded. When legislators renamed it the Utah Technical College at Salt Lake in 1967, its status as a vocational training school seemed assured.

31

AT HEART WAS THE SAME OLD DEBATE: SHOULD THE INSTITUTION STAY PRIMARILY TECHNICAL– VOCATIONAL OR SHOULD IT TRANSITION TO A COMMUNITY COLLEGE?

ALUMNI WHO HAVE MADE THEIR ALMA MATER PROUD. FROM LEFT: DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD HONOREES ANGELA BROWN AND MANOLI KATSANEVAS IN FRONT OF THEIR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES; FORMER ALUMNI LEADERSHIP COUNCIL PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEE EMERITUS SHAWN NEWELL, WHO WAS ALSO BESTOWED WITH THE SAME HONOR.

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FAMILY FOREVER

THE 25 PERCENT SOLUTION The 1967 legislation proclaiming the school’s new name also spoke to its primary mission.

“Vocational and technical courses … shall comprise not less than three-fourths of all courses taught at the college,” it ruled, adding that the remaining 25 percent, which it called related training, should be limited to “courses of a general nature necessary in vocational education fields and which can be transferred to academic institutions.” It also gave the college the authority to grant associate’s degrees in applied science. (Associate’s degrees in arts and science had to wait another decade.)

Courses in related training, later called general education, had begun in earnest in the 1958–59 school year. Like all educational programs, these were offered in terms of clock hours rather than credit hours. Responding to recommendations from the Northwest Accrediting Association, the college changed to a credit hour system, which meant students could now transfer credits to other institutions where permitted. Likewise, students transferring to Utah Tech could obtain credit for courses taken at other institutions.

The college also amended its schedule in the 1969–70 school year to four quarters of equal length, bringing it more in line with other twoyear institutions in the state.

While based on the need for accreditation, these changes were also prompted by the growth of general education at the college. By 1968 students could take technical writing, vocational civics, blueprint reading, human relations and many other related instruction classes, as well as basic classes in math, communications, English, science and safety. The basic programs were offered at several levels, some of which were transferable to four-year institutions.

“While Jay Nelson always worried about the impacts on vocational programs caused by the

growth of general education, he had the vision to realize that the college had to answer the needs of those in the community who were looking for a more affordable education,” says Judd Morgan, past interim president, who joined the school in 1976. Morgan adds that in the beginning, it was a battle to persuade four-year colleges to accept their credits. “They viewed us as the second cousin that didn’t know how to teach appropriately. We had to work to win credibility, which we soon did. Nowadays we transfer credits back and forth with no problem.”

As the 1970s progressed, the demand for general education further increased, and the college added courses such as chemistry, sociology and economics. Some students were even taking general education courses exclusively. This growth bumped up against the 25 percent limit on academic education.

As Ernest Randa noted in his college history book, Utah Tech “became adept at creative statistics and class nomenclature to cover the uncomfortable fact that students were primarily interested in transfer classes.”

This did not go unnoticed. In 1974, Utah Tech and its sister technical college at Provo received a rap on the knuckles from Utah’s Advisory Council for Vocational Education for flouting the 75/25 rule. As Nelson pointed out, “The council was of the opinion that funds were being expended unnecessarily on general education and should be used to start new trade

and technical programs.” This precipitated a two-year debate among faculty, education boards, legislators, students and community representatives. In the end, the state board pressed the college to make changes to bring it into compliance with the law.

But the issue was not going away. At heart was the same old debate: should the institution stay primarily technical–vocational or should it transition to a community college? In Nelson’s words, “It will be raised continually by the various constituencies of the community and will undoubtedly be discussed and debated in the years ahead.”

The requirement to maintain vocational education at 75 percent remained in law until 1987, when the college became Salt Lake Community College, although as Randa notes, “its provisions were quietly evaded by teaching mostly college-prep courses under vocationalsounding names.”

A note on college governance: In 1978, the state legislature vested control of the school in the Utah State Board of Regents. Prior to that time, there was a confusing system of dual governance by the State Board for Vocational Education (for day-to-day management) and the State Board of Higher Education (finances, curriculum and capital facilities). Over time, the former board became the Institutional Council, which in 1992 was renamed the Salt Lake Community College Board of Trustees.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD Since 1963, the college has presented the Distinguished Alumni Award to graduates who have risen to a high level of achievement in their career and in the community. It is the highest alumni award recognized by the college.

GRADUATES OF EXCELLENCE AWARD Chosen from each of the college’s schools, recipients have demonstrated high academic achievement, leadership skills and a dedication to serving others.

RISING STAR ALUMNI AWARD New in 2022, the Rising Star Alumni Award recognizes SLCC alumni who show noteworthy achievement and strong community service early in their careers. ●

chapter two growing pains 33

PRESIDENT JAY NELSON ORATES AT A FACULTY APPRECIATION DINNER. NELSON WAS SO INVOLVED IN THE COLLEGE THAT, FOR DECADES, HE WAS SYNONYMOUS WITH SLAVS.

NELSON’S COLLEGE

From the time he took up the reins as the second president in 1949 to his retirement in 1978, Jay Nelson ran the school with military precision.

TOP BRASS Nelson’s success in keeping the school alive in the early starvation years through a combination of internal micromanagement, intensive political lobbying and the courting of favorable publicity set a pattern that repeated across his presidency. His top-down administrative style, in particular, led many under him to compare Nelson to a military leader. “He ran a real tight ship,” said Neal Grover, a faculty member since 1964.

“On Saturday, he came around with his entourage and checked everything out. It was a lot like the military.”

On his watch, bells were rung for assemblies and classes, keys to shops were returned after class, roll calls were taken and there was a strict dress code for faculty.

These procedures continued when the school moved to the Redwood Campus — until one instructor, Parker Pratt, pointed out their impracticality at the more spread-out campus. “Pratt was nominated for the Nobel Prize,” joked Tom Ellison, graphic arts professor.

34 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

Nelson made every significant administrative decision, reviewed all major expenditures, made all final hiring decisions and kept close tabs on the quality of instruction and the physical state of the school. Out in the community, he became so closely identified with the college that the two were almost synonymous.

Nelson’s top-down approach meant the school was highly dependent on his leadership. When he stepped down, he left an administration with few established procedures or clear lines of authority, other than those up to the president — a deficit that needed swift remedy.

LAUGHING WITH YOU Nelson enjoyed a joke and often had several prepared for faculty meetings. When he retired, the college gave the grand old patriarch a fine send-off at a gala banquet at the Salt Lake Hilton before 550 attendees. The event coincided with the third recognition awards ceremony, a program set up by Nelson to honor faculty and staff with long-service awards. Always a bit of a showman, on such occasions Nelson would conclude his introductory remarks by lighting an “eternal candle” to symbolize Utah Tech’s continuing public support and acclaim. On this night as he lit the candle, he was surprised by PR Director Ron Ollis, who rushed on stage and presented him with a Liberace candelabra, much to the delight of the audience. More surprises followed, including congratulatory letters from President Jimmy Carter and comedian and actor George Burns — the latter considered an even higher power thanks to his title role in the previous year’s hit film “Oh, God!” Nelson never lost his sense of humor. He was well into his 90s when he was awarded an honorary doctorate from SLCC. On that special day in 1988, he began his acceptance speech by noting, “Old college presidents do not die, they just lose their faculties.” ●

PRACTICALLY SINCE ITS INCEPTION, SLCC HAS SOUGHT TO BALANCE TRAINING FOR VOCATIONS LIKE WIRING AND WELDING WITH A BROADER EDUCATION.

BRIDGES TO BE BUILT The influx of new faculty to teach general education courses fundamentally changed the college. They brought with them attitudes, academic experience and educational credentials that differed significantly from those of their vocational and technical colleagues. One outcome was a self-perpetuating growth in general education: ideas for new academic classes sprang from the interests and backgrounds of the new faculty and were often popular with students. Another effect saw an increase in the assertiveness of the faculty.

Teachers coming from colleges and universities in which faculty had a say in hiring, tenure and departmental budgets lobbied for similar powers at Utah Tech.

Almost inevitably there were ructions between vocational and academic faculty.

Across the country, wherever junior and technical colleges transitioned to community colleges, these institutional growing pains were commonplace. At Utah Tech, some vocational faculty feared losing funding and status to academic programs. “All of a sudden, we began hiring people who were taking the money and using it in programs that weren’t vocational ed: English, biology, chemistry — programs that would transfer to other colleges,” recalls Morgan. Others resented the pay grid that rewarded those with formal degrees. “It took some missionary work, if you will, to smooth the feathers of the vocational faculty.”

36 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

There was another effect. As the academic faculty grew, so too did internal support to become a community college. That was not going to happen with Nelson as president.

But the seed was sown.

A RISING TIDE Funding for MDTA programs, which were developed to offer vocational skills training to the unemployed and disadvantaged, ceased in 1969. The Utah Manpower Council took up the slack by establishing programs in several locations the next year, including Utah Tech.

These were combined six months later into the Skills Center, which the Utah Board for Vocational Education decided should be located at Utah Tech. But first the college needed to agree. It formed a committee of administrators and faculty to discuss the issue.

The Skills Center was voted into the college, and in 1972 it was given a permanent home on the old downtown campus. Starting with 210 students, by 1978 it boasted more than 2,000. It continued its mission of offering open entry/open exit courses designed to provide basic vocational skills to students who might otherwise not attend college up into the 2000s, when its programs were merged into the School of Applied Technology.

chapter two growing pains 37

THE EAST–WEST DIVIDE

When the Salt Lake Area Vocational School was established in 1948, the Salt Lake Valley was clearly divided east from west along racial and socioeconomic lines. On the east side were white, formally educated middle- and upper-class families; the west was ethnically more diverse, working class and less formally educated.

High schools in the east offered little vocational training but full college-prep courses. For west-side schools the reverse was true: a wide variety of vocational training and few academic courses.

Until the civil rights movement, this east–west divide was reinforced by racially restrictive housing covenants, common in many American cities at the time. Some east-side neighborhoods prohibited house sales to non-Caucasians.

Politically, Salt Lake City’s government system of at-large commissioners effectively meant the wealthier, more educated east side dominated. For decades, there were no west-side commissioners: few residents could afford the expense of a political campaign. As a result, the east got the funds for new school buildings and

38 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

well-lit, well-maintained streets; the west boasted few or no new facilities and infrastructure improvements. By the mid-1980s, students were being bussed from bursting west-side schools to empty classrooms in the east.

The socioeconomic division of the Salt Lake Valley began to break down in the late 1960s. The west side saw growth in more middle-class housing; its largely working-class population became more interspersed with the white middle class who were moving in. With the development of the Redwood Campus in Taylorsville, and later the Jordan Campus, SLCC played a significant role in reconciling the two sides. The importance that student equity, diversity and inclusion was to play in the college’s future has its roots in the old east–west divide. ●

FROM RIGHT: THE VIEW LOOKING SOUTH FROM DOWNTOWN SALT LAKE CITY, CIRCA 1948; FROM THE SAME ERA, AN EXHIBIT EXTOLLING SLAVS.

THE REDWOOD CAMPUS COMES TO LIFE. CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: CONSTRUCTION OF THE $5 MILLION BUSINESS BUILDING BREAKS GROUND; STUDENTS WORK ON ASSIGNMENTS IN A DRAFTING CLASS IN THE CONSTRUCTION TRADES BUILDING; A MECHANIC USES COMPRESSED AIR TO CLEAN A MOTORCYCLE ENGINE IN THE AUTOMOTIVE BUILDING.

A GROWING CAMPUS The late 1960s saw extensive development of the Redwood Campus. During the 1965 session, the Utah legislature granted Utah Tech $2.5 million to construct several buildings on its new campus. Shortly after Operation Big Move in 1967, the machine shop and welding departments relocated from the downtown campus to the newly opened metal trades building. And in 1968, the college made a big public splash with the opening of the automotive building. Students from area high schools, representatives from the automotive industry and hundreds of area residents came to tour the new facilities.

More state funds flowed to the college in 1970 and 1971 to construct the technology building, a state-of-the-art facility boasting an instructional media center, a 325-seat auditorium, classrooms and laboratories for all manner of technological courses. At the building’s dedication in December 1972, the highlight of the show was a large sign with 100 flashbulbs designed to spell out “Technology Moves On.” At the critical moment, J. Campbell, the assistant superintendent, tripped the switch … and nothing happened. There was much joking afterward, with the college

40 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

COLLEGE CHAMPIONS

attributing the fault to the switch being thrown by an academician rather than a technician. A local radio station presented the college with its Lemon Award to mark the occasion. At the graduation ceremonies the following year, the college renamed the building the Calvin L. Rampton Technology Building. The governor of Utah, who was in attendance, was delighted at the honor. There was no attempt to redeploy the flashbulb sign.

Since 1956, student leaders and alumni had dreamed of having a student union building at the school. That year, they presented Nelson with a check for $310 to be put into a trust fund for a future building and proposed a building fee be added to tuition fees. Over the years, the fund grew, and in 1964, the president formed a committee to make the dream a reality. It took another decade and a top-up from the sale of revenue bonds before the College Center opened its doors to the student body on the Redwood Campus. It was renamed the Student Center in 1987. The Construction Trades Building came along in 1977, and before Nelson’s long term in office came to a close, the development of the $5 million Business Building on Redwood Road was well underway.

JESSELIE AND SCOTT ANDERSON Deeply engaged in community affairs, Jesselie and Scott Anderson have lent their support to a range of SLCC initiatives over the years. These span programming, scholarships, cultural enrichment activities and campus facilities. By virtue of her long-standing service on the SLCC Board of Trustees and the Utah Board of Higher Education, Jesselie has been a true champion for the college and its students. She was instrumental in the initial planning of the college’s Washington, DC, internship program and the new Herriman Campus. Her husband, Scott, president and CEO of Zions Bank, has perennially supported the Gail Miller Utah Leadership Cup, a golf tournament that doubles as the primary fundraising event for student scholarships. Together, the Andersons also founded the Bridge Builder Scholarship program. ●

chapter two growing pains 41

THE INITIAL 72 ACRES OF THE REDWOOD CAMPUS WERE PURCHASED AFTER APPROPRIATING $200,000 ON JANUARY 1, 1959. TODAY THE TAYLORSVILLE REDWOOD CAMPUS HOUSES MANY FACILITIES, AS WELL AS THE ECCLES CHILD DEVELOPMENT LAB SCHOOL, THE STUDENT CENTER, THE DUMKE STEM CENTER, THE MARKOSIAN LIBRARY AND MUCH MORE.

THE STUDENT BODY SHOP

BRETT BAIRD (RIGHT) GRADUATED FROM THE AUTOMOTIVE PROGRAM IN 1975, WORKED IN INDUSTRY, THEN RETURNED TO HIS ALMA MATER TO TEACH. HIS CLASS WORKS HERE ON A CAR DONATED BY THE FORD MOTOR CO. AS PART OF THE SCHOOL’S FORD ASSET PROGRAM.

Car problems on campus? Take it to Utah Tech’s automotive repair folks. They’d love to get your motor running. Great learning experience too!

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE Brett Baird, longtime automotive technology instructor, remembers when he enrolled at Utah Tech in 1973 to learn about fixing cars. “The instructors in the automotive program were awesome. Each had industry experience in one area of expertise and taught a class just in that area, instead of trying to cover every automobile system. As a result, they were all on the cutting edge of their specialty.” Class sizes were capped at 18 students, allowing them ample one-on-one time with the instructor.

They spent about 20 percent of their time on classroom studies and 80 percent in labs. “And it was real live experience,” says Baird.

“Students, faculty or staff who had a vehicle needing an automotive repair that fit the curriculum could bring it into the labs and we’d diagnose and repair it. You couldn’t get better lab experience than that.”

HOLY MOSES! During his two years as a student, Baird recalls how he and his classmates formed tight bonds and how they jockeyed to sign up for the best instructors. “A bunch of us were determined to take engine repair next quarter from Ray Southwick, who had a fabulous reputation.” At the time, you could challenge a course, which meant if you already knew the subject you just took the final exam. “Nobody ever challenged Mr. Southwick’s courses,” says Baird. “They were so comprehensive. Besides, he was a bit intimidating. He looked and sounded like Charlton Heston in ‘The Ten Commandments.’”

44 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

The group trooped down to the classroom where Southwick was lecturing and lined up outside the open door. They needed his signature to register. The instructor ignored them for a good 10 minutes. Eventually, Southwick looked over at Baird and the other hopeful students. “What can I do for you guys?” he asked in his authoritative voice.

Baird stepped into the classroom. “Well, we want to know where the line starts to challenge your course,” he said with a cheeky grin.

Southwick reddened. “So you want to challenge my course, do ya?” he boomed menacingly. “I’ll give you a test you’ll never forget.”

“No, no, no. We’re just kidding, just kidding,” Baird said quickly, to general chuckling from the class.

Southwick raised his arms as if he was parting the Red Sea, and the laughter instantly died. Turning back to Baird, his fierce look broke into a grin as he acknowledged the joke. “After that, he was happy to sign our registration forms,” laughs Baird.

DREAM JOB When he graduated from Utah Tech in 1975, Baird walked straight into a career with a local automotive company, as did most of his classmates.

For 14 years he rose through the company, ending up in corporate training before seizing an opportunity to teach at SLCC in the automotive program, which he did until his retirement at the end of 2020. “It was kind of a tough decision to retire,” he says. “I’m a very fortunate person because I was able to get up and go to work at my dream job every day for 31 and a half years.” ●

“HE WAS A STRAIGHT SHOOTER WHO GAVE IT HIS ALL. THE COLLEGE, IN MY MIND, IS THE COLLEGE BECAUSE OF JAY NELSON.” JUDD MORGAN FORMER INTERIM PRESIDENT

THE FACE OF THE COLLEGE AND AN INVETERATE PRANKSTER, JAY NELSON WAS NEVER AFRAID OF A STAGED PROMO SHOT IF IT HELPED ADVANCE THE INSTITUTION.

46 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

THE END OF AN ERA After 30 years at the college, 28 as president, Jay L. Nelson submitted his resignation on February 16, 1978. Reading between the lines in his book, “The First Thirty Years,” it’s clear he was reluctant to go, having to bow to the retirement policy of the State Board for Vocational Education.

His legacy is clear: without his dogged determination to fight for funding to deliver vocational training to the community in those early years, the school would not have survived — and this book would never have been written.

Judd Morgan remembers a leader who had a great love of the college. “He was a straight shooter who gave it his all. The college, in my mind, is the college because of Jay Nelson.”

Over the years, Nelson presided over a vibrant and growing college. From converted horse barns and make-do equipment, the college soon boasted technical facilities comparable to industry. Its trade-prep programs expanded from 16 in 1948 to 43 in 1978, not including the numerous Skills Center programs. Then there was the development of numerous general education courses, many transferable to other institutions. Over the same period, headcount figures kept by Nelson recorded an almost tenfold growth in the student population, surpassing 11,000 in his final year.

Under his tight personal control, the school delivered on its mission. “During most years, well over 90 percent of its graduates found jobs in the area of their training,” Randa noted.

He added that Nelson left the college as an established part of Utah’s education system.

“No legislature, governor or interest group could contemplate defunding the school or dispersing its functions to other places.”

During his tenure, Nelson defiantly held back the forces propelling the school toward a future as a community college. From his perspective, he had the best interests of the college — and the community — at heart. In his letter of resignation, he pleaded one last time that those who follow him resist the community college temptation. “It is my personal philosophy that Utah Technical College at Salt Lake should be perpetuated as a two-year technical college.

In spite of our good intentions and strong desires, we are not meeting the need for trained craftsmen in the state of Utah. Until we are able to meet the objectives for which the school was established, it is my view that all academic concepts of the traditional community college should not be incorporated.”

It would take almost a full decade and three more administrations before his vision was reversed.

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

BOB ASKERLUND ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT EMERITUS, FACILITIES SERVICES

During his 32 years at Salt Lake Community College, Bob Askerlund was steadfast in his dedication to the campuses, facilities and buildings across the valley — all spaces that transform lives integral to the college community. And he applied himself with a winning demeanor that reflected his firm belief in SLCC’s larger mission. ●

chapter two growing pains 47

A PORTRAIT OF LEADERSHIP Over 75 years, SLCC has seen only eight presidents and three interim presidents.

HOWARD GUNDERSEN 1948–1949

JAY L. NELSON

H. LYNN CUNDIFF

1949–1978

2000–2003

FRANK W. BUDD

JUDD D. MORGAN (INTERIM)

2003–2005

DENEECE G. HUFTALIN

1991–2000

2013–PRESENT

DALE S. COWGILL 1978–1980

JAMES SCHNIREL

HEBER HUNT (INTERIM)

1990

(INTERIM)

1980

ORVILLE CARNAHAN 1981–1990

CYNTHIA BIOTEAU 2005–2013

“THE FUTURE IS NOT SOMEPLACE WE ARE GOING TO, BUT ONE WE ARE CREATING. THE PATHS TO IT ARE NOT FOUND, BUT MADE; AND THE ACTIVITY OF MAKING THEM CHANGES BOTH THE MAKER AND THE DESTINATION.” JOHN H. SCHAAR AMERICAN POLITICAL THEORIST AND FUTURIST

PART 2

A COLLEGE FOR THE COMMUNITY 1978–2000

chapter three

YOU SAY YOU WANT AN EVOLUTION?

WITH THE ARRIVAL OF DALE COWGILL IN 1978, THE COLLEGE SOUGHT TO ENHANCE ITS TEACHING EXCELLENCE IN BOTH THE VOCATIONS AND IN GENERAL EDUCATION, WHICH HAD FIRST ARISEN AS “RELATED TRAINING” WAY BACK IN 1958. GENERAL EDUCATION INCLUDED TRIGONOMETRY AND ALGEBRA, AS SHOWN HERE (NOTE THE STUDENT’S SLIDE RULE).

A NEW DIRECTION Dale S. Cowgill assumed the office of president of Utah Tech on October 16, 1978. Formerly the dean of technology at Weber State College, Cowgill represented a marked change from his predecessor. Not only did he bring a looser management style, he also championed the transformation to a community college — qualities the search committee considered essential.

One of Cowgill’s first and most controversial innovations was to reorganize the college’s administrative structure. Students were given the highest priority; faculty and staff who worked directly with students next; administrators and indirect staff were given third priority. The office of the president was to support all levels.

“Some people found it hard to understand this flat organizational structure,” says Judd Morgan. “But it worked for me. I could maneuver through it and have success.”

On the educational front, Cowgill promoted several forward-thinking ideas, including educational research to improve teaching. Teachers who were keeping up with their field and incorporating new ideas into their curriculum were essentially conducting research, and that should be recorded. He believed the college had a duty to preserve and transmit knowledge, and to develop new knowledge. He introduced the concept of “master teachers,” who, in his words, were “those who master both their subject matter and the art and science of teaching.” They would be paid more and expected to teach not only students but also other teachers. In his view, there were already some on faculty who were capable of taking on this role. There were definitely some who were skeptical of these ideas. As Randa wrote, “President Cowgill himself was clear on what he meant by master teachers, but the idea was not communicated adequately to all faculty, and some faculty may have used incomprehension to avoid an uncomfortable subject.”

53

His ideas on master teachers and educational research may have been unpopular at the time, but like many of his innovations, they were taken up later. In the 1990s, under President Frank Budd, the college embraced the idea of master teachers and set up the Faculty Teaching & Learning Center to promote educational research and help faculty become better teachers.

Cowgill never saw the fruits of his labors.

These programs hardly got started before he was forced to resign. Suffice to say, it was clear that the new broom was encountering resistance in the corners.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY Perhaps Cowgill’s best remembered innovation was his foray into strategic planning, a first for the school. Made up of 34 members from all areas of the college, the Committee on Development had three functions: “To define the college’s place in the world, to find better ways to administer the college, and to introduce new teaching innovations and improvements.”

The committee quickly became known as Codfish, a nickname encouraged by the president to remind team members to use their power wisely lest they become too self-important.

“Codfish are very ugly creatures who yield that hated dosage called codfish oil,” he remarked.

“Indeed, some of what we were going to do would be seen as fishy to some because they had never heard of such things before.”

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Cowgill liked to quote futurist John Schaar to the committee so they would better understand the philosophy behind their activities. “The future is not someplace we are going to, but one we are creating,” he’d say. His vision was that the college could define its own future by understanding global trends and adapting accordingly. Codfish, with its collaborative chorus of the best minds in the college, was the vehicle to realize this vision. But it was not to be. While the committee indeed worked to fulfill its mandate, Cowgill’s time at the college was cut short and the committee’s ambitious plans shelved.

Codfish did produce a final report that detailed its predictions of worldwide trends and how the role of the college should change in response. Three stand out as prescient:

• •

•

The college will become a more integral part of the community.

As population density increases in this area, the size and location of settlements will lead to less centralized college facilities on multiple campuses, with more emphasis on the needs of the individual areas they serve.

Minorities will play an important part in the development of the college.

Attitude changes toward minorities should be developed throughout the college.

PRESIDENT COWGILL BELIEVED THE COLLEGE HAD A DUTY TO PRESERVE AND TRANSMIT KNOWLEDGE, AND TO DEVELOP NEW KNOWLEDGE.

DALE S. COWGILL SERVED AS PRESIDENT FOR ONLY TWO YEARS (1978–1980), BUT HIS EARLY AND FAR-SIGHTED THINKING ON THE ROLE OF THE COLLEGE HAD ENDURING EFFECTS.

chapter three You Say You Want an Evolution? 55

STUDENT LIFE THROUGH THE YEARS

Students involved in the college today, whether through clubs, student government, sports or just the daily experience of life on SLCC’s many campuses, may well boggle at what it was like for earlier generations.

Student leaders in smart blazers, ties, slacks and dresses? Student clubs set up and run by faculty advisors with little input from members? Until the 1970s, that was the norm.

A DIFFERENT ERA In the early years, students had less time and inclination to get involved outside the classroom. As students at a vocational school, they were there to “learn to earn”; the focus was on the outside world of work they were training for. Unlike in more academic settings, there was little interest in debating ideas and promoting causes. The school was a commuter college: with social lives and families waiting at home, students had less incentive to get involved with on-campus events.

There were no intercollegiate sports until the late 1980s.

While SLCC today is still primarily a commuter college, its curriculum has become more academic, it boasts a number of men’s and women’s sports teams and its student population has become more interested in campus social life.

56 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

CAMPUS CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS HAVE LONG HELPED STUDENTS FORM LIFELONG BONDS. HERE, 1962 STUDENT BODY OFFICERS (FRONT ROW) RAY VAN TASSELL AND DAVID POTTER, AND (BACK ROW) SHERRI KINGSTON, TEERA JENSEN, SUSAN JOLLEY AND BOBBIE JOHNSON.

THERE’S NO LONGER A RODEO CLUB AT SLCC (BOTTOM LEFT), BUT ON THE PLUS SIDE, TODAY STUDENTS CAN START AND RUN CLUBS ON THEIR OWN. HERE: CHEMISTRY (TOP LEFT) AND LUCHA (LATINX/AS/OS UNITED FOR CHANGE AND ACTIVISM).

GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE Ever since the first classes in 1948, there has been student government at the school. Elected through classroom ballots in the early years, student-body officers organized extracurricular activities such as parties, dances, assemblies, athletics, awards and publications under the watchful eye of faculty advisors, very much as in high school.

By the time the school moved to the Redwood Campus and became Utah Technical College in 1967, student government had matured into something more recognizable today, with more status and with studentspecific issues of more concern. Officers also had their own student government offices for the first time in the Nelson Administration Building. Today, the SLCC Student Association serves and advocates for students through a number of offices located at student centers on the Taylorsville Redwood, South City and Jordan campuses.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB As he did with everything else during his presidency, Jay Nelson kept tight control over student clubs, often personally assigning staff or faculty advisors to oversee them. Advisor meetings to discuss club activities were held with no members present, and often the push to form a club came from above rather than from the students themselves.

Nelson encouraged the development of student clubs, often promoting them at orientations at the beginning of the school year. At one such event, he spied the president of the Rodeo Club in the audience and called him up on stage. “What President Nelson didn’t know was that Shorty had been in an accident a few days before school started,” related Earl Bartholomew, chairman of the business department.

58 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

“So Shorty got up, he had a bandage around his head, one arm in a sling, a brace around his neck, another on one leg and was using crutches.” As he hobbled up to the stage, the audience went wild. “All the faculty and students were laughing like crazy and wondering if Rodeo Club was one activity to bypass.”

This centralized control began to change in 1974 with the opening of the College Center on the Redwood Campus. Hired as its first director, Curtis Smout believed in students running their own affairs.

He slowly changed how clubs were organized. By the mid-1970s, student clubs could send reps to quarterly advisors’ meetings and a few years later choose their own advisors, subject to administration approval. By the late 1990s, students could set up and run a club with the approval of the student government and the ratification of the student senate — pretty much as things are done today.

ROOMS FOR ALL With more than 60 clubs and student organizations at SLCC, there’s one for just about everybody. As the student body has become more diverse, the interests and needs of students have changed. Along with general interest clubs such as astronomy, chess, dance and drama, students have come together to form clubs that reflect their ethnicity — such as LuchA (Latinx/as/os United for Change and Activism), the Black Student Union, the Asian Student Association and American Indian Student Leadership — or their gender, such as the Society of Women Engineers.

These groups enhance the quality of student life by fostering social interactions and leadership development by promoting diversity, service and learning outside the classroom. ●

chapter three You Say You Want an Evolution? 59

FOR THE COLLEGE, THE TRANSITION FROM THE 1970s TO THE ’80s WAS A TUMULTUOUS ONE. FOR STUDENTS, IT WAS CLASSROOM BUSINESS AS USUAL. FROM LEFT: MEMBERS OF A DRAFTING AND DESIGN CLASS AT THEIR DESKS; TWO STUDENTS WORK ON A WIRING PROBLEM.

TOO FAR TOO FAST Dale Cowgill’s primary mission of making Utah Tech into a community college was at the root of his unpopularity. As the 1980s began, vocational faculty still strongly resisted the idea, fearing loss of status and position. In the larger community, support for him was mixed.

The time was not right. Or his methods were wrong. A no-nonsense engineer by training, he came across as abrupt and confrontational.

Yet Cowgill continued to push for change. He once remarked that the school’s transition to a community college should be done all at once, because trying to do it gradually was like performing an appendectomy one inch at a time.

60 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

It didn’t help that a looming recession caused the legislature to cut the college’s appropriation by a quarter of a million dollars, and Cowgill had to tighten the financial belt.

People had to be let go; programs had to be cut. Unfortunately, many wrongly linked the subsequent losses and job insecurity to Cowgill’s efforts to change the college.

Not all his initiatives were unpopular. Fourday weeks in the summer quarter met with popular support, as did dropping dress codes for faculty and creating an on-campus daycare center, set up in 1979 in response to student requests. But on balance, Cowgill’s agenda was uncomfortable for a significant number of faculty.

Although Cowgill resigned in November 1980 after a little over two years in his position, Randa noted that his vision for the college would largely be realized in the years ahead.

AN EASYGOING REPLACEMENT Within days, the Board of Regents appointed James Schnirel, then director of planning and budgets, as acting president, while a search committee looked for a successor. Schnirel had been at the school since 1962. He knew the problems and the people involved, and he was seen as someone who could settle things down.

He had his hands full as he set about smoothing the ruffled feathers of faculty and staff so they could get back to serving the students.

To help him manage this task, Schnirel brought together a core group of administrators, including Dean of Students Judd Morgan.

“Jim Schnirel could hardly have been more different to the departing president,” remarks Morgan. “Jim was an easygoing guy who worked well with people. He was a good communicator, not forceful like Cowgill.”

61

IN 1980, JAMES SCHNIREL (LEFT, STANDING) STEPPED IN AS INTERIM PRESIDENT. THOUGH HIS TENURE WAS BRIEF, THE PLANNING DIRECTOR AND VISUAL ARTIST LEFT MANY IMPROVEMENTS, INCLUDING THE SPOTLIGHT NEWSLETTER (BELOW) AND A MURAL FOR THE SOUTH CITY CAMPUS, SHOWING THE VIEW FROM LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON INTO THE SALT LAKE VALLEY (RIGHT).

Schnirel worked hard at improving communications both internally and with the larger community. He often visited departments; personally reinstated all-personnel meetings; shared bag lunches with the Classroom Teachers’ Association, the bargaining organization for faculty; invited student leaders to join various committees; and agreed with PR Director Bryan Gardner’s suggestion to start The Spotlight, an internal newsletter.

Improving the college’s public image was another initiative. At Schnirel’s direction, Gardner increased outreach to the community through more numerous news releases and by encouraging faculty to give media interviews.

Campus luncheons for community leaders and legislators were another way to get the message out about what the college was doing and how it was serving its members. In terms of building more formal ties, Schnirel reestablished the Advisory Council and returned to monthly meetings with the Institutional Council (a forerunner of the Board of Trustees), both bodies with deep community roots.

62 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

Schnirel was as committed as Cowgill had been to the idea of becoming a community college; he just wasn’t going to push it in the current climate. He would leave that to his successor. During his meetings with the Board of Regents, legislative councils and other political bodies, he spoke of encountering some resistance. Schnirel did make some preliminary changes by trying to distinguish between related training taught by vocational instructors and general education, which he thought should be taught by specialists trained in those subjects.

The aging downtown campus in the old Troy Laundry became another issue on Schnirel’s plate. Just to meet earthquake and energy conservation codes, it needed a new sprinkler system and insulation. Beyond that, the buildings required proper renovation to the tune of three-quarters of a million dollars.

The regents judged it to be cost-ineffective.

In May 1981, Schnirel announced the college was considering closing the downtown campus.

What would become of its programs, which included the Skills Center, was still undecided when his interim term ended.

It was a busy six months before the new president, Orville Carnahan, took office.

“My family almost had to take a back seat, because it was a 26-hour job,” Schnirel said wryly. He also had little time for painting.

An accomplished watercolor artist, he did manage to sneak some of his paintings into the annual student art exhibit. Today, his work forms part of Salt Lake Community College’s permanent art collection and is displayed on the Taylorsville Redwood, South City, Jordan and Miller campuses. (The Redwood Campus was renamed Taylorsville Redwood in 2008.)

chapter three You Say You Want an Evolution? 63

EXAMPLES OF GENERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION OF THE ERA.

college. He also gave faculty a greater role with the establishment of a faculty senate.

As well, he already had colleagues sold on the community college idea. His views on the subject were well known: in 1978, he’d taught a class at Utah Tech on the community college in America, and many of his past students were employed at the college, including some in administrative positions. Besides, Cowgill had already borne the brunt of the resistance.

A CONSUMMATE ORGANIZER In looking for a new president, the State Board of Regents sought someone who could reassuringly continue the process toward community college status. Orville Carnahan was only a year and a half into his presidency at Southern Utah State College — a community college — when George Hatch, chairman of the Board of Regents, urged him to apply. Utah Governor Scott Matheson added his voice: “We want you to come in and convert Utah Tech to a full-service community college.” Carnahan couldn’t resist the challenge. He became the college’s fourth president on August 3, 1981.

Carnahan was the first president to have previous experience in community colleges.

Before SUSC, he had headed up Highline College in Midway, Washington; was chancellor of Eastern Iowa Community College District;

64 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

and vice president, dean of applied science and director of vocational education at Yakima Valley College. In 1976, Carnahan came to Utah as associate commissioner for the Utah System of Higher Education.

He had a reputation for turning troubled institutions around, and he understood what was involved in constructing systems that really worked. Organization and process were his watchwords. “He believed a college president should be a manager more than a scholar, paying attention to money, process and structure rather than curriculum,” wrote Randa.

“Academic issues, he felt, could be largely left to faculty and deans.” Carnahan entrusted a great deal of authority to his vice presidents, department and division heads, and deans; he interfered little in the day-to-day running of the

LOBBYING FOR THE COLLEGE Along with calming a fractious college and setting it firmly on a course toward community college status, the Board of Regents set President Carnahan a third task: to rebuild the school’s standing with the state legislature in hopes of loosening their purse strings for future expansion.

While Jay Nelson had vigorously lobbied Utah power brokers in support of the school, Dale Cowgill had turned inward, focused on systemic change. Orville Carnahan returned to advocacy on a new level. Not only did he spend time meeting with members of the chamber of commerce, business leaders and the boards of education and regents, he also established closer ties with legislators. He did this by hiring Brent Goodfellow as special assistant to the president, charging him with establishing continual contact with the legislature and promoting the school’s budget requests.

Goodfellow would go on to run successfully for public office himself, continuing to champion the college’s cause.

chapter three You Say You Want an Evolution? 65

ORVILLE CARNAHAN CAME UP WITH THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES BILLBOARD SOON AFTER HE BECAME PRESIDENT IN 1981.

With Goodfellow’s help, Carnahan lobbied for more funds, programs, buildings and staff. Combined with his nonconfrontational and devolutionary leadership style, this preoccupation led some on faculty to feel he was an absentee president who didn’t do anything. Yet most were content with this situation, happy to get on with their jobs. As a result, the president faced little criticism from school personnel as he cautiously went about preparing the college for a momentous change.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION Immediately prior to Carnahan’s appointment, the college’s Institutional Council had, with some reluctance, come out publicly in support of the transition to a community college. They were not alone. A task force set up by Utah’s Educational Planning Commission was in the process of recommending to the legislature that all two-year schools in Utah should become community colleges. As Lavor Chaffin, taskforce chair, put it, “A community college is one that serves the community.”

The familiar fears from the vocational side of the college had not gone away, but Carnahan’s low-key approach, taking one issue at a time as he gradually shifted the goalposts, prevented the opposition from coalescing.

A key reassurance was the establishment early in his term of the School of Continuing and Community Education. Carnahan put

66 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

Geoffrey Brugger in charge as dean. According to Brugger, the plan was “to listen to the community and try and determine what their needs are, as opposed to sitting around in a circle of educational authorities and educators determining what ought to happen … and then inventing programs and courses that reflected our idea.” The new school emphasized quick responses to community needs, whether it was a CAD/CAM course requested by industry or literature classes for locals with an interest but no academic aspirations. It was an inspired approach that helped build valuable bridges to the community.

Another initiative saw a shift in personnel on the various craft advisory committees that served the college. In 1981, these committees were largely made up of teachers along with some titular business representatives.

Carnahan wanted to bring in people who had better knowledge of industrial trends and new technologies so that courses would be more relevant to the needs of industry. There was pushback until VP for Instruction Max Lowe threw his support behind the scheme, setting up committees with more industry representation.

The re-formed craft advisory committees helped to allay fears among industry leaders that college expansion would put an end to vocational training at the school.

By the mid-1980s, the college was poised to take its next big step.

CAMPUSES THROUGH THE YEARS

2005–

1967–

2011–

Library Square Center/ Community Writing Center 231 E 400 South Salt Lake City

Westpointe Center 2150 W 1000 North Salt Lake City

Taylorsville Redwood Campus (formerly Redwood Campus) 4600 S Redwood Road Taylorsville

2015–

West Valley Center 3460 S 5600 West West Valley City

1987–

Utah State Prison Satellite Campus 14000 S Frontage Road Draper

1989–

International Aerospace/ Aviation Education Center 551 N 2200 West Salt Lake City

2018–

1991–

2023–

Herriman Annex 13011 S Pioneer St. Herriman

South City Campus 1575 S State St. Salt Lake City

Herriman Campus 14551 S Sentinel Ridge Blvd.

Herriman

1999–

Miller Campus 9750 S 300 West Sandy

1998–

Jordan Campus 9000 S 3500 West West Jordan

PAST CAMPUSES AND CENTERS

1948–1986

Troy Laundry Campus 431 S 6th East Salt Lake City

1983–2010

Sandy Campus 830 E 9400 South Sandy

1986–2002

Riverside Center 1040 W 700 South Salt Lake City

1990–2008

Tooele Center 1021 W Vine St. Tooele

1995–2003

Millcreek Center 1521 E 3900 South Salt Lake City

2002–2006

Main Street Center (formerly Metro Learning Center) 115 S Main St. Salt Lake City

2002–2021

Meadowbrook Campus 250 W 3900 South Murray

2004–2007

Draper Center 12441 S 900 East Draper

2009–2011

Rose Park Center 1400 W Goodwin Ave. Salt Lake City

2009–2014

Highland Center 3760 S Highland Dr. Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE HAS COME A LONG WAY SINCE 1948, WHEN IT OPENED ON THE OLD TROY LAUNDRY SITE A MILE FROM DOWNTOWN.

LEFT: A NIGHT AT THE ALDER AMPHITHEATER. RIGHT: THE REDWOOD CAMPUS AS IT APPEARED CIRCA 1977. CLOCKWISE FROM REDWOOD ROAD: THE NELSON ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, CONSTRUCTION TRADES BUILDING, METALS TRADES BUILDING, AUTOMOTIVE TRADES BUILDING, LDS INSTITUTE, TENNIS COURTS, LABORERS TRAINING BUILDING, HEATING PLANT AND RAMPTON TECHNOLOGY BUILDING.

COLLEGE CHAMPIONS

GOODBYE OLD, HELLO NEW There had been no new buildings at the college since the Construction Trades Building opened to classes in 1977. While Jay Nelson had got the ball rolling before his departure on the Business Building for the Redwood Campus, the project had stalled. Carnahan used his close contacts at the legislature to lobby successfully for money to complete the project, which opened in September 1985. It was not only the first new building on campus for eight years, it was also the first devoted to mostly nonvocational subjects.

Also high on Carnahan’s task list was the aging downtown campus. The old Troy building was a mess: unsafe and too expensive to repair. In 1981, the Skills Center was its sole occupant. Yet the central city site was an ideal location for its student population; at the time, more than a third of Utah Tech’s students were from diverse ethnic backgrounds and mostly lived within three miles. (At the Redwood Campus, 6 percent of students represented minority populations.)

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Moving the Skills Center to Redwood would be a bad idea, minority groups argued, especially as bus service to the campus — and the rest of the valley — was inadequate. Besides, a 1982 report by Paul Gundersen, the buildings and grounds director, showed there was already a shortage of classroom and lab space at Redwood.

In 1982, the Board of Regents urged the college to look for a new downtown location.

This took two years, during which time the regents scraped together $200,000 for urgent repairs to render the old Troy Laundry building minimally safe for use. Finally, in March 1984, the college bought the old Jordan Junior High School from the Salt Lake School District for $850,000. In 1986, the Skills Center moved to the 13-acre location at 1040 W 700 South, which was renamed the Riverside Campus. The college sold the old Troy Laundry site — with all its memories of the early days of the school — for just over $2.5 million. By the mid-1990s the location was part of one of the largest strip malls in the valley.

THE ALDER FAMILY For the Alders, service to SLCC is a family affair. Jack Alder, founder of Alder Construction Company — now a third-generation Utah business — was one of the original Foundation Board members and instrumental in developing the Foundation scholarship program. His son, Bruce, followed him onto the Foundation Board, and his daughter-in-law, Coralie, has served on the college’s Board of Trustees. Bruce and Coralie’s son, Eric, has continued the family’s legacy of support by developing a plan to reengineer the Alder Amphitheater, on the Taylorsville Redwood Campus, into an updated outdoor classroom and community gathering space. ●

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FROM LEFT: THE SLCC FOUNDATION BOARD MARKS $10 MILLION IN SUPPORT RAISED, 2017; EACH SUMMER, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS INVOLVED IN THE PACE (PARTNERSHIP FOR ACCESSING COLLEGE EDUCATION) PROGRAM EXPLORE CAREER OPTIONS ON CAMPUS (2019 SHOWN).

FOCUS ON THE FOUNDATION

As part of his community outreach on behalf of the college, President Carnahan hosted luncheons for business leaders and legislators two or three times a week. It’s not clear exactly whose idea it was, but from all that schmoozing emerged a real gem: the SLCC Foundation, incorporated in September 1987.

Comprising community leaders from industry, cultural groups and businesses, it exists to raise private and corporate donations to the college and to solicit private grants. In this role it has enjoyed much success. In its first eight years, the Foundation raised more than $5 million in donations and $10 to $12 million in grants. The money went to buildings, program needs and scholarships.

SETTING THE PACE The Foundation’s other major role is to redistribute a healthy percentage of the income earned by its endowment fund through scholarships and awards, along with funds provided by more than 140 donors who have financially supported the Foundation Board scholarship program. These scholarships provide opportunities to students who might not otherwise be able to afford a college education, as long-standing Foundation Board member and donor Roger McQueen explains. “So many students in Salt Lake Valley high schools don’t even have the opportunity to dream about a college education. What’s life going to be like for them?” One of the scholarship programs the Foundation administers, he says, “has changed a lot of people’s lives.” Set up in 2011, Partnerships for Accessing College

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Education (PACE) targets low-income students in grade 9 or 10 who show academic promise. Frequently, they are first-generation students. They are monitored through to graduation, and if they maintain attendance and grade point targets, they earn themselves a two-year scholarship at SLCC. McQueen remembers the first time the Foundation brought PACE scholarships into a local high school. “That was at West High School, and it was for students who were at risk,” he says. “We didn’t know if it was going to be successful, but seven students started in the program, and today, PACE is offered in five high schools in the valley. More than 430 students have completed the program and continued on in college. Eighty percent of the students are the first in their families to attend college.”

AN APPLE FOR TEACHER As well as scholarships, the Foundation gives out cash awards to faculty members who excel at their jobs. Since 2015, the annual Teaching Excellence Award has recognized faculty members from a host of nominees. “It’s just so rewarding to hear students talk about the impact their teachers have had on their lives,” McQueen says, describing the selection process Foundation Board members go through in choosing recipients.

ON A ROLL Over the years, the Foundation has become more sophisticated in managing its funds, as McQueen, a former insurance executive, notes.

“We put an investment policy together in 2010 to stabilize the endowment and help it grow. And then, with the help of President Deneece Huftalin and her wonderful team, Nancy Michalko and others, and with support from some amazing donors like Gail Miller, the profits are starting to mount up.”

As chair of the finance committee, Kyle Treadway keeps an eye on the Foundation’s investments, when he’s not busy helming Kenworth Sales Company, a commercial truck dealership. “We’re pretty conservative; there’s not a lot of appetite for risk. The investment program has to provide stability and protection of the funds, but at the same time, it has to provide enough income to support the scholarships.”

McQueen is proud of the progress they’ve made. “The little snowball we started with has doubled and doubled again. We now are giving out more money in scholarships than we had in total assets in the Foundation when I started back in 2002.”

He adds a footnote. “Very few community colleges have a foundation at all, and none has one quite like ours. SLCC is a real special place.” As well as the direct benefits in terms of scholarships, enhanced programs and infrastructure, the Foundation has improved the stature of the college in the public eye and significantly helped get the message out about the value of SLCC to the community. ●

chapter three You Say You Want an Evolution? 75

SINCE 1989, SLCC HAS TAUGHT AIRLINE MAINTENANCE (RIGHT) COURSES, MAINLY AT THE INTERNATIONAL AEROSPACE/AVIATION EDUCATION CENTER, AKA THE AIRPORT CAMPUS. AN AIRLINE PILOT PROGRAM (LEFT) OPERATED FROM 1989 TO 2017.

By the early 1980s, college enrollment had grown to more than 12,000 and the college was on the lookout for additional new campus locations. Carnahan was an advocate of satellite campuses in strip malls, an idea tried successfully in California. He proposed looking at locations in neighboring Utah cities like Sandy, Park City, Tooele and Bountiful. An opportunity came up in Sandy, 17 miles south of Salt Lake City. A mall developer offered the college a reduced lease on purpose-built classrooms, and the Sandy Campus opened in September 1984. A decade later it boasted more than 1,000 students in a wide range of classes.

(As a result of budget cuts, in 2010 the college closed the Sandy Campus and its programs, and classes were moved to other campuses.) Thanks to a demand for trained airframe mechanics from local aviation firms, the college began an aviation maintenance program in 1983 at Skypark Airport, before moving to the Salt Lake International Airport in 1989, when it became SLCC’s Airport Campus.

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chapter three You Say You Want an Evolution? 77

PACE INCREASES COLLEGE PARTICIPATION AND GRADUATION RATES FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS (SHOWN HERE IN 2016) THROUGH A PARTNERSHIP WITH AREA SCHOOLS AND BUSINESSES.

COLLEGE CHAMPIONS

THE BIG SWITCH As 1987 approached, a lot of the spadework to transform Utah Tech into a community college was completed. That year, the Utah state legislature passed a law to rename the school Salt Lake Community College. It also repealed the law mandating 75 percent of all courses be vocational. Before the change, students were already using the school to take general education courses at a lower cost and planning to transfer to four-year institutions. These transfers became formalized with the change in status, and the Board of Regents approved the granting of associate of arts degrees, along with existing associate’s degrees in science and applied science.

The college applied for and won a Title III grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

The grant program supports community colleges that serve low-income students by providing funds to improve and strengthen the academic quality, institutional management and fiscal stability of eligible institutions. SLCC used it to develop its general education programs and help pay for the transition costs.

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ROGER MCQUEEN A long-standing SLCC Foundation Board member and significant donor, Roger McQueen is one of the most committed and loyal supporters of the college.

Joining the Foundation in 2002, he helped restructure and stabilize its investment portfolio. An enthusiastic early supporter of the PACE program, McQueen has also personally and jointly funded several student scholarships, including the Marlon Andrus Endowed Scholarship for Business, and donated to the Health Sciences Building on the Jordan Campus. In 2012, the college recognized his enduring support with an honorary doctorate. ●

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Shortly before it became SLCC, extramural sport came to the school. In the 1986–87 school year, Carnahan encouraged students to set up a basketball team, despite disapproval from business leaders and legislators who thought a technical college should focus on learning.

Once it was a community college, the opposition melted away. The Bruins hit the court running, taking third in the region in their first year.

Carnahan had accomplished his primary mission. The school had made the big switch despite the misgivings of some faculty and President Jay Nelson. In fact, the vocational side of the school experienced a major boost with the change, thanks to increased student numbers in academic transfer courses. More students meant more funds from the legislature, and since academic classes are less expensive to run per student, those students effectively subsidized the more technical programs. There was also more money for up-to-date equipment.

As the dean of the School of Technology said at the time, the move “opened up opportunities for our vocational-technical students that they didn’t have previously.” During Carnahan’s term, vocational programs offered at the college rose from 53 to 88.

More growth was still to come.

DURING CARNAHAN’S TERM, VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS OFFERED AT THE COLLEGE ROSE IN NUMBER:

53 88

NO. 22 THEN AND NOW. BASKETBALL WAS THE FIRST EXTRAMURAL SPORT ON CAMPUS; MANY ADMINISTRATORS WERE IN FAVOR OF STUDENT SPORTS, AS THE CAMPUS NEWSPAPER REPORTED AT THE TIME: “IT’S ABOUT TIME WE WERE UP THERE WITH THE BIG BOYS!” STATED ONE STUDENT.

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chapter four

A BIGGER STAGE

THE SOUTH CITY CAMPUS OPENED IN 1991 ON A SITE THAT HAD BEEN SEEING FIRST-DAY JITTERS FOR OVER SIX DECADES. BACK IN 1930, WORK BEGAN ON SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL, WHICH COST $1.5 MILLION AT THE TIME AND SAW THE GRADUATION OF MORE THAN 30,000 STUDENTS IN ITS LIFETIME. THE COLLEGE MAINTAINS RELATIONSHIPS WITH SHS ALUMNI TO THIS DAY.

SEEING POTENTIAL The newly branded community college was poised for expansion. Enrollment numbers were growing rapidly through the 1980s and anticipated to climb higher with the cap on academic transfer courses gone. The Sandy Campus was now operational, and the search was on for other possible sites.

Another campus opportunity arose in the late 1980s when the Salt Lake City school board decided to close South High School, citing declining student numbers. President Carnahan saw potential when he toured its three floors of classrooms and offices and its large auditorium, gym and pool — the latter two being important facilities for an expanding athletic and physical education program at SLCC. After some haggling with the school board, in 1988 the college bought the building and land for $1 million. The old high school required $12 million in renovations and remodeling to meet safety codes and the needs of the college before it opened for classes in 1991 as the South City Campus. By the mid-1990s, after more remodeling of the third floor to add classrooms, laboratories and offices, the new campus boasted a full range of courses and services for more than 5,000 students.

The college continues to maintain a relationship with the South High Alumni Association, which offers scholarships to students whose parents or grandparents attended South High.

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HE WAS ACTING PRESIDENT FOR ONLY SIX MONTHS, BUT BUSINESS VICE PRESIDENT HEBER HUNT (LEFT) BROUGHT SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TO THE CAMPUS DURING HIS 1990 TENURE. ONE NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT WAS THE PUBLIC– PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP WITH UNION PACIFIC THAT RESULTED IN CONSTRUCTION OF THE SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY BUILDING ON THE TAYLORSVILLE REDWOOD CAMPUS, WHERE A RAIL TECHNICIAN TRAINING PROGRAM FLOURISHED.

CHANGE AT THE TOP In 1990, Orville Carnahan announced his retirement. He went on to a respected second career in the Utah House of Representatives, and his reputation as one of SLCC’s most accomplished presidents remains intact.

Before he left, Carnahan recommended that Heber Hunt, then business vice president, fill in as interim president. Hunt was duly approved by the regents and trustees. He took over at the beginning of a period of unprecedented growth.

In 1990, SLCC was struggling to find sufficient faculty and classroom space to handle a steady increase in enrollment, predicted to grow by 30 percent in just the next year. Hunt knew his way around the education funding process and the people involved: he’d worked for many years as a higher education analyst for the state legislature before joining SLCC. This paid off in 1991, when he was able to secure $5 million from the state legislature — the biggest growth allotment in the college’s history to date.

Under Hunt, the college achieved another notable success: a joint venture with Union Pacific Railroad to fund and share a building, the first major partnership of its kind at a college

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FE ATURED FACULTY

SUZANNE MOZDY ASSOCIATE DEAN, MATHEMATICS

in Utah. “We got the idea from a Midwestern college that had done something similar,” remembers Gordon Storrs, who was master planning coordinator at SLCC at the time.

“The college needed a science building and the state wasn’t of a mind to fund much building construction.” The college had been providing training for Union Pacific for several years, and the company was amenable to the idea; it needed space too. “They would fund half the building, we would fund half, and we could share use of the space,” says Storrs. All seemed set until negotiations reached a delicate point. “There was a sticky issue, and they were on the verge of canceling it. Heber called the top Union Pacific guy in the middle of the night, and the next day the railroad approved the deal. He literally saved the building with a phone call.”

The interim president made his six months count.

Suzanne Mozdy has been busy guiding her department to adopt a number of academic innovations, such as SLCC’s Open Educational Resources (OER) program, which makes affordable online course materials more accessible and saves students hundreds of dollars a semester. For her efforts behind promoting the OER, Mozdy won the Alan E. Hall Innovation for Undergraduate Student Success Award in 2015, and in 2018 her department won the Digital Learning Innovation Award from the Online Learning Consortium, a national organization of higher education leaders.

Mozdy also led the department to significantly increase quantitative student literacy achievement rates as well as to improve student placement processes. ●

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PROJECT MAKEOVER A hands-on, no-nonsense ex-cop, Frank Budd arrived at the beginning of 1991 to find a college with growing pains and an image problem.

Formerly vice president of California’s Riverside Community College, he was well aware of how such institutions functioned and presented themselves. In his eyes, after four years as a community college, SLCC still appeared unsure in its new skin. Exploring the Redwood Campus, Budd found numerous signs on facilities, vehicles and trailers that still read Utah Technical College. He even saw some stationery using the old name. “We hate to throw it away,” he was told. Budd took his concerns to his cabinet. “I asked them, ‘What’s our name?’

They all looked at me rather strangely and said, ‘Salt Lake Community College.’ I said, ‘It’d be real hard to determine that.’” According to Budd, some cabinet members laughed at his concern over the school’s image. “Good luck with that,” they said. Budd read them the riot act. “I want it cleaned up,” he told them. “We’re a community college and we have to act like one. We have to know who we are or we’ll never convince the community of what we are. Get it done.”

Explaining to the larger community the expanded role of SLCC, and what exactly a comprehensive community college is and does,

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“WE HAVE TO KNOW WHO WE ARE OR WE’LL NEVER CONVINCE THE COMMUNITY OF WHAT WE ARE.” FRANK BUDD FORMER PRESIDENT

was a real challenge in the early 1990s. Unlike many states, Utah had no experience with an inclusive, open-door community college. “It’s a foreign concept to many people,” Budd said. “The community college is an American invention.

It’s a great democratic experience in education.

And we say to people, ‘If you’re willing to work and to try, you come. We don’t care about your SAT scores or your grade point average.’” He spent much of his time getting the message out to service clubs, business leaders, community groups and the state legislature.

He also wanted the school body to acknowledge and celebrate what SLCC had become. “I think that the faculty and staff and the students need to feel proud of what they are,” he said. “We need to be proud of being a community college … to celebrate our academic, intellectual contribution to the community, which can be just as applicable to welding as

it can be to history.” In 1992, the first ever convocation did just that, with a formal parade, speeches and music. Utah’s governor, members of the community and the entire college body attended. “The theme of convocation is that the school is a true community college, serving Utah with technical, transfer and true community-oriented education,” wrote Randa. Along with graduation, convocations provide a second yearly event to bring the college community together in celebration — something SLCC has done ever since.

Similarly, Budd encouraged Christmas and spring receptions, and “munch-and-mingle” gatherings every month or so. “Someone else came up with that name,” he quipped. “We have punch and cookies, we kid a little bit and we give awards” — small certificates to thank the recipient for contributing to the goals of the college.

PRESIDENT FRANK BUDD (LEFT) LED THE COLLEGE FROM 1991 TO 2000. AMONG HIS FIRST ACTS WAS THE CONSOLIDATION OF SLCC’S IDENTITY AS A DISTINCT AND INCLUSIVE, OPEN-DOOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE WITH ITS OWN HISTORY AND PERSONALITY. AN EARLY FOCUS WAS ON THE CONSISTENCY AND PRESENTATION OF THE CAMPUSES (LIKE REDWOOD, SHOWN HERE).

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A 2018 PRODUCTION OF “SPAMALOT” AT THE GRAND THEATRE (WHICH, FITTINGLY, OPENED ITS FIRST SEASON WITH “CAMELOT,” STARRING FAMED LOCAL ACTOR ROBERT PETERSON).

THE GRAND THEATRE

Built in 1931, South High School featured one of the largest auditoriums in Salt Lake City. After SLCC bought the school, it became one of the principal community theaters in Utah and a center of educational outreach.

WHAT A GRAND THEATER! During renovations, there was debate about what to do with the big auditorium. “Some on the president’s cabinet wanted to convert it to classrooms,” said Jay Williams, former associate professor of communications. He remembered viewing the big space with SLCC employee Pat Davis, who also used to head up a local Salt Lake City playhouse. “What a grand theater!” she said. ”Let’s do a show! We’ll get everybody to volunteer to be in it: actors, directors, ticket collectors. Maybe we can raise some money, and people will come to the college and they’ll say, ‘Wow! This is kind of a neat thing they’re doing.’”

Williams took the idea back to the cabinet. By this time, Frank Budd was in the top job. “I don’t think any of the vice presidents wanted to do it, but Frank Budd did. He thought it was a fun idea. The Grand Theatre was born.”

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THE PLAY’S THE THING From the beginning it was a community theater with its own local artistic company. “We couldn’t do it any other way,” remarked Williams. The company‘s very first performance, “Promised Land,” a musical drama about Mormon pioneers, was actually held in the football stadium on a makeshift stage. The first “official” production in the Grand Theatre was “Camelot,” starring Robert Peterson, a noted Utah actor who took over for Robert Goulet in the role of Lancelot in the original run on Broadway.

The choice to produce musicals was deliberate.

The Pioneer Theatre at the University of Utah was a competitor, and “at the time they were doing all this experimental stuff and nobody liked it very much,” Williams said with a laugh. “So we decided to do the opposite. We’d run plays that people liked a lot: musicals, one after the other. And we started filling the house.”

Ever since that 1990 production of “Camelot,” the theater has given the local community an unbroken stream of audience favorites from “The Rocky Horror Show” to “Spamalot” to “A Streetcar Named Desire” — except for a two-year gap due to COVID-19.

A COMMUNITY CENTER “The Grand is unique because it is many things,” says Richard Scott, dean of the School of Arts, Communication and Media and former director of the Grand. “We have artistic productions, but we also put on concerts and host lectures, meetings and debates. We’re really a community center with a theater company in residence.

That makes us a little different.” He adds that since 2015, the Sundance Film Festival has brought its world-class independent films to the theater. “Many times they have a director’s talk-back after a film, which is great for our film students, and we invite other college students from the area who are focused on film.

“The theater sits on the campus of the community college. We think the programming should reflect that.

It parallels very well SLCC’s vision of open access and continuing education.”

Seth Miller, artistic director of the Grand Theatre, agrees. “We pride ourselves on being ‘the community’s professional theater.’ We are committed to the community to provide exceptional theater filled with local artists at an affordable price.” ●

“WE NEED TO BE PROUD OF BEING A COMMUNITY COLLEGE … TO CELEBRATE OUR ACADEMIC, INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMUNITY, WHICH CAN BE JUST AS APPLICABLE TO WELDING AS IT CAN BE TO HISTORY.” FRANK BUDD

COLLEGE CONVOCATIONS BEGAN IN 1992 WITH A DRAMATIC START WHEN STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT DAVE CARLSON SURVIVED A CAR CRASH TO ATTEND THE NEW EVENT, WHICH KICKS OFF THE SCHOOL YEAR. “WITHOUT THIS GOAL, I WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN HERE,” HE TOLD THE CROWD. “I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A VOICE UNTIL LAST WEEK.” THE AUDIENCE WAS MOVED, INCLUDING SLCC PRESIDENT FRANK BUDD, WHO VOWED THE CONVOCATIONS WOULD CONTINUE, AS THEY HAVE: “TRADITIONS ARE AN ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT OF SUCCESS.”

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A SHIFTING POPULACE The 1990s ushered in a tremendous growth spurt. Overall student enrollment surpassed 45,000. Much of that increase was in transfer education courses, which brought an attendant increase in faculty. The school years between 1992 and 1996 saw 30 to 40 new faculty hires each year; about half the total full-time faculty were hired in this period. Most new faculty had an academic background, and this, along with the sheer scale of growth, began to change the character of the college.

Vocational programs were flourishing too, despite earlier fears among technical faculty.

“We’re doing more applied technology education today than we ever have in the history of the college,” declared President Budd.

The flood of new hires prompted Budd to revamp the hiring procedure to ensure a more professional faculty. He tightened the approval process, adding more layers — including the president with the final say — and required final applicants to give a demonstration lecture in front of a real class. “Faculty deliver the business of the college,” he said. “We’re not just talking about subject-matter expertise. Are they teachers? Can they deliver to the students?

Are they comfortable in a community college environment?”

The growth in the college came against a background of change in the makeup of Utah’s population. Pamela S. Perlich, director of demographic research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, summarized the shifting ethnic and racial composition of the state in a 2002 report, “Utah Minorities: The Story Told by 150 Years of Census Data”: “Whites were at least 98 percent of the Utah population from 1850 through 1960. This proportion dropped steadily to reach 94 percent in 1990 as the population of Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, African Americans and others increased more rapidly than did the white nonHispanic population.” The following decade saw an accelerated drop to 85 percent. This increase in ethnic and racial diversity largely resulted from immigration to the U.S., which has been at historic levels since 1970. Perlich again: “The result has been a dramatic increase in the nation’s ethnic and racial diversity in general, and a substantial increase in the Hispanic population in particular. Utah, which has been relatively unaffected by major migrations in the past, has become the destination for many of these more recent migrants, resulting in a significant increase in its diversity.”

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DENEECE HUFTALIN (RIGHT) WITH ARTIST COURTNEY HART, WHOSE VIOLET ROSE WON THE 2021 DENNIS KLAUS HONORARY AWARD AT THE PRESIDENT’S ART SHOW.

ART THAT INSPIRES

People admiring the work of community artists on show at the Eccles Gallery, or the latest paintings gracing the President’s Art Show, may be forgiven for not knowing that the college’s proud art legacy is owed in part to a couple of guys lamenting about “a bunch of old prints” back in the 1990s.

THE TAKE-DOWN “It’s just abominable,” said Terry Martin. A photography instructor at SLCC, Martin was talking to Gordon Storrs, master planning coordinator, sometime in 1994 about the sorry state of the art that was hanging around the college.

“It’s just a bunch of old prints that are fading and torn in cheap frames. What kind of an example does that set for our art students? We should do something about it.”

Storrs agreed, and the two men went around the college taking down all the prints. “There was nothing of any value,” Storrs says, as he tells the story. “There were fewer than 100 pieces. We took them into the president’s office and set them up against the wall.” Frank Budd was aghast. “That’s our art collection?”

Budd brought in Kathy Boswell, who was helping with marketing at the time. “She convinced the president to form an art committee and start a collection of real art,” remembers Storrs, who became the committee’s chair.

“The committee received $20,000 in funding to begin a collection, and the hunt was on for suitable pieces.”

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COMMUNITY ART SHOWS The committee reached out to the Utah art community asking for donations. “We had some success, and those pieces are still a part of our collection,” says Storrs. That approach only worked so far, because artists want to sell their work. The next step was to fund a community art show on the Redwood Campus, advertised with handmade art posters placed around the campus and city. The very first ran in 1995.

Over the next decade, the college hosted a community art show each year. In the late 2000s, President Bioteau threw her support behind the art committee’s work and its annual show. “She changed the name to the President’s Art Show, which gave it more prestige, to try and attract more recognized artists,” relates Storrs. “And it worked.”

About the same time, the pot was sweetened by making it a juried exhibition offering prize money. The President’s Art Show continues to be a popular feature hosted each fall on the South City Campus. Open to all Utah artists, the event today offers $5,000 in prize money. “We often get as many as 300 submissions of the highest quality,” says Storrs.

SHOWING OFF Over the years, SLCC’s collection of Utah artists’ works has grown steadily, many pieces purchased from both the President’s Art Show and the annual Student Art Show exhibitors. “We have more than 540 pieces in the collection, which has a pretty good value,” says Storrs.

Finding places to exhibit the collection was always on the committee’s minds, he says. “We made the decision they all had to be placed in public spaces to share the collection with the community, places where art teachers can use them as examples of good art. You’ll see them if you walk around all the campuses.” Some are also on show in the Eccles Gallery, which opened on the South City Campus in 2013, thanks to the kind support of the George and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation.

“Today the art committee is well organized and more businesslike,” Storrs says as he reflects on how far they have come. “We went from no idea about how to curate an art collection to now having a full-time art collection manager and professional curator, and continual shows in the new gallery. Plus we have annual funding from the college. No more having to beg every year.” ●

STRENGTHENING DIVERSITY

As Provost Clifton Sanders of SLCC tells it, Frank Budd was the first president to tackle the thorny issue of affirmative action in hiring.

“I started at the college in 1993.

I went through an extensive hiring process.” Budd had restructured the hiring process to add several more approval steps, including confirmation from deans and vice presidents, and a final interview with the president himself.

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Sanders, who is African American, remembers that interview well. “He sat me down and asked, ‘What do you think about Salt Lake Community College?’ I said, ‘Well, President Budd, I —’ and that’s all I got out,” as Budd launched into a spiel about how great the college was, its importance to the community, his vision for the future and so on.

“When he was done, he asked me, ‘What do you think about diversity at the college?’ ‘Well, President Budd, I —’ Again he jumped in and started talking about his diversity vision for the college.” Sanders must have passed the interview, because he got hired as a chemistry instructor.

“Frank Budd’s efforts to increase diversity among faculty bore fruit,” Sanders notes. “He got the non-white demographic up to about 11 percent. Unfortunately, the needle did not move much further until about three years ago.” He adds a story to make the point. In the early 2000s, SLCC had an equal opportunity director named Clyde Johnson.

Sanders remembers meeting Johnson to discuss diversity hiring.

“I’ve been looking at the numbers, and we’ve experienced a decrease in our faculty diversity but a slight increase in our administrative diversity,” Johnson said, which made Sanders laugh.

“You’re welcome,” he quipped. Sanders had just transitioned from faculty to administration.

The needle on diversity hires has shifted in recent years. As of 2022, SLCC reports that about 14 percent of faculty come from ethnic minority populations. “We’ve made some progress,” Sanders says. “But there’s quite a way to go.” ●

Unsurprisingly, the racial and ethnic composition of the college diversified over the same period: looking at fall enrollment figures for SLCC from 1990 to 2000, the proportion of students who reported as white non-Hispanic dropped from 90 to 80 percent.

President Budd was aware of this, and of the state’s historical homogeneity. He stressed the need for the college to make a more aggressive affirmative gesture to minority communities. “If we’re a community college, then we need to reflect to some extent the community here,” he said.

One of the first things he did to further that aim was to push for greater diversity of both staff and faculty. “Hiring committees were encouraged to make efforts to find qualified minorities and women, without hiring anyone unqualified,” wrote Randa.

To advance this important goal, the college created the President’s Committee on Diversity — a forerunner of the President’s Council for Inclusivity and Equity set up

by President Huftalin in 2014. One of the committee’s first acts was to host SLCC’s

inaugural diversity conference, described as a broad discussion about diversity and the college’s role in ensuring a diverse and welcoming environment for students and staff alike.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AND CAMPUSES Frank Budd’s tenure was a dynamic one that moved the college from its tech college roots to becoming a comprehensive community college. Among a host of accomplishments large and small, several stand out. Budd made a point of building a close relationship with the University of Utah and the seven other institutions of higher education in the state, which laid the groundwork for the success the college and the university partnerships now have in working together.

Budd helped define SLCC as a multicampus college, something many in the community found hard to grasp. During his term, the college expanded to include the Thayne Center for Service Learning (1994) on the Redwood Campus, and the Millcreek Center (1995), and began work on the Jordan Campus.

“THERE HAS BEEN A DRAMATIC INCREASE IN THE NATION’S ETHNIC AND RACIAL DIVERSITY IN GENERAL, AND A SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE IN THE HISPANIC POPULATION IN PARTICULAR.” PAMEL A PERLICH DIRECTOR OF DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AT THE KEM C. GARDNER POLICY INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

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THE 2017 LARRY MILLER DAY OF SERVICE FOCUSED ON THE COMMUNITY GARDEN AT THE THAYNE CENTER, NAMED FOR LOCAL PEACE ACTIVIST AND AUTHOR EMMA LOU THAYNE (INSET). ON THE BACK OF THE VOLUNTEERS’ T-SHIRTS RUNS A QUOTE FROM MILLER: “GO ABOUT DOING GOOD UNTIL THERE’S TOO MUCH GOOD IN THE WORLD.”

THE THAYNE CENTER

Named the Salt Lake Community Service Center when it was created in 1994, the Thayne Center has been through several name changes as its role at SLCC has shifted.

HONORING A SPECIAL UTAHN A year after it opened, the name was changed to the Emma Lou Thayne Community Service Center in honor of the beloved Utah peace activist, author and poet. “Emma Lou was a gifted, beautiful writer who just embraced the idea of community service,” says President Deneece Huftalin, currently at SLCC’s helm. “She was a very good friend of Judd Morgan, and when he was VP and I was the dean of students, we approached her to name the center after her.” At the time, community service was becoming very important on campus as an engagement opportunity for students. The center allowed them to get involved in their community in many ways, from building homes with Habitat for Humanity to working in homeless shelters and soup kitchens to volunteering with one of the many community partners connected with the center.

SERVICE LEARNING In 2004, it became the Thayne Center for Service & Learning to bring it in line with the growing emphasis in some programs on service learning — an educational

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approach that combines a progressive learning experience with community service. “That was huge at SLCC. We became national leaders,” remarks Huftalin, adding that over time the center became more and more concerned with community engagement and community building, forging and strengthening relationships with numerous community groups.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP Located on the Taylorville Redwood Campus, the center added yet another part to its mission in 2021 when it became the locus for student leadership, student clubs and organizations. A new name — the Thayne Center for Student Life, Leadership & Community Engagement — reflects its broadened role.

Spearheaded by the Thayne Center, in 2016 SLCC was honored with the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, a national elective standard that measures interactions between colleges and universities and their communities. ●

DURING FRANK BUDD’S TENURE, THE COLLEGE DRAMATICALLY EXPANDED ITS FOOTPRINT, WITH WORK UNDERWAY ON THE JORDAN, MEADOWBROOK AND MILLER CAMPUSES. GIVEN THAT LARRY AND GAIL MILLER MADE THEIR MARK THROUGH AUTO DEALERSHIPS, IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT THE MILLER CAMPUS HOUSES THE AUTOMOTIVE TRAINING CENTER, SHOWN HERE.

COLLEGE CHAMPIONS

SLCC also purchased a 10-acre industrial property at 250 W 3900 South that in 2002 became the Meadowbrook Campus. Around the same time, the college sold off its Riverside Campus, moving its truck-driving, nondestructive testing and Ford programs to the new Meadowbrook Campus. The Skills Center had already moved to the South City Campus.

(In 2009, the Skills Center was reimagined as the School of Applied Technology.) Online learning was another initiative that began in 1995, when SLCC’s eCampus offered its first course. By the early 2000s, more than 7,000 students were logging in to learn online.

The development of the Miller Campus also began during this period, with the opening of the first of seven buildings in 1999. Larry and Gail Miller gifted the new campus to the college in 2001.

Budd also initiated the first strategic planning effort at the college since Cowgill’s time. The mission statement and values that resulted led the college for much of the next decade.

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THE GEORGE S. AND DOLORES DORÉ ECCLES FOUNDATION Since its founding more than 60 years ago, grants from the foundation have bettered the lives of Utahns statewide in the areas of culture and community, health and wellness, environment and education. Today, the foundation’s generosity has exceeded $750 million and continues to grow, with SLCC and its students being among the fortunate recipients of its education grants, awards and scholarships. Among SLCC’s recognition of support are the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Auditorium at the Jordan Health Sciences Building, the Eccles Art Gallery at the South City Campus, and the Eccles Early Childhood Development Lab School at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus. ●

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WITH A FOCUS ON SMALL BUSINESS, MILLER CAMPUS PROGRAMS RANGE FROM AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE TO THE CULINARY INSTITUTE, SHOWN HERE.

SMALL ASK, BIG GIVE

SLCC’s Miller Campus boasts seven ultramodern centers dedicated to business and technical education, professional development and entrepreneurship.

Given to the college in 2001 by Larry H. and Gail Miller, at the time it was the single largest gift to a community college in the United States. But for a simple request, born from a simple idea, it might never have happened.

A BUILDING FOR ENTREPRENEURS? The idea for an entrepreneurship center had been kicking around at SLCC for a while when master planning coordinator Gordon Storrs asked a colleague for a building drawing sometime in the early 1990s. “Sterling Frankum worked with entrepreneurship programs at the college, and he’d been talking to me and Development Director Peter Maughan about the idea,” Storrs remembers. What he got was a simple rendering of a fourstory, 1,600-square-foot building with an executive suite on top. “We put together the idea and presented it to the president and cabinet.”

They were keen but worried about the price tag: $1.6 million. “I suggested we do a funding drive to develop the building and convince someone to put up $100,000 as seed money,” says Storrs. President Budd said yes.

First on the potential donor list was Utah automobile magnate Larry Miller. “Larry was the epitome of an entrepreneur,” says Storrs.

“He’d taught some classes at the college on the subject. He’d literally get teary eyed in front of the audience talking about entrepreneurship, which had an impact on lots of people.” Storrs and his colleagues pitched him the idea and asked for the seed money.

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Things didn’t go as expected. For an hour Miller fired question after question at the group. Then he told them, “I really like the idea, but I’m not going to give you the $100,000.”

“Bad news,” thought Storrs.

“Instead, I’m going to build this building and donate it to the college, and you don’t have to do any kind of fundraising,” Miller continued. “But I don’t have the time or money right now. Leave it with me.” Storrs and his colleagues headed home riding high.

COMING THROUGH IN SPADES Months turned into a year, with nothing from Miller. “Everybody kind of gave up on the idea, except for Sterling and me,” says Storrs. “I knew that Larry would keep his word.” Finally, in 1995, Budd got a phone call from Miller. He was ready to go. “I’ve got 20 acres in Sandy and we can start construction in two months,” he told the president.

“Two months? Nothing gets planned that fast in higher ed!” said Storrs when he heard the news.

He and Maughan went out to the property at 9750 S 300 West to meet with Miller, who told them he was going to use his own architect and contractor. “All you have to do is tell them what you want,” which had the two colleagues reeling — even before he added, “Oh, and by the way, I’m going to build this building, and then I’m going to build six more.”

A flurry of planning ensued. It took a bit more than two months.

The first building went from 16,000 square feet to 37,000, and its cost ballooned to $10 million. The new entrepreneurship training center would feature a conference area, state-of-the-art smart classrooms and two computer labs.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the first building in 1999, Storrs was standing near Miller and the development director for Brigham Young University. “I heard the BYU director say to Larry, ‘You taught at BYU all these years. Why did you give that money to Salt Lake Community College instead?’ And Larry just had two words: ‘They asked.’”

KEPT ON GIVING Gail Miller chuckles at that story and adds some thoughts of her own.

“That was really the beginning of our major giving to Salt Lake Community College. Larry and I grew up in downtown Salt Lake City, back when the college was called Trade Tech and was located on Fourth South. We were very much aware of it as an institute of learning, and how it opens doors to students who may not have other opportunities or have a need to learn a trade and get out into the workforce.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of community colleges like SLCC and the importance of supporting them, and what they do for communities that universities can’t do, in that they help nontraditional students who need a leg up to get their futures going. They are the bread and butter of societies.”

Today, the bustling Miller Campus is home to the Automotive Training Center, the Corporate Partnership Center, the Culinary Institute, the Karen G. Miller Conference Center, the Miller Free Enterprise Center, the Professional Development Center and the Public Safety Education & Training Center. ●

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PART 3

“THE WORLD NEEDS DREAMERS AND THE WORLD NEEDS DOERS BUT ABOVE ALL THE WORLD NEEDS DREAMERS WHO DO.” SARAH BAN BREATHNACH BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, PHILANTHROPIST AND PUBLIC SPEAKER

A PLATFORM FOR SUCCESS 2000–PRESENT

chapter five

TURBULENT TIMES

INSTRUCTORS ATTEND A SEMINAR ON “THE WEB FOR FACULTY” (WITH JAMES SCHNIREL’S MURAL FORMING THE BACKDROP). TECHNOLOGY TOOK A PROMINENT ROLE WITH LYNN CUNDIFF’S ARRIVAL IN 2000.

GOING HIGH TECH The new century ushered in a whole host of new and rapidly improving technologies that pledged to transform higher education. President Lynn Cundiff looked like the perfect leader to fulfill that transformation when he took the reins in 2000. The Board of Regents certainly thought so. “They were enamored with his view of technology and the role of technology in education going forward,” says Deneece Huftalin, who was dean of students at the time. “He was talking about holograms, virtual reality — all of this technology that was out in the future that we needed to be part of.”

When Frank Budd stepped down after nine years to take a teaching job at Weber State University, there were two finalists in the running to replace him: Lynn Cundiff and Richard Rhodes, vice president of business at SLCC. “Richard Rhodes was an amazing individual,” enthuses Vice President Emeritus David Richardson. “He was insightful, knew how to deal with money, was very well liked by faculty and had a great sense of humor. They should’ve hired him. But Cundiff convinced the regents that he could take the college in a direction that would make it technologically viable in the 21st century.” It was a promise he had previously made at Floyd College, a small community college in Rome, Georgia, where he had been president for eight years. Microsoft chief Bill Gates once cited Floyd College as a showcase for how technology can be used.

After a year, his reviews were positive. “Cundiff Energized Changes at SLCC: High-Tech Revolution a Hallmark of Presidency,” gushed a July 8, 2001, headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. By that time, under Cundiff’s enthusiastic leadership, the college had upgraded its computer network, converting from Novell to Microsoft products, issued laptops to 350 full-time faculty, decked out staff with Palm Treos — an early smartphone — and planned to install Wi-Fi on all its campuses. As the article said, the price of this revolution topped $10 million, “most of which Cundiff has yet to raise.”

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PRESIDENT CUNDIFF PLEDGED TO BRING THE COLLEGE INTO THE 21ST CENTURY, IN PART BY FOCUSING ON PERSONAL COMPUTING FOR FACULTY AND STUDENTS (FREE CAMPUS WI-FI!) AND — BRIEFLY — BY PURCHASING A FLEET OF AIRCRAFT (RIGHT).

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

Among other positive developments, Cundiff founded the President’s Diversity Council, whose faculty, staff and student representatives met regularly to discuss ways to improve connections for students from minority populations. He also had thoughts of a multicultural center on campus; his abrupt departure in 2003 left these and other plans on the shelf.

A LOT OF SIZZLE Inside the college there were some worried faces as Cundiff set about implementing his technology plans. “He committed college resources with very little oversights for approval,” says Provost Clifton Sanders, pointing out a contract the president entered into with a national IT service firm. The five-year, $26.5 million deal outsourced the college’s entire Information Technology department. “That was very painful,” adds Huftalin. “It ended up costing people jobs, costing the institution a lot of money, and they did not deliver what they said they were going to do.”

To pay for some of his high-tech revolution, Cundiff used money earmarked for other college

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programs. “The dean of continuing education had accumulated quite a bit of capital. Cundiff took that money,” says Richardson.

The former vice president for Academic Affairs paints a complicated picture of the sixth president. “I liked him. He was a cheerful enough guy,” Richardson says. “But I thought he was too entrepreneurial for a comprehensive community college. That’s a good trait, but as president you have all the responsibilities, including economic development of the community, applied technology education, transfer education — the list goes on. Cundiff focused on trying to make money.”

Then there were the airplanes. During the 1980s, the college had opened the International Airport Center, which offered programs in aviation maintenance and flight technology.

Cundiff, who happened to be an accomplished pilot, purchased six airplanes for the aviation program, over the objections of many in the college. “It was a very expensive purchase that was seen as kind of unnecessary,” says Huftalin.

After Cundiff left, the planes were sold.

LUZ GAMARRA ACADEMIC ADVISOR

During her 10 years at SLCC, Luz Gamarra helped establish the school’s Amigos Mentores program, a peer-mentoring group designed to assist Hispanic students in reaching their academic goals. In 2018, Gamarra was honored with a Tumi USA Award, which recognized her for her “service, passion and efforts for growth and prosperity of the Hispanic/Latino legacy.” In 2022, Luz was named one of USA Today’s Women of the Year, among other resilient honorees across the country who have been championing equity-focused change. ●

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FROM TRADE TO ORB

One positive development from President Cundiff’s high-tech vision for the college is featured on just about every graphic statement coming from SLCC: its logo. The distinctive orb icon next to the college’s name came into use in the 2000–01 school year, replacing a more generic logo that depicted a stylized mountain range.

CIRCLE GAME “One of the goals was to choose a symbol that better represents the technological aspect of the college,” said Joy Tlou, former director of public relations, in a 2004 SLCC student newspaper article. “Another goal was to incorporate many colors to represent the diversity of the programs offered here and the diversity of the community we serve.”

As with any institutional branding change, the orb had its detractors. In that student newspaper article, the writer opened by posing a provocative question: “What does that jumbled mess of rainbow puke have to do with this school?” Tlou did not grace that with an answer, instead pointing out the huge benefit of the change when it came to public recognition. “People see the logo and automatically associate it with Salt Lake Community College,” adding that the old mountain-range image was one common to many Utah companies.

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SIGNS OF THE TIMES Just about every name change for the school has come with a new visual identity. The 1948 original, Salt Lake Area Vocational School, never settled on a specific logo. Letterhead and other printed pieces used the school name in heavy copperplate lettering. It wasn’t until it became Salt Lake Trade Technical Institute in 1959 that the school adopted an official seal, which was used on letterhead, vehicles, uniforms and publications.

Designed by Evan Jensen, commercial art instructor, it depicted the types of education and training provided by the school.

The 1967 change to Utah Technical College at Salt Lake called for a new symbol. From a college-wide contest emerged the winner, an interlocking UTC surrounded by the new college name, designed by Bernard Tanner, also from the commercial art department. That was replaced in 1987 when SLCC switched to the mountain scene.

Now more than 20 years old, the existing orb logo shows no signs of disappearing. “We’ve worked so hard to build our brand; we don’t have any plans right now to change the orb,” says Alison McFarlane, VP for Institutional Advancement. That brand-building process started in earnest about 2011. She does mention that SLCC’s Marketing and Communications department has developed modified versions for specific uses. Other than that, the logo is here to stay. ●

1959

1967

1987

2000

2013

2020

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THE COMMUNITY WRITING CENTER AT LIBRARY SQUARE PLAZA OFFERS TECHNICAL AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT NOT JUST TO STUDENTS OF THE COLLEGE BUT TO THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE. FABIAN HERNANDEZ (BOTTOM) IS ONE LOCAL WHO ACCESSED THE CENTER’S SERVICES TO RECORD, TRANSCRIBE AND EDIT HIS MEMOIRS — AT NO COST.

AUTONOMOUS CAMPUSES? In 1992, the college acquired a 114-acre site in West Jordan with plans to build a full-service campus to serve the southern part of the Salt Lake Valley. The Jordan Campus was scheduled to welcome 2,000 students for Spring Semester 2001. Expected to take up to 30 years to be fully developed, the campus opened with a high-tech classroom building, parking, roads and a central distribution plant.

At this point, SLCC had 10 campuses in different parts of Salt Lake Valley: five main campuses (Redwood, South City, Jordan, Miller and Meadowbrook) plus five other sites consisting mostly of single buildings (Riverside Center, Sandy Campus, Millcreek Center, International Airport Center and the Tooele Center). The college also added the Metro Learning Center and the Community Writing Center (CWC) during Cundiff’s term.

The idea for the CWC came from Tiffany Rousculp, associate professor of English, and Stephen Ruffus, English chair, after they saw the success of a 1998 community newsletter project, the DiverseCity Writing Series.

Recognizing a need for writing assistance in the Salt Lake community, the pair convinced Cundiff to sponsor the center. The president, who was keen to reestablish a college presence downtown, agreed. First located in the Artspace City Center, the CWC moved to Library Square in 2005, where it remains today. Whether for

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term papers, résumés, grant applications or novels, the award-winning center offers all manner of writing assistance to students and the community at large — for free.

Concerned that managing 10 campuses and centers was growing unwieldy, Cundiff decided to reorganize the college according to a district model, where the larger campuses would have more autonomy. It was an organizational scheme used successfully at community colleges in Texas. “He appointed executive deans to run the main campuses,” explains Huftalin.

The problem was, the Board of Regents and the Board of Trustees never signed off on the district model. “So, we were left with a centralized administration and these executive deans, who didn’t have a lot of authority.

This created confusion and tension between executive deans and vice presidents, and even the staff and faculty, because they weren’t quite sure who they were supposed to listen to.” The model also lacked accountability. “I think he probably felt that if you didn’t have to report to someone, it would free you up to be more creative to assist and build the college,” remarks Morgan. Semi-autonomous campuses required duplication of services and administrative structures. “You would have had to disaggregate all of our financial aid, all of our student services,” adds Huftalin. “It ended up being quite expensive. It never really caught hold.”

THE IDEA FOR THE CWC CAME FROM TIFFANY ROUSCULP, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, AND STEPHEN RUFFUS, ENGLISH CHAIR, AFTER THEY SAW THE SUCCESS OF A 1998 COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER PROJECT, THE DIVERSECITY WRITING SERIES.

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NORMA CARR, AT RETIREMENT IN 2014, DOING WHAT SHE LOVED MOST: PLAYING SPORTS, BUILDING COMMUNITY. IN 2015, THE COLLEGE RENAMED THE TAYLORSVILLE REDWOOD SOFTBALL FIELD IN HER HONOR.

GO BRUINS!

The use of “Bruins” dates from the late 1960s, when student leaders chose it as the official name for the student body. When the school finally became a community college in 1987 and embraced intercollegiate sports by fielding a men’s basketball team, naming it the Bruins was a no-brainer.

From that date, all of SLCC’s athletics teams have proudly worn the name.

EARLY SPORTS DAYS Intramural sports have been played at the school since the very beginning.

Basketball, volleyball, Ping-Pong and horseshoes rocked the original downtown campus, although there were limited recreational facilities: basketball and volleyball were played on a roped-off area of the parking lot.

After the move to Redwood Road, increased space allowed for flag football, softball, golf, bowling and archery as well. In 1975, the college added two tennis courts, which were popular with students and the community.

In the 1970s, there was pressure to provide intercollegiate athletics as the number of students entering the college directly from high school increased. But a survey of the student body conducted in 1973 found that 56 percent of students and 69 percent of faculty were opposed to the idea. The prevailing view was that intercollegiate sports at a technical college were a waste of time.

Then came the SLCC Bruins.

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STARTING FROM SCRATCH The first foray into intercollegiate sports was a men’s basketball team in 1986, followed a year later by a women’s basketball team. “The conference the college was in had a rule that you couldn’t have just a men’s team,” says Norma Carr, who in 1989 became SLCC’s athletics director. She held the post for the next 25 years.

“I was the first female athletics director in the state of Utah,” she says. Carr was up against an experienced all-male field. “I never thought in a million years they would hire me.” She was convinced that she’d blown the interview. “I’d been coaching softball earlier that day, and it rained on me and we lost a game we should have won.” Arriving late and somewhat bedraggled, she remembers facing a row of stoic, expressionless faces. “They fired questions at me, and I answered them speaking a mile a minute. I was still running on adrenaline from the game. When I left, I said to myself, ‘Chalk that one up.’”

Judd Morgan, then VP for Student Services, was on that hiring committee. “We were having difficulties with our athletics program, and I knew that Norma had the experience to handle the situation.

Being a woman had nothing to do with our decision to make her the athletics director.”

Her qualifications were never in doubt. She’d spent 14 years coaching women’s sports at the University of Utah, the last two as the assistant athletics director. Before that, with a teaching degree from Brigham Young University, she joined Davis High School in 1969, where she championed statewide girls’ high school sports at a time when it was not allowed in Utah. “The policy was girls could be cheerleaders, they could be on drill teams, they could do intramurals but they could not do interscholastic sports,” she says. “In the early days of girls’ athletics, it was an ugly battle. But that’s a whole other story.” Suffice to say, it was a battle that she helped win.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: WOMEN’S SOCCER, 2019; WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, LATE 1980s; WOMEN’S BASKETBALL REGION 18 CHAMPIONS, 2017; ATHLETIC DIRECTOR KEVIN DUSTIN AT RIO TINTO STADIUM IN SANDY, UTAH.

When she arrived at SLCC, she found an athletics program in crisis.

“The people who were running the program were doing it part time. They had no college athletics experience,” she says. “And the men’s team was on probation.” Serious legal issues surrounded some members of the team, including cheating on academic tests and worse: allegations of assault. When she went into her new office, she found luggage belonging to a player who’d been taken to prison following a game. “I just boxed everything up and said, ‘Before my time,’ and started from scratch.”

Carr went to work writing policies and procedures manuals to assure the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) that the Bruins program was back on track. With probation lifted she could turn her attention to other concerns. The recent purchase of South High School had given the college a gymnasium and a swimming pool, its first real athletic facilities. Remodeling the gym to bring it up to college standard became a priority, as did dividing the boys’ locker room to make team locker areas for both genders, and making an athletics and strengthtraining facility.

EXPANSION Over the next quarter century or so, the athletics program flourished under Carr’s guidance. “We were a program to reckon with, both our men’s and our women’s. Even though we didn’t have the biggest budget in the world, we still were very successful for many, many years,” she says.

The college added baseball and women’s volleyball for the 1996–97 school year. “We had no baseball diamond to begin with; we had to play in Midvale,” says Carr. “Eventually we got enough money donated to build Cate Field out at Jordan Campus.” Carr remembers the struggle to obtain

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funds for new programs and proper facilities. “The Board of Trustees had two members on it who were very anti-athletics,” she says. “Judd Morgan, who was VP of students at the time, kept telling me, ‘Be patient, Norma. Bide your time.’”

Because of the opposition, Carr and her staff had worked quietly on developing a softball field on the Redwood Campus. “Judd wouldn’t let me put the scoreboard up for a couple of years, even though it had been donated,” she says. “We didn’t want it to look like we were planning another athletics team.” Women’s softball eventually began in 1999.

When Carr retired in 2014, the college renamed the field the Norma Carr Softball Field in her honor.

In 1996, the college also opened the Lifetime Activities Center, a multipurpose building that boasts a 5,000-seat basketball arena, a wellness center, including a building and strength room, a jogging track, racquetball courts, aerobic rooms, plus labs, classrooms and offices for the health sciences and physical education departments. Carr worked closely with Jean Wittison, physical education chair, on the project. “We went around the country looking at facilities, then brought our ideas to the architects,” she relates. “It took quite a few years before it was ready.”

When Carr retired, she took with her a hatful of awards and titles that include being inducted into the University of Utah Crimson Club Hall of Fame, the Utah Softball Hall of Fame, the Utah Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, the Utah Coaches of Merit Hall of Fame, and the Utah High School Activities Association’s Officials Hall of Fame and its Circle of Fame. In 2004, she was the only woman among the 25 people named most influential in Utah sports, and in 2009, the NJCAA named her National Administrator of the Year.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: THE BRUINS FACE COLORADO NORTHWESTERN; VOLLEYBALL, 2018; BASKETBALL AGAINST PERPETUAL RIVALS THE SNOW COLLEGE BADGERS; NJCAA DIVISION 1 MEN’S SOCCER CHAMPS, 2021 — A COLLEGE FIRST.

RECENT TIMES Kevin Dustin took over as SLCC’s athletics director in 2014. Like Carr, Dustin began his career as a high school teacher and basketball coach.

On Dustin’s watch, the athletics department has continued to grow, adding men’s and women’s soccer in 2016 and e-sports (competitive video gaming) in 2021. Beach volleyball and men’s and women’s crosscountry were new in 2022. Dustin and his staff have also successfully negotiated a multiyear partnership with the Utah Jazz to relocate the franchise’s G-League team, the Salt Lake City Stars, onto campus.

Similarly, he worked with US Speedskating to create a partnership allowing SLCC athletes to train at the nearby Utah Olympic Oval while continuing their studies. The teamwork struck gold at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics when six students and alumni skated for Team USA, including former SLCC student Erin Jackson, who captured the 500-meter gold — and made history as the first Black woman to win an individual Olympic medal in that sport.

Soccer has flourished; the men’s team won the NJCAA title in 2021 and the women took second place nationally. “Four of our seven collegiate varsity teams went to nationals in 2021,” says President Huftalin, a big Bruins fan. “We’re perennially pretty strong in athletics.

The men’s basketball team has won the national title twice, and in 2022 placed second in the nation. Our women’s volleyball team has come in second in the nation twice, and women’s basketball finished once in the top four. Our women’s softball team has come in second in the nation four times. We’ve never won it, which is killing us!”

“I love what athletics does for students,” she adds. “In addition to cheering for their success on the sports field or court, we are also proud of the academic prowess of our athletes.” ●

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THE BRUINS FACE THE COLORADO NORTHWESTERN SPARTANS ON CATE FIELD, A JEWEL IN THE CROWN OF JORDAN CAMPUS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH CATE FAMILY FOUNDATION FUNDS.

THE OLYMPIC FLAME BURNS BEFORE THE CLOSING CEREMONIES AT THE RICE-ECCLES STADIUM ON THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH CAMPUS, 2002. SLCC CLASSES WERE CANCELLED FOR TWO WEEKS SO THAT STUDENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF COULD ENJOY THE ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME LOCAL OPPORTUNITY OF THE XIX OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES.

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

OLYMPIC FEVER The year 2002 was a banner year for Salt Lake City. In February, 2,400 athletes from 78 nations came to be part of the XIX Olympic Winter Games in town. The event attracted recordsetting crowds and much excitement locally.

A post-Games survey found that 96 percent of Utah residents gave the Games a big thumbs-up.

At SLCC, students, faculty and staff alike shared in the excitement, many wanting to join the 19,500-strong army of volunteers who helped make the Olympics such a success.

“It was a fun time,” remembers Huftalin.

“President Cundiff closed the college for two weeks. We rearranged the academic calendar to allow students to take school off so that everybody could go volunteer or just enjoy the Olympics and be part of a community statewide celebration, which I thought was pretty cool.

It was the best decision he ever made.”

That decision was followed by one that was less inspired. “During the 2002 Olympics he allowed members of his church to stay on campus during the Games, without really notifying anybody,” Provost Sanders

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remembers. Cundiff had belonged to a Southern Baptist church in Georgia, and he invited some of the congregants to stay on the South City Campus and use it as a base. This did not go over well.

Cundiff resigned in May 2003 after just 33 months, during which time he energized the college in ways both good (bringing in 21st-century technological changes such as campus-wide Wi-Fi and enhanced computer systems) and bad (creating structural confusion, low employee morale and financial disarray).

With his departure, the Board of Regents appointed Judd Morgan to chart a new course.

JUONE KADIRI VICE PRESIDENT, INSTITUTIONAL EQUITY, INCLUSION AND TRANSFORMATION Under the leadership of Juone Kadiri and co-directors Richard Diaz and Alonso Reyna Rivarola, the HSI collaborative work team is exploring initiatives to better serve the needs of the college’s Latinx/a/o students. Operational plans, programming, student support and policy development are all underway. Becoming a federal Hispanic Serving Institution is a strategic goal for SLCC. ●

A STEADYING HAND Morgan had retired earlier that year after 27 years at the college in many capacities, most recently as vice president for Business Services.

“I tried to retire, is more accurate,” he jokes.

With his long history in administration at SLCC and recent knowledge of the financial status of the college, the regents prevailed upon him to step back in as interim president.

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FE ATURED FACULTY

CRAIG FERRIN

Morgan took command with a long to-do list from the regents, as this excerpt from a letter they wrote to him shows. His main tasks were to:

•

PROFESSOR, FINE ARTS

Craig Ferrin has spent more than 30 years sharing his passion for music with both high school and college musicians. Having joined SLCC with degrees from the University of Utah and Northwestern University, Ferrin teaches a range of music courses, directs the jazz and concert bands, and makes time to conduct the Taylorsville–SLCC Symphony Orchestra, while playing his trumpet in a number of local musical groups. In 2021, the college honored him as its Distinguished Faculty Lecturer. His presentation, “Agile Practices in Education,” focused on the idea that creativity can, in fact, be structured. That there can be a “method to the madness.” ●

• • • • • • • • • •

THOUGH IT TOOK SOME EFFORT TO ESTABLISH, THE SOUTH CITY CAMPUS GREW STEADILY THROUGH THE 1990s; TODAY, ITS SCHOOL OF ARTS, COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA IS A HUB OF STUDENT ACTIVITY AND CREATIVITY.

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improve the college’s organizational structure to enhance coordination and accountability; stabilize the college’s financial condition during a time of stated budget difficulties; resolve personnel and real estate issues; establish trust with staff and faculty; improve morale; market the institution; maintain a quality learning environment for students; manage student population growth; improve diversity; boost community interest and involvement; and improve working relationships.

The new leader set about this daunting list with his characteristic collaborative style.

“He’d sit down and have a conversation with you, and he would listen to you, even while he knew that the final decision rested with him,” says Richardson. “He had vice presidents surrounding him who were very supportive of his initiatives, his efforts. And they helped him do a great job.”

“One of the main things I needed to do was to bring some accountability back into the

college budget-wise,” remarks Morgan. “Cundiff spent a whole lot of money on technology, and he really didn’t follow the college acquisition program at all.” Morgan began with a thorough review of the college’s finances. “We started from the ground up in all areas so that everybody had a chance to input what we needed in each area as far as innovation, keeping personnel and developing new programs were concerned,” he says. The resulting budgets were brought to the president’s cabinet for review and final decision making before being sent to the Utah legislature.

Also started on day one was a return to a more traditional, centralized structure. Never fully implemented, the district model at SLCC had proved confusing and costly. Morgan also canceled the outsourcing contract for IT services, and reestablished SLCC’s own Information Technology department. “That was a victory. Those people were draining the college,” remarks Richardson.

The “resolve personnel and real estate issues” item was less innocuous than it seemed.

In early 2003, the college became embroiled in a lawsuit with a Hispanic civil rights group over alleged discriminatory hiring and employment practices by its police department. SLCC had had its own campus police since the 1990s. The same day Cundiff left, Equal Employment Director Clyde Johnson resigned, accusing SLCC of ignoring its own racial discrimination and

employment procedures. The press went to town. “Some of the allegations led us to finally dismantle our police force,” remembers Sanders.

As one of his first acts in May of that year, Morgan outsourced law enforcement for the Redwood and South City campuses to the Utah Department of Public Safety, and for other centers to local police forces. He also overhauled the equal employment opportunity philosophy, reestablished the President’s Committee on Diversity and set up diversity training for staff and faculty.

The main real estate issue he had to tackle — with the help of Don Porter, business vice president — was the Metro Learning Center.

Located at 115 S Main Street, the singlebuilding campus was leased by the college in 2001. “At the time, we thought it would be wonderful to have a college presence on Main Street, where we would be close to students who live downtown and where we could offer courses to businesspeople,” says Morgan.

But the center had run into trouble: “The building was unsafe — we had to remove all the students.” He closed the center in 2003 for a seismic and safety refit. There were also financial concerns over the lease, prompting the college to buy the building, saving $200,000 per year. The refurbished building reopened for Fall 2004 classes under a new name: Main Street Center.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: THE MILLER CAMPUS, HOME OF THE INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC SAFETY, KICKSTARTED DURING MORGAN’S TENURE; THE FOCUS ON STUDENT EXPERIENCE REDOUBLED IN THIS ERA; A BUILDING FROM THE DRAPER CAMPUS AT THE TIME OF ITS OPENING IN 2004.

The college closed the small storefront campus at Millcreek on the east side of the valley in 2003. “It was catering to students who didn’t have that far to drive to the Redwood Campus,” Huftalin explains. The following year, it took out a lease on the old city hall in Draper. The Draper Center offered two-year general transfer courses to students in this small city at the southern end of the valley. The development of the Miller Campus continued apace during Morgan’s term, and he worked with Miller on the Department of Public Safety building from inception to breaking ground.

Morgan’s steadying influence included managing the accreditation process. Periodically, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities checks to ensure the college meets national standards. “The accreditation committee came and did a review and found that there were programs that were lacking,” says Morgan, who won a postponement that allowed the college to respond to the deficiencies. “We did a self-study, establishing monitoring committees to oversee the resolution to warnings received, and prepared ourselves for another visit in the spring of 2006.”

“In the past 14 months, President Morgan has done a remarkable job of shepherding the college through some challenging and difficult times,” said Joy Tlou, SLCC public relations director. That was in June 2004, when the search committee for a new president announced that it was still hunting for qualified candidates for the top job. It would take them another full year before they found her. “In the meantime, we can’t let this announcement slow us down,” Morgan wrote. “SLCC is stronger and more attractive to potential presidential candidates than ever before, but we can use this time to make our institution even better.”

126 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

chapter five turbulent times 127

COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES

Before the late 1990s, being anything other than a straight heterosexual man or woman meant a life led under the radar at SLCC, as in the community at large.

A gay and lesbian student club tried to organize in the 1990s, amid strong opposition from conservative faculty and student body officers.

“They couldn’t find an advisor, so the club ceased to exist,” remembers Gordon Storrs. Until the 1997–98 school year, that is, when Coloring Outside the Lines (COL) boldly raised its flag.

SLCC IS A MAJOR PARTICIPANT IN THE ANNUAL UTAH PRIDE PARADE. PICTURED HERE IS A SCENE FROM 2019, THE SAME YEAR THE GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDENT RESOURCE CENTER (NEXT PAGE) OPENED.

THE NEW NORMAL Styling themselves as the gay-lesbian-straight alliance on campus, COL promoted openness, understanding and equality regardless of sexuality, and offered a safe, friendly environment to discuss related issues. “The main goal of the club is to make everyone aware that gay and lesbian people are just as normal as other people,” said club president Chris Fergeson in a 1997 student newspaper article.

Even then it was a struggle: they lost their advisor halfway through the year. Storrs, who had recently put his name forward as a club advisor, agreed to step in. “I won the advisor-of-the-year award from the student association for helping those young people do their thing,” he says with a laugh. At the time, Storrs hadn’t yet come out as gay. “I think I got it because everyone loved my courage: I was the straight advisor to the gay club. No one wanted to be associated with the club in case people thought they were gay.”

Storrs describes it as a “dangerous” time for non-straight students.

“People would make fun of gay people on campus, and even threaten them.” Students were reluctant to come to meetings, he said. “We’d see them walk by the door two or three times but never come in.”

128 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

PETER MOOSMAN, MANAGER FOR THE GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDENT RESOURCE CENTER, WHICH OPENED JUST BEFORE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC CLOSED THE CAMPUS.

There was progress toward a more accepting atmosphere on campus.

In April 2002, SLCC held its first Pride and Awareness Week, sponsored

by COL and endorsed by the President’s Diversity Council. The club continued to offer support and increased awareness of and a sense of community for LGBTQ+ students on campus.

But less tolerant voices on campus remained. In 2004, COL sponsored an art show that included a display of photos of two young men dressed as Mormon missionaries in provocative poses. This led to emotional confrontations, and three of the photos were stolen. The following year, the ultra-right-wing Eagle Forum Collegians campus club plastered walls with posters blaring “Silencing Gay Voices” and giving details of a talk by Dave Pruden of Evergreen International, which advocated “reparative therapy” for homosexuals. “People would rip the posters down and come into my office crying,” remembers Storrs. “As you can imagine, it was highly offensive to our LGBTQ+ population,” adds Deneece Huftalin, who was dean of students at the time. “Staff and faculty, to their credit, stepped up and protested against these posters” and the forthcoming lecture. It was a tricky issue for the dean. “My job was to try and create a space where free speech could prevail, where we weren’t censoring information, even if we thought the material was offensive. I took some flak for that.”

The talk went ahead. The whole club attended, Storrs remembers, along with some staff and faculty. “Some of the faculty had angry words for the speaker, who was saying things that basically weren’t true.”

John McCormick, SLCC history professor and former dean of the School of Humanities, walked out. “That was a great moment,” Storrs says.

UPDATE FOR TODAY “Most of that homophobic stuff has gone away now,” Storrs says, musing about how far things have come for queer people at SLCC. “We’re not totally there yet, but we’ve made major progress. The college has worked hard to

130 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

make it a comfortable place for all, where no one feels uncomfortable because of who they are or what color they are or what they believe or who they love.” That’s a sentiment echoed by Peter Moosman, an SLCC alumnus and former student leader, who runs the Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center (GSSRC), which opened in 2019.

“There are a lot more efforts and initiatives on campus to create LGBTQ+ equity,” he says, such as rainbow crosswalks on the three main campuses, the SLCC letters wrapped in rainbow colors for Pride Month, a major presence in the annual Utah Pride Parade and other visible, inclusive symbols. Coloring Outside the Lines is still around, although these days it’s called the Queer Student Association. Then there’s the LGBTQ+ Steering Committee set up in 2012 to help transform college culture by raising awareness, providing education and advocating for LGBTQ+ populations.

“I sat on the committee, and one of our focuses was to advocate for a resource center,” says Moosman.

Conditions have changed, but the work goes on. “Even today I work with students who are very much in that struggle, kids who sneak into our center who can’t put on any rainbows because they don’t want to out themselves.”

His own coming-out journey as a gay man from a Mormon family adds a personal perspective to a struggle he understands only too well.

The resource center has made a huge difference, says Moosman.

By way of illustration, he cites three students who all walked into the center one day at the same time. “I thought they were together, but as we made introductions, I realized they didn’t know each other.” As the students started to chat, Moosman just sat back and watched. “‘Oh, my gosh, we’re in the same class!’ ‘Oh, we can ride the bus together!’ They started making arrangements, scheduling things. Community building was happening right before my eyes! It was beautiful to see how we helped create a safe space to bring these students together to connect and build friendships at the college.” ●

UTAH STATE PRESIDENT STAN ALBRECHT AND SLCC PRESIDENT CYNTHIA BIOTEAU CELEBRATE A SUCCESSFUL ACCORD ALLOWING SLCC STUDENTS TO SEAMLESSLY TRANSFER TO USU TO COMPLETE ITS BACHELOR’S DEGREE REQUIREMENTS — ONE PART OF BIOTEAU’S LARGER PLAN TO MAKE SLCC THE PREMIER COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN THE NATION. “GO BIG,” SHE SAID AT THE TIME, “OR GO HOME.”

chapter six

THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT It was standing-room only at the 300-seat Student Event Center. The crowd buzzed with excitement. After more than a two-year search, that July day in 2005, SLCC was about to meet its next president.

Deneece Huftalin paced as she waited. The regents had asked the VP for Student Services to escort the incoming president onto the stage. Over the last several days, three finalists had flown in for final interviews; Huftalin had no idea who had been chosen. Finally, the door opened … and in walked Cynthia Bioteau.

“My goodness!” Huftalin screamed with delight.

“I guess you weren’t expecting me,” Bioteau said with a laugh, as the two prepared to face the crowd. When the moment came, SLCC’s first female president was met with rapturous applause.

Huftalin remembers the day well. “When Cynthia walked in that door, my heart leapt for joy, because not only was she the most qualified, the most interesting and the most innovative president they could have chosen, she was also a woman. My conversations in cabinet would be very different with her in charge.”

For Bioteau, the day had been a blur. After all the interviews, she was relaxing in her hotel room when higher education commissioner Rich Kendell called with the news. “Well, yes, I accept!” she said.

“Great. A car will pick you up in 15 minutes.” She rushed to get dressed, then threw together some words of acceptance as the car whisked her to the press conference. “It was just a crazy time,” she says. “I didn’t know anyone there at all, and I had no idea what the next almost nine years would bring. They turned out to be some of the most remarkable years of my life.”

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“I WANTED SLCC TO BE TRULY THE COMMUNITY’S COLLEGE, WHICH MEANS YOU NEED PEOPLE AND PROGRAMS WHERE THE COMMUNITY NEEDS THEM.” CYNTHIA BIOTEAU FORMER PRESIDENT

POP ART SNACKS TOOK A BIG STEP FORWARD WHEN FOUNDERS MIKE (LEFT) AND VANESSA (CENTER) DOBSON ATTENDED THE GOLDMAN SACHS 10,000 SMALL BUSINESSES PROGRAM AT SLCC. MORE THAN 800 UTAH BUSINESSES HAVE PARTICIPATED IN THE PROGRAM.

134 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

The new president was a novel proposition for Utah’s only comprehensive community college. “I was certainly a long shot,” says Bioteau. “I was a woman, I was not a Mormon, I was from the East and I wasn’t even a sitting president.” At the time, she was vice president and chief academic officer for a community college in North Carolina. She had never even set foot in Utah before. “I think my passion for the purpose of community colleges is what really propelled me.”

LOOKING OUTWARD The seventh president arrived with an outsider’s eye. “SLCC was one of the largest institutions of higher education in Utah. It called itself a community college, but from my perspective, it wasn’t widely understood in terms of the breadth and depth of what a community college provides for a community.”

One of Bioteau’s first acts was to initiate a strategic plan, across the college and the community, to better define the college’s vision, core themes and priorities. Alongside faculty, staff and students, she brought in media and leaders from government, churches and community to help update the mission statement. “I wanted SLCC to be truly the community’s college, which means you need

people and programs where the community needs them.”

Out of this process emerged a lofty vision: Salt Lake Community College will be the premier comprehensive community college in the nation.

“Go big or go home,” quips Bioteau. “SLCC is somewhat isolated, not only within Utah but within the United States. I saw part of my work was to bring SLCC into national conversations so that we could learn from those around us, from other community colleges who were doing things in terms of workforce development and student success and access in an even greater way. It was a more outward-looking approach.”

While the college began work with national organizations like the American Association of Community Colleges and Achieving the Dream, she kept Tim Sheehan, vice president for Government and Community Relations, busy raising the profile of the college with lobbying work in D.C. With its new prominence on the national stage, the college was able to offer the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program at the Miller Campus, making it one of only 13 community colleges in the country to do so. “The Cynthia Bioteau years were marked by the college taking a more prominent public role,” remarks Provost Sanders. “We really struck a national profile.”

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THE MILL

EVERYDAY ENTREPRENEUR PROGRAM Providing budding entrepreneurs with the know-how to start companies. Since its start in 2019, program graduates have opened 11 companies in Utah.

In 2001, Larry Miller built this campus to fulfill his vision of public–private success by serving as the focal point of resources for Utah’s entrepreneurs and startups. It houses a number of active centers, including those listed here.

“THE AMERICAN DREAM IS ALIVE AND WELL.” L ARRY H. MILLER

Note: All figures are accurate to Summer 2021.

IN 2001, LARRY MILLER’S VISION FOR A PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP CAMPUS IN SANDY, UTAH, YIELDED AN EVENT CENTER, CULINARY AND AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR TRAINING FACILITIES AND THE CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP CENTER. IT IS HOME TO MANY PROGRAMS, INCLUDING (RIGHT, FROM TOP) EVERYDAY ENTREPRENEUR, GOLDMAN SACHS 10,000 SMALL BUSINESSES AND REFUGEE LEADERSHIP TRAINING (HERE, REFUGEES POSE WITH FORMER UTAH GOVERNOR AND FIRST LADY GARY AND JEANETTE HERBERT).

VETERAN BUSINESS RESOURCE CENTER Its mission is to support the business needs of those in the military community who wish to thrive as entrepreneurs.

THE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER Entrepreneurs come to the Mill, which provides space, education and access to resources for those wanting to start a new business or grow an existing one — a clear road map to success.

GOLDMAN SACHS 10,000 SMALL BUSINESSES Since 2013, SLCC has trained more than 800 companies across Utah through this unique business program.

REFUGEE LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS Delivered for both adult and youth refugees, these programs provide tools and resources to help them navigate the challenges of adapting to a new culture and become leaders of the future.

One of Bioteau’s great strengths was engaging and listening to legislators, businesspeople and cultural leaders. Not only could she hear what they wanted from their community college, she was then able to help them see its importance to the larger community. “She spoke well and had a great outward face,” remarks Lisa Bickmore, associate dean emeritus of English, linguistics and writing studies. Being the first female president certainly helped, says Bioteau. “I was a bit of a curiosity — people wanted to see me and hear what I had to say.”

Jesselie Anderson, former chair of the Board of Trustees, adds that Bioteau brought an ability to engage the community in a much broader way. “Cynthia didn’t stay in her office. She was active in the community, meeting regularly with chambers of commerce, mayors and city councils, and downtown business groups. Even though she was new to Salt Lake City, she quickly became a very well respected and committed member of our community.” Anderson adds that Bioteau was always willing to sit down with the Utah Senate, the House leadership and committee members, or any legislator linked to funding. “She was just a tireless champion for Salt Lake Community College.”

President Huftalin echoes that tribute.

“I think she probably built the credibility of the institution as a community college more than anybody. She was very demanding. She had very high expectations of what we should be as an institution.”

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STAFF SPOTLIGHT

MARIAN HOWE-TAYLOR MANAGER OF SPECIAL PROJECTS, SCHOOL OF ARTS, COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA As its former chair and present member, Marian HoweTaylor has long been an organizing force on the Martin Luther King Celebration Committee. Since the 1990s, the committee has put on influential events to mark the holiday set aside to honor Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. Creator of the documentary “Beloved Community Project,” Marian earned the prestigious YWCA 2020–21 Outstanding Achievement Award for Racial Equity and Social Justice for her work on the film, among her other efforts. ●

THE PUBLIC SAFETY EDUCATION TRAINING CENTER (LEFT) AND MILLER AUTOMOTIVE TRAINING CENTER (RIGHT) OF THE MILLER CAMPUS, WHICH BALANCES ITS BUILT ENVIRONMENT WITH ITS SUBURBAN SETTING TO MAXIMIZE VIEWS AND ACCESSIBILITY.

chapter six The First Female President 139

THAT LEVINAS GUY

There’s noteworthy SLCC faculty, and then there’s the Levinas Guy. “That’s what they call me in the Utah professional philosophy community, after my late teacher, the great French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas,” quips Alexander Izrailevsky.

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, with academic credentials from prestigious Russian universities and having done postgraduate work in Paris and Oxford, Izrailevsky today finds himself a world away, teaching philosophy in the City of Saints. “I love this beautiful place! And Salt Lake Community College, they have been so good to me,” he enthuses. He and his wife came to Salt Lake City in 2000 after their sons wound up at the University of Utah on a student exchange.

MISSION POSSIBLE? Joining SLCC that year, Izrailevsky found a small philosophy program struggling with a credibility problem. “You are just a community college.

Philosophy is something a big school like ours is supposed to teach,” the professors at the University of Utah told him. “They wouldn’t take us seriously or accept our students’ credits,” he says. That kind of elitism made him mad. “I made it my mission to elevate the self-perception, and self-respect, the academic self-value of my Salt Lake Community College students, for them to feel absolutely equal to any four-year school student,” he says.

140 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

His first year, Izrailevsky put together a philosophy conference with a few of his students. The next year, they invited counterparts from other Utah colleges and universities. It quickly became an annual event, and students from other western states began to attend. Proceedings went partly online, and Europe followed, then Australia. “In 2014, we held a huge conference on ‘The Moral Challenges of Nietzsche’s Nihilism,’” he says. “A lot of top philosophers from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands participated. I was so proud.” After 14 years, Izrailevsky’s little project had grown into an academic conference of world renown.

By this time, the profs up the hill had got the message that SLCC meant business, philosophically speaking. “After three years of intensive work, we’ve signed two official memorandums with the University of Utah philosophy department,” says Izrailevsky. “One provides a mutual exchange of expertise in the field of philosophy specialization: exchange of lectures, exchange of faculty seminars, workshops and so on. The other accepts all Salt Lake Community College philosophy classes as 100 percent acceptable equivalents of similar classes taught by University of Utah professors.”

Izrailevsky and his colleagues Jeanine Alesch and Jane Drexler can be justly proud. “It’s a vindication, an achievement of real justice for our students, who can be proud to be Salt Lake Community College philosophy students,” he says. ●

UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bioteau had some tidying up to do when she took over from Judd Morgan. “The ship has been righted, but I think there are still some turbulent waters,” she told the Deseret News.

The accreditation review that Morgan had successfully delayed was fast approaching.

Fortunately, administration and faculty had been working diligently to address the NCCU’s three main areas of concern: institutional planning and effectiveness, educational program planning and effectiveness, and faculty evaluation. The impending assessment spurred the college to reach even higher.

“We had a whole new ePortfolio program that was launched as a result of that accreditation deficiency, which is probably one of the best in the country,” remarks Huftalin. Thanks to the diligent work of the accreditation committees, plus the steps taken because of the new strategic plan, the college passed with flying colors.

There were other challenges to face. In 2001, the state legislature created yet another institution of higher learning, the Utah College of Applied Technology (UCAT). Some eight centers in Utah that offered non-credit training in technical skills became subsumed, and SLCC was next. “UCAT wanted to take over our technical programs right from the get-go,” says Morgan. “We wanted to hold on to them. So we had issues with the legislature about who

was going to govern the technical programs at the college.”

“For several years there was major warring between technical college leadership and the UCAT leadership about the tech college role versus the community college role versus the university role,” remarks Huftalin. “No one wanted to play together. Cynthia was a huge believer in community colleges, and she just held her ground and explained what our mission was and that those kinds of technical programs are very much a part of it.”

The ongoing debate on how non-credit technical education should be administered in the state reached a conclusion in 2009 when the Utah legislature passed H.B. 15, Career and Technical Education Amendments, with almost unanimous support. Under the bill, the Salt Lake portion of the Salt Lake/Tooele Applied Technology College was merged with SLCC, becoming part of the Skills Center, now under a new title: SLCC School of Applied Technology.

As part of this merger, SLCC took over sites at the Highland Center and Rose Park Center.

At the time, the expanded School of Applied Technology was based at Meadowbrook Campus but also offered programs at the Miller, South City and Taylorsville Redwood campuses, and two small, affiliated sites.

“CYNTHIA WAS A HUGE BELIEVER IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES, AND SHE JUST HELD HER GROUND AND EXPLAINED WHAT OUR MISSION WAS AND THAT THOSE KINDS OF TECHNICAL PROGRAMS ARE VERY MUCH A PART OF IT.” DENEECE HUFTALIN PRESIDENT

chapter six The First Female President 141

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DENEECE HUFTALIN (SEATED, SECOND FROM LEFT) WAS RECOGNIZED WITH THE 2017 ATHENA LEADERSHIP AWARD, THE FOURTH SLCC WOMAN TO ACHIEVE THIS; GAIL MILLER, BOARD MEMBER FROM 2004 TO 2017; PIECES FROM THE FASHION INSTITUTE’S 2016 EXHIBIT “MIRROR THE WORLD” ON THE SOUTH CITY CAMPUS.

Huftalin adds that today SLCC and the Utah System of Higher Education, which absorbed UCAT in 2020, are under the same system governed by articulation agreements. “We are now starting to find ways we can be more closely aligned with the other tech colleges. So it’s been almost a 180 in terms of that relationship.”

And the real estate challenges continued.

SLCC’s Main Street Campus had caused Morgan all kinds of headaches until it was purchased, but it remained a 75,000-square-foot albatross.

“The college was losing $800,000 a year on Main Street Campus,” Bioteau said in a 2006 college newspaper article. To cut costs, the college sold the site to the LDS Church and leased a smaller campus building across the street from the main downtown library. SLCC’s Library Square Campus opened for students in time for Spring Semester 2007.

142 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

ADVANCING WOMEN By virtue of being the first woman in the presidency, Bioteau opened doors for other women. “She helped to amplify the role of women at the college in a significant way,” says Vice President Emeritus Richardson. “I think her legacy will be in part that she helped women at the college move up the administrative ladder.”

During her term, the president brought the American Association for Women in Community Colleges to the campus. The AAWCC is a national organization that provides education, career development and advancement to women educators and students at community colleges.

“We hosted national sessions and workshops for women who desire professional careers at the college,” remarks Sanders. “Her work in getting the college a higher national profile also created opportunity for many women at the college to be recognized in other arenas.”

He also points out that SLCC has had three ATHENA Award winners — “four, if you count Trustee Emeritus Gail Miller.” The ATHENA Award honors individuals who have achieved the highest level of professional excellence while also actively assisting others in the community — particularly women — in realizing their leadership potential. Following Miller came Cynthia Bioteau, Associate Vice President Karen Gunn and, most recently, Deneece Huftalin. “So we’ve had a pretty good run advancing attention regarding gender equity issues,” adds Sanders.

Female representation changed dramatically during Bioteau’s term. “The chair of our Board of Trustees, the president of the institution, the president of our Foundation, the athletics director, and the vice president for Student Affairs were all women. Senior leadership being that gender-balanced was unheard of in Utah.

It was very exciting.”

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THE TANNER FORUM ON SOCIAL ETHICS, HELD AT THE GRAND THEATRE, CONTINUES THE VENERABLE TRADITION OF COLLEGE CAMPUSES HOSTING FIGURES OF ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR LIVELY DEBATE. CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: POLITICAL COMMENTATORS ROBERT REICH (2016) AND VAN JONES (2018); SCIENCE JOURNALIST ED YONG (2020); STATISTICIAN TALITHIA WILLIAMS (2019).

TACKLING THE BIG QUESTIONS

Providing a forum where prominent thinkers and leaders can discuss big ideas and ask provocative social questions has long been an important function of the college.

EARLY HISTORY Before it became a community college, guest lecturers tended to be prominent members of business and industry who spoke on topics such as manpower requirements and the future of technology. In the 1990s, the college initiated the annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture, which to this day honors and showcases SLCC’s internal talent. “It’s a forum for the college community to come together and experience faculty innovation, research and scholarly achievement,” says Alison McFarlane, VP for Institutional Advancement.

Also that decade, SLCC’s student association sponsored speakers such as Zev Kedem, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Charles Pellegrino, who spoke on topics ranging from the Holocaust to NBA basketball to the archeology of the Titanic. Other on-campus committees and organizations with guest speaker programs include the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, which each year presents a keynote to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.

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TANNER FORUM The year 2000 saw noted economic and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin deliver the inaugural lecture of the Tanner Forum on Social Ethics. “It’s a prestigious annual event that allows the college to invite distinguished scholars to our campus for stimulating lectures on current social topics,” says McFarlane.

The forum gets its name from Obert C. and Grace Tanner, major Utah philanthropists who, among other acts of beneficence, have established 11 philosophy library rooms at prestigious colleges and universities, and endowed more than a dozen lectureships, including the world-renowned Tanner Lectures on Human Values, given annually at the University of Utah, University of California and Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge, Michigan, Stanford, Yale and Princeton universities. Following in her parents’ footsteps, Carolyn Tanner Irish, as chair of the O.C. Tanner Company and trustee of the Tanner Charitable Trust, sponsored the Tanner Forum on Social Ethics at SLCC, a gift given annually since its start.

Over the years, the forum has hosted internationally recognized lecturers in the Grand Theatre on topics ranging from climate change to bioethics and from global conflict to religion. Lectures are often enhanced by panel discussions and receptions where students and other forum participants can interact with the lecturer in an informal setting. “We really look forward to the forum lectures,” remarks McFarlane. “Not only are they a stimulating academic experience for our students, they also give the broader community an opportunity to be on campus and become involved in dialogue about current social issues.” ●

Evidently, not everyone got the memo.

“My husband, Frank, and I lived in the president’s house on Redwood Campus,” Bioteau says. “One day, I was about to leave for work when the doorbell rang. I was dressed in a smart suit with my portfolio with me; Frank’s retired, so he was in jeans and a T-shirt. He was standing right beside me when I answered the door.”

“Hello, President Bioteau. I’m the college maintenance guy. I’ve come to service the air conditioning.” He was talking to Frank.

“I mean,” Bioteau resumes, “are you kidding me? My husband got a little nervous at that point. He knew my reaction wasn’t going to be pleasant.”

That kind of unconscious prejudice revealed itself more than once. At a ribboncutting event, a legislator ignored Bioteau, shook the hand of her male VP and started talking to him like he was the president.

“You’d think his staff would’ve prepped him better: ‘Remember, the president’s the one in the skirt,’” she says, exasperated.

Bioteau reflects on the solitary nature of life as a woman in the top job. “There are very few natural supports that you can look to and just say, ‘Wow, how do I handle this?’” she says.

“Being the first female of anything can be a lonely position — exhausting at times.”

chapter six The First Female President 145

AS OF SPRING

2022

OPEN SLCC HAS SAVED

195,000 STUDENTS

A TOTAL OF

21M

$

INCLUSIVITY FEATURES HIGH ON THE LIST OF SLCC’S VALUES, PROMOTING AN ENVIRONMENT OF RESPECT AND EMPATHY ADVANCED BY DIVERSE CULTURES AND PERSPECTIVES. HERE, A PROFESSIONAL TRUCK DRIVING STUDENT AT SALT LAKE TECHNICAL COLLEGE.

146 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

SHOWING INITIATIVES Innovative programs and initiatives were building during this period — like ePortfolio.

A way for students in general education courses to create a digital collection of their goals, assignments, course-related work and even extracurricular activities, ePortfolios add another dimension to students’ learning experience. The process of selectively archiving and reflecting on their work to show how they are meeting learning outcomes helps them to become critical thinkers, said David Hubert, then the associate VP for General and Developmental Education.

Hubert led the ePortfolio initiative, which began in 2005 when the college received a small grant to pilot class-level ePortfolios. After four years of testing and a year of deliberation, the ePortfolio program officially began in 2010 for all general education courses. “It has won national awards,” says Huftalin, adding that ePortfolios have also become an important tool for the assessment of general education learning outcomes. The ePortfolios, created and owned by students, can be used even after students leave the college.

Lisa Fowler, an assistant professor in the School of Business, sees broader potential for the program, which currently applies only to general education students. “I’m hopeful that we can create a component for the ePortfolio where business students can write about their

experiences and post projects they’ve done,” she says. “They then can show proof to employers or schools that they’re applying to about what they’ve done and how much they’ve learned.”

Open SLCC was another educational initiative pioneered at the time. Under the program, faculty provide students with alternatives to traditional textbooks that are available at no or low cost on the first day of classes. “Our aim is to always promote inclusive and equitable access to learning materials, helping make college more affordable and accessible to all,” said Jason Pickavance, then director of Educational Initiatives, in a 2018 interview. Pickavance and his colleagues piloted the program in 2013, which began the following year. It has been a roaring success.

Since its inception, Open SLCC has saved nearly 195,000 students a total of $21 million as of Spring 2022.

Mentioned earlier, PACE (Partnerships for Accessing College Education) is a scholarship program that lies at the heart of the college’s mission. Created in 2011 through a partnership with local high schools and businesses, PACE was set up to increase college participation and graduation rates for high school students by giving those who are motivated to attend college but cannot afford it the financial backing to come to SLCC.

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PACE STUDENTS SPEAK OUT

ENGINEERING A FUTURE “I thought PACE was a really good opportunity — college is expensive, and the program requirements matched my expectations for myself.” So said Juan Perez-Vega, who graduated from West High School in 2021 and went on to study engineering at SLCC while working for Stadler U.S. in their Talent Ready Apprenticeship Connection program. Perez-Vega plans to finish his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at a local university.

Like his two older sisters, he is a first-generation student. “My oldest sister is my role model. She has had to overcome so much in her life, and I always thought, if she can make it, so can I.” Perez-Vega credits PACE with helping connect him to his future, especially in his senior year studying from home during COVID-19. “PACE and my advisors made a big difference in helping me graduate and stay on track,” he said.

BECOMING A ROLE MODEL “When I first heard about PACE, I wasn’t going to apply — I didn’t think that I was good enough,” said Evelyn Solares, who overcame her qualms and aced the program. She’s now on her way to a fouryear degree at the University of Utah, a cherished goal she initially saw as intimidating and expensive. “PACE helped make it possible for me to attend college and realize my dream.”

One of three girls from a hardworking family, Solares learned much about life from her parents. “They have always been amazing role models for me, but they never had the opportunity to go to college.”

Now both her younger sisters are in the PACE program, and she has a chance to be a role model for them. “My PACE advisors were always there for me when no one else was able to. Their example inspired me to do the same for other kids.” ●

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COLLEGE CHAMPIONS

MARK AND KATHIE MILLER Since retiring from the Mark Miller Auto Group, their successful family business, Mark and Kathie Miller have dedicated themselves to changing educational outcomes in Utah one school and one student at a time. In 2021, they partnered with SLCC to expand its PACE program to Kearns High School. They also support the United Way’s Promise Partnership Regional Council initiative, working to raise the math scores of Utah’s elementary school students through not only philanthropy but also direct action.

Along with volunteers they’ve recruited, the couple personally tutors students as often as four days a week. In 2022, the college recognized the Millers with honorary doctorates. ●

BETWEEN 2011 AND 2021 (SHOWN HERE), 431 SCHOLARS HAVE PARTICIPATED IN SLCC’S PARTNERSHIP FOR ACCESSING COLLEGE EDUCATION, RECEIVING FULL TUITION FOR SIX SEMESTERS.

“When you look at marginalized populations — lowincome or minority populations — their potential is just as great as anyone else’s. They just don’t have the pathway for Mom and Dad to write that $3,000 check a month to go to school,” remarks Maria Farrington, former SLCC Board of Trustees chair. The PACE program can provide that critical leg up for grade 9 or 10 students to even consider college.

“It starts in the environment of a Title I school, one that is overrepresented by low-income students, by building inspiration to go to college. But it also starts by honoring that student in their culture, by involving the family and sharing with those families ways to go to college. Often those parents have never had a college experience. So they don’t really know the system. PACE is able to step in and respectfully say, ‘We’re here to assist you in this. But the student has to carry the load. It’s not a walk in the park: those students have to maintain 90 percent attendance and a 2.5 GPA. It’s super hard work.” Students who meet the requirements earn a two-year scholarship to SLCC. When PACE was created, Bioteau saw a second benefit.

“It was one of the strategies for increasing diversity in our student body,” she says. Bioteau is a firm believer that the college’s students should mirror the greater population.

“And if you’re going to open the doors for diversity in your student body, you must also be very mindful and careful in recruiting diversity in faculty and staff,” she adds.

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A FEEL FOR COOKING

Replacing walkway and wall fixtures with more efficient LED lights, installing low-flow toilets and faucets, and using equipment that measures evapotranspiration to radically reduce water consumption are examples of other SLCC sustainability efforts as the college moves toward an ever-greener future.

THIS PAGE: EACH YEAR, SLCC STUDENTS ENGAGE IN A WIDE RANGE OF DAY-OF-SERVICE TASKS, SUPPORTING THEIR COMMUNITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT. AT TREEUTAH’S ECOGARDEN, CREATIVE WRITING STUDENTS LEND A HAND IN BEAUTIFICATION WORKDAYS AND BY CONTRIBUTING TO NEW BILINGUAL INTERPRETIVE SIGNS.

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GOING GREEN In 2007, the college set up the Sustainability Committee to oversee current and future efforts SLCC is making to be a more sustainable institution. Small recycling programs had started as early as the mid-1990s; in 2010, the college’s Facilities division kicked off a largescale centralized recycling program with help from the student body, which approved a small recycling fee per student.

Over the following years, the college reduced energy usage for all campuses through a number of initiatives including installing electric vehicle stations and solar arrays, and using innovative technologies such as combined heat and power to reduce its carbon footprint. It has also made large strides in converting its vehicle fleet to less polluting alternative fuels and electric power.

INFORMED DECISIONS Just before he passed the baton to Bioteau, Judd Morgan had set up an institutional research department, the first step toward what is now the Institutional Effectiveness division. “It was basically one guy who was a teacher in developmental education and a support person,” remarks Barbara Grover, who inherited the department in the mid-2000s and was a godsend. “Plucking Barbara out of the math department and putting her in charge of institutional research was a brilliant move,” says Alison McFarlane, VP for Institutional Advancement. Under Grover’s guidance, the department became a critical resource for the college, offering evidence-based data to inform decision making, assessment and strategic planning. “Being able to use data to actually ask good questions and get meaningful answers, that’s really different than just keeping track of stuff,” says Grover. It’s data, for example, that tells the college who their students are: their

Jim Reed, a recent graduate of SLCC’s Culinary Institute, has a unique view of the art of cooking: he’s legally blind.

Retinitis pigmentosa progressively robbed him of his sight while he was studying for a master’s degree in public administration at Montana State University. Finishing his degree with the help of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, Reed landed a job as a prep cook at a high-end bayou country restaurant. “I don’t think the chef really had a lot of expectations of me and my performance,” he said.

Reed quickly showed his boss that his lack of sight did not hold him back, and the experience fired him up to consider a career in the culinary arts — despite his misgivings that it is a very visual profession.

“I’ve always liked cooking. I’ve always been good at it,” he said. In 2015, he applied to SLCC’s Culinary Institute.

Having a blind student in his course presented a special challenge to Franco Aloia, an assistant professor, who was concerned about how to deliver effective instruction not just to Reed but to all his other students at the same time. That’s where SLCC’s Disability Resource Center came in, providing an assistant to work with Reed during classes. The instructor also took a more tactile approach to teaching. In butchery lessons, for example, feeling subtleties in texture when preparing cuts of meat was something Reed excelled at. It was an approach that all the students benefited from.

Earning his associate’s degree at SLCC, Reed is clear about his future.

“This is what I want to do,” he said. “I’m not going to let much get in my way.” ●

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THOUGH THE COMPREHENSIVE CULINARY INSTITUTE OPENED IN 2006, FOOD SERVICE TRAINING HAS BEEN FOUNDATIONAL TO THE COLLEGE’S VOCATIONAL FOCUS FROM DAY ONE. NOW, AS THEN, CULINARY STUDENTS PLATE UP DECADENT DESSERTS.

GET IT WHILE IT’S HOT

SLCC’s 10,000-square-foot Culinary Institute boasts not just classrooms and a computer lab but also state-of-the-art kitchens, a demonstration kitchen and a dining room. But it’s the quality of its certified faculty and the accredited program that makes it one of the leading culinary schools in the country.

The program is great for students looking to go into the culinary field and for those already in food service looking to advance their skills. “SLCC’s Culinary Institute is a great option for students because the cost of tuition and other fees are very affordable,” said Jeffrey Coker, associate dean of culinary arts. Students can learn to be chefs or managers in the hospitality industry at a fraction of the average tuition cost at other institutes. The program’s roots run deep through the college’s history.

HOSPITALITY THROUGH THE AGES When Salt Lake Area Vocational School opened in 1948, food service was one of the first training courses approved. Set up in cooperation with the Salt Lake Restaurant Association, the course provided basic training for high school graduates in food preparation, and fountain and counter management. It only lasted one year.

By the 1970s, a food service and hotel restaurant course was again listed among 43 day programs taught at the school, then known as Utah Tech; the Skills Center also offered six-month courses in the subject. But it was not until 1991 that a full-blown culinary arts program began under program coordinator and master chef

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Ricco Renzetti. Students received diplomas in hospitality management from the National Restaurant Association as well as the title of Certified Cook from the American Culinary Federation (ACF). Community support was key, as Renzetti pointed out: “All of the $70,000 of kitchen equipment was donated by the hospitality industry,” and it was not uncommon to receive food donations from grocery vendors.

In 1995, the program earned accreditation from the educational arm of the ACF — the only culinary program in Utah to do so. It means that students can learn their craft knowing they will receive a culinary education of the highest standard.

More big news for the culinary arts program came in Fall 2006 when the doors opened to the new SLCC Culinary Institute on the Miller Campus. Most students are able to work in the industry while in school, Coker said. “They are able to quickly utilize the skills they are learning in the class and put them into practice in the workplace.” He also boasted about the “well-rounded experience” where students study traditional techniques and current culinary trends, with the opportunity to learn from guest speakers and visiting chefs. ●

ethnicity, how many are first generation, how many complete their courses and much more.

Grover’s division was tasked with developing the “informed budget” process. Previously, budgeting had been far less structured. “Faculty would request funds through their department chair with little follow-up on how the money was actually used,” McFarlane continues. The new process is more aligned with the college’s strategic plan: requests are made through departments, then vetted by divisions and cabinet, and reports are filed so that monies can be tracked and analyzed.

Today the Institutional Effectiveness division is run by Vice President Jeffrey Aird, who took over from Grover in 2017. “Jeff and his people have taken it to a whole other level of sophistication,” says Grover, who was awarded emeritus status when she retired.

EXPANSION, CONTRACTION It was in this era that the college began a redesign of where programs were located.

Still under development, Miller was designated the small business campus; in 2006, the Culinary Institute was the latest center added.

The Jordan Campus became the locus for most health sciences programs with the opening of the Health Sciences Building in 2008. That same year, Redwood took on its current name:

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SCHOOL OF ARTS OPENED IN Taylorsville Redwood, in response to a request from Taylorsville City. “We appreciate their partnership and goodwill toward the college,” says McFarlane. “They are proud to have our main campus in their city, and it helps distinguish our campus by its location.”

The 2008 economic downturn had a trickledown effect on college funding. For the 2009–10 fiscal year, SLCC faced a 17 percent cut in appropriations from the state, at a time when enrollment had increased dramatically; an additional 4,000 students joined the college that year, which according to SLCC’s student newspaper made SLCC the fourth-largest community college in the nation, and the largest college in Utah, with some 60,000 students. The cuts forced the college to lay off full- and parttime employees, close several smaller campuses, including the Sandy Campus (2010) and Rose Park (2011), and increase tuition. At the time, Bioteau said that the Sandy closure would save the college more than $1 million. Courses would move to neighboring campuses such as Miller, some four miles away.

Despite the cuts, the legislature managed to find money for SLCC to build much-needed facilities. In 2011, SLCC’s largest campus, Taylorsville Redwood, saw construction start on a replacement for the old Jay L. Nelson building,

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which dated from 1967. The new academic and administration building opened in Fall 2013.

The college also looked to the future, purchasing acreage in Herriman to expand an in-kind land donation in the southwest quadrant of the Salt Lake Valley. In 2011, the area was nothing but open countryside. Armed with good demographic data, the college saw potential for a future campus.

“We also did a huge reorganization of the South City Campus and finally set up the School of Arts, Communication and Media,” says Bioteau. The school, which opened in 2013 in the newly built state-of-the-industry Center for Arts and Media, offers 17 programs with an emphasis on digital arts. “We have a film soundstage, a TV station, a radio station, a recording studio — it’s a very dynamic space,” says Richard Scott, the school’s dean. Serving some 9,000 students, it offers programs designed for both those who come to learn a skill before entering industry and those who want to earn associate’s degrees. “For an art school, we have an awful lot of students focused on the workforce,” explains Scott. “We also have students from all the different schools who come in and take some art classes to round out their curricula.”

Another new single-building campus north of the airport came online in 2011. Initially, the Westpointe Center focused on helping underrepresented populations in the northwest valley take mostly general education courses and a few career-technical programs. But the college had bigger ideas for the campus. It went on to acquire additional land and purchase the building, with plans to build it out.

2013 WITH

9,000 STUDENTS &

17

PROGRAMS

THE SCHOOL OF ARTS, COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA HAS TAKEN MANY NAMES AND GUISES OVER THE DECADES.

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FROM THE COLLECTIONS

STEVE SPECKMAN

Deeply invested in showcasing the breadth of Utah’s talent, the college boasts many exhibitions and collections that are testaments to its cultural commitment to the local community.

“Woman of Catamin V,” 2013 Inkjet on canvas

ERIK JENSEN

“Utah,” 2017 Recycled computer keys

ROB ADAMSON

“Light My Fire,” 2018 Oil on board

MADISON DONNELLY “Wig and Stand,” 2014 Basswood, tung oil

HORACIO RODRIGUEZ

“Huitzilopochtli Cocktails,” 2019 Slip cast stoneware, custom decals based on Aztec codices, clear glaze, cardboard Coca-Cola crate

RYAN MOFFETT

“Starts in Your Heart, Ends in Your Head,” 2015 Ceramic, electrical hardware

GILMORE SCOTT

“Desert Monsoon,” 2018 Acrylic on canvas

SLCC ENGLISH PROFESSOR ERIC ROBERTSON LEADS A STORYTELLING DISCUSSION WITH STUDENTS AT THE UTAH STATE PRISON.

A CAMPUS FOR THE IMPRISONED

Every human being deserves an education, even those in jail. That’s a sentiment strongly endorsed by SLCC, which since 2017 has offered its Prison Education program to hundreds of people incarcerated by the state of Utah. But the college’s history of helping those committed to prison improve themselves actually goes back at least to the 1960s.

REFORM SCHOOL Unlike today, when programs run inside prison walls, in the mid-1960s the college offered rehabilitation classes to select imprisoned individuals, who were bused onto the downtown campus. Courses for them emphasized skills and trades that would be useful once they returned to society. The small-scale program continued into the early 1970s, when a convicted student escaped from his drafting and design class. It’s not clear if the program was immediately abandoned, but the next mention in the press refers to a separate SLCC prison program, begun in 1987, that ran securely behind bars.

SATELLITE CAMPUS Working with the Utah Department of Corrections, SLCC mounted an education program for its residents that year that ran for two decades.

Again, the emphasis lay on providing those in prison with workforce skills in construction, automotive technologies and more. Designed to parallel the programs taught on other SLCC campuses, it gave students at the

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prison satellite the same number of credits their counterparts elsewhere received. “It’s a win-win,” said Jay Miller, the SLCC carpentry instructor who helped set up the program. “Students who complete the prison program have a good success rate, many finding jobs soon after their release. Plus, they feel they are worth something.” Recidivism improved by as much as 80 percent, he added. While the program started small, within 10 years it had grown to about 200 students, 85 percent men.

“In the women’s program we teach culinary arts and visual arts and design,” said Mark Wheatley, prison program director. In the 2000s, Wheatley and his colleagues —11 full-time faculty — ran the external prison program out of the Meadowbrook Campus.

THE NEW PROGRAM Funding issues in the following decade likely led to the program’s abandonment — until 2013, when an imprisoned person petitioned the college. “That letter almost broke my heart,” says Marianne McKnight.

The following year, the associate dean for Faculty Affairs in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, along with Provost Sanders and Tim Sheehan, vice president for Government and Community Relations, asked the Utah legislature for funds to start another prison program. This time it centered on general education courses.

One-time money was allocated for a pilot program. Classes began with a total of 40 students in five courses. In 2017, the legislature unanimously approved ongoing funds to support the SLCC Prison Education program. “We’re currently the only institution in the state that is offering accredited college-level courses,” said David Bokovoy, director of the program, which has registered over 600 students at the Utah State Prison, with 12 classes and 200 students per semester.

Classes are held inside the prison and online. When the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to suspend the program, SLCC was able to supply laptops to incarcerated students, allowing access to modern technology, thanks to an anonymous donation. ●

TIME TO GO Cynthia Bioteau announced her resignation in October 2013. She had accepted an offer from Florida State College in Jacksonville. “I’d been at Salt Lake Community College for almost nine years and I really believe, after 10 years, it behooves the institution to have new blood and a new president,” she says. Bioteau felt she had one more presidency in her, and being an East Coast person, was eager to return there. “I was FSCJ’s first female president too,” she adds.

Looking back at her trailblazing role at SLCC, Bioteau reflects on the risks of being the first. “The president of Weber State University, Ann Millner, and I used to say to each other that we can’t mess up, because if we do, we mess up for all womankind,” she says with a chuckle.

“When I first came, one trustee said to me, ‘We figured you were high risk, but you could be high reward too, so we went with you.’ I think that exemplifies what people thought: We’ll take a chance on you and let’s hope it works. And if it doesn’t, you mess it up for all those women behind you.”

She has a smile when reminded that Deneece Huftalin followed her into the presidency. “Isn’t that great? I think that shows we did a pretty good job.”

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chapter seven

A MODEL FOR ALL

ON JANUARY 9, 2015, DENEECE HUFTALIN WAS INAUGURATED AS SLCC’S EIGHTH PRESIDENT. AFTER AN INTRODUCTION BY HER SON MAX (RIGHT), SHE ACKNOWLEDGED THE POSITION AS “A SACRED TRUST AND ONE THAT I AM DETERMINED TO HONOR IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ALL OF YOU IN OUR VOYAGE TO MAKE SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE THE PREMIER COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN THIS COUNTRY.”

THE UNLIKELY CANDIDATE “Do you want to be president?” Cynthia Bioteau asked her VP for Student Services, Deneece Huftalin, shortly after announcing her resignation.

“I have no plans to apply,” Huftalin replied.

“Good. Because you’d make a great interim president, so there’s no conflict.”

The Board of Regents had a practice that an interim president could not be considered for the permanent role.

With the exception of Jay Nelson in 1949 — and there were exceptional circumstances — it had never happened in the history of the college.

“At the time, I didn’t think that being president would be a role that I would enjoy,” says Huftalin. “I had a pretty stereotypical view of the presidency: a lot of legislative governmental politics and fundraising, a mostly external focus, and I was really interested in students and the internal focus.”

Bioteau had a keen interest in helping women in higher education garner the skills and capabilities to advance their careers, and she saw in Huftalin someone who was on the way up. “She had great potential, great energy, and is very bright. She was the most qualified of anyone in the college at the time,” she says, adding that she recommended Huftalin as interim president, “if for no other reason than to give her that experience so that she could be president at some point.”

The Utah Board of Regents readily appointed Huftalin to the interim post in Fall 2013. They struck a search committee early in the new year, and the hunt was on.

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“I WILL DO MY BEST TO ENSURE THAT SLCC REMAINS AN INCLUSIVE, STUDENT-CENTERED INSTITUTION WHERE INDIVIDUALS FROM DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS CAN RECEIVE A HIGH-QUALITY, AFFORDABLE EDUCATION.” DENEECE HUFTALIN

THE DIVERSE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A COLLEGE PRESIDENT, INCLUDING POSING WITH THE EXECUTIVE CABINET AGAINST THE BLOCK LETTERS INSTALLED ON THE SOUTH CITY CAMPUS IN 2018 (TOP) AND HIGH-FIVING STUDENTS OF THE ECCLES EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT LAB SCHOOL ON THE TAYLORSVILLE REDWOOD CAMPUS (RIGHT).

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Bioteau’s efforts to raise SLCC’s profile nationally made it an attractive destination to highly qualified applicants from around the country. “We had more than 50 candidates apply,” remembers Gail Miller, who, as chair of the Board of Trustees, headed up the search team.

Many in the college and the community thought the team should look closer to home, including Miller. “It dawned on us that it was not fair to have Deneece unable to apply, because she was totally qualified: she knew the college, she’d been there for over 22 years, people loved her.” Miller approached Jesselie Anderson, who had recently completed her term as chair of the SLCC Board of Trustees before Miller and now had been appointed to the Board of Regents.

Anderson petitioned her fellow regents to examine the interim practice. “It’s our fiduciary responsibility to choose the best president, and given the groundswell within the college community and the strong recommendation of the trustees’ chair, Gail Miller, the Board of Regents should really consider Deneece as a candidate,” she told them. They agreed.

Miller took the news to Huftalin, who had been enjoying the challenges of the interim presidency. “It was actually quite fun,” she says. “It was different than I had imagined.

Being involved in so many new conversations about different things was very appealing and interesting and invigorating. I saw the potential for creating change and moving things forward in a larger way than just in the Student Affairs space.”

Huftalin agreed to throw her hat into the ring — and won the appointment. “She was up against the cream of the crop of national candidates,” remarks Anderson. “That Deneece rose to the top speaks volumes to her professional capability.”

“I come out of the Student Affairs side of the house rather than the academic side, which is even more unusual,” Huftalin adds.

“For Student Affairs people, their whole career is built on building community for students, so if you can build community for students, hopefully you can build community anywhere.”

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THE HUFTALIN STYLE

Deneece Huftalin comes across as a different type of president. Sure, she can put on a business suit and a poker face to lobby the legislature, but there’s another side to her. “I’m a pretty informal person,” she says. “I’d rather just have shorts on and just be talkin’,” she says with a laugh.

IN 2016, PRESIDENT DENEECE HUFTALIN JOINED STUDENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF ON A 10-MILE HIKE INTO THE GRAND CANYON’S HAVASU CANYON. THE HIKE, A GENERAL EDUCATION COURSE, WAS UNFORGETTABLE, SAID STUDENT GABE MORENO: “TRIPS LIKE THESE ARE EXTREMELY VALUABLE AND CREDIT WORTHY. YOU NOT ONLY GET TO EXPERIENCE THE RAW BEAUTY OF THE WILDERNESS, BUT YOU ALSO LEARN THINGS SUCH AS LEADERSHIP, TEAMWORK, SURVIVAL SKILLS AND MORE.”

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She tells of a planning session concerning a new sign the college erected on its South City Campus. It spells out SLCC in block letters 10 feet high.

A photo shoot with the president and the college’s top brass was planned to publicize the impressive structure. “I could lean casually against the ‘L’ with my arms crossed,” she said. “But I guess that wouldn’t be very presidential,” she added.

“Deneece,” the event planner said, “you are the president. So if you do it, it’s presidential, no matter what it is.” Huftalin found that liberating.

At one of her early convocations, attended by a large gathering of faculty, staff and administrators, she pulled up a slide. It was a Venn diagram. “I borrowed it from someplace,” she says.

The diagram had intersecting circles that read DREAM BIG, GET STUFF DONE and HAVE FUN. “I told the crowd, ‘There are lots of people in the world that get a lot of stuff done but not the right stuff. There are lots of people that get stuff done and dream big — but they are miserable to be around. What I need is for you guys to be right in the middle where the three rings intersect: where you’re having fun, you’re dreaming big and you’re getting the right stuff done.

That’s who I want to work with at Salt Lake Community College.’”

The crowd loved it. The college even made T-shirts with the diagram.

Huftalin has a coaster on her desk that reads ADOPT POSITIVE RESTLESSNESS. “That resonates with me because I’m someone who always wants to think about new ways or better ways of doing things,” she says.

“But I don’t want to change things for change’s sake. Adopting positive restlessness means you’re always thinking, ‘How could this be better? How can we have a better impact? How could we have more fun?’ It’s a way of changing things that’s upbeat and inclusive and energizing.” ●

SLCC VALUES

WOMEN MAKE UP LESS THAN A TENTH OF U.S. WELDERS, BUT THEIR NUMBERS ARE GROWING IN THE INDUSTRY AND AT THE COLLEGE; IN 2020, SIX FEMALE STUDENTS STUDIED WELDING AT THE WESTPOINTE WORKFORCE TRAINING & EDUCATION CENTER. FOR STUDENT KYLIE HRUBES (SEATED), IT’S NOT COMPLICATED. “MY DREAM JOB IS TO DO WHATEVER THE HECK I WANT. I JUST WANT TO BUILD ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING.”

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A NEW STRATEGIC PLAN On September 11, 2014, SLCC’s eighth president was introduced to a cheering crowd during a public meeting at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus. “I am thrilled and honored to continue leading Salt Lake Community College,” said President Huftalin. “I will do my best to ensure that SLCC remains an inclusive, student-centered institution where individuals from diverse backgrounds can receive a highquality, affordable education.” As the crowd rushed to their feet, Miller thought, “Boy, we did the right thing!”

One of Huftalin’s first tasks was to implement a strategic planning process designed to set a vision for the college, circa 2023 — SLCC’s 75th anniversary.

College-wide meetings and forums with interactive components over the next

SLCC doesn’t merely state its values. The college lives them through collective effort as it executes its mission of being an openaccess, comprehensive community college committed to the transfer education and workforce needs of its students.

year resulted in several groups offering recommendations to the executive cabinet.

“The group that worked on the vision statement started with the current strategy to be the premier comprehensive community college in the nation,” Huftalin explains. “Rather than striving to be number one, the group moved away from that competitive space more to emphasize what our purpose should be as educators.” They came back with the idea of being a model that other community colleges might strive to emulate. “We don’t care so much if we’re number one; we want people to look at us and think, ‘They’re doing it right. They’re part of a group of community colleges that are doing innovative, thoughtful stuff.’”

Next was defining “innovative, thoughtful stuff.” Says Huftalin, “We want students who

INCLUSIVITY “We seek to cultivate an environment of respect and empathy, advanced by diverse cultures and perspectives.”

LEARNING “We learn as a college by building outstanding educational experiences for students and by supporting faculty and staff in their professional development.”

INNOVATION “We value fresh thinking and encourage the energy of new ideas and initiatives.”

COLLABORATION “We believe we’re better when we work together.”

INTEGRITY “We do the right things for the right reasons.”

COMMUNITY “We partner with our community in the transformative, public good of educating students.”

TRUST “We build trust by working together in good faith and goodwill to fulfill the college’s mission.”

COMMISSIONED FOR THE PEACE AND JUSTICE GARDEN AND FRESHLY COMPLETED IN AUGUST 2022, A STRIKING MURAL GRACES THE SOUTH CITY CAMPUS, ITS CENTRAL MONARCH BUTTERFLY SYMBOLIZING THEMES OF MIGRATION AND REJUVENATION. CREATED BY THE ROOTS ART KOLLECTIVE, COMPRISING THREE ALUMNI, THIS IS YET ANOTHER FULL-CIRCLE MOMENT FOR THE COLLEGE.

OPEN BOOKS, OPEN MINDS

The Clifton G. Sanders Racial Justice and Black Liberation Library was founded in Fall 2020 during the heightened unrest around injustice toward Black people in the U.S.

“It’s a resource and repository of valuable information for people who want to learn about the Black experience, Black culture and history, racial justice, liberation and reconciliation,” says Provost Sanders, after whom the library is named.

A first-generation student who grew up in southeast Baltimore County, Maryland, Sanders developed an interest in science at age eight. A doctorate in chemistry and six patents in biomaterials technology later, in 1993, he came to teach at SLCC. Since 2015, he has served the college as provost for Academic Affairs. He has more than 25 years of teaching, administrative and leadership experience in higher education. He led the development of several STEM programs and is a collaborator on various local, regional and national initiatives on education, diversity and inclusivity, and workforce development. He also happens to be an award-winning jazz saxophonist who plays in a local jazz band and at church most Sundays. ●

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come through our college to first feel very included and understand the importance of inclusion. We want them to be successful and, when they leave, to have had experiences that really changed the way they think, the way they act and the way they engage with their community.” The finished vision says it all: “Salt Lake Community College will be a model for inclusive and transformative education, strengthening the communities we serve through the success of our students.”

Along with the vision is a mission statement that speaks to the college’s constituents: “SLCC is your community college. We engage and support students in educational pathways leading to successful transfer and meaningful employment.” Plus seven defining values: collaboration, community, inclusivity, learning, innovation, integrity and trust. In her president’s message attached to the strategic plan, Huftalin wrote how the latter is intended to answer fundamental questions.

“What are the primary needs of students today and in the future? How do we craft the best possible learning experiences to meet their needs? And how will SLCC contribute to and strengthen the economic and educational wellbeing of the state?”

To further the goals of the plan, cross-college, cross-functional, collaborative work teams focus

on strategic areas, such as student access and completion, improving transfer preparation, equity in student participation and completion, workforce alignment and securing institutional sustainability. The plan is supported, in part, by the college’s first comprehensive philanthropic fundraising campaign. With Board of Trustees approval and a challenge from Chair Gail Miller, the campaign goal was set at $40 million.

Launched in 2016, the plan has continued to guide the college as it approaches its 75th birthday.

THE BROADEST TENT A key goal of the new plan is to achieve equity in student participation and completion. Behind those words are some stark statistics: in 2000, minority groups comprised about 15 percent of the Utah population; by 2015, that number had risen to 22 percent. To achieve equity, SLCC’s student population needed to match that of the larger community, but according to SLCC’s 2019 revised strategic plan, in 2015 it lagged by about 3 percent.

For the college, reflecting the shifting demographics of the larger community is paramount. “That has really informed our decisions as an institution in terms of how we have to shift our thinking and our delivery and how we best use our expertise,” Huftalin says.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PETER MOOSMAN AND ALUMNUS LEKA HEIMULI AT THE OPENING OF THE GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDENT RESOURCE CENTER; THE 2019 OPENING OF THE SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE DREAM CENTER ON THE WEST VALLEY CENTER CAMPUS; THE OFFICE OF DIVERSITY AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS’ ANNUAL TASTE OF DIVERSITY EVENT.

Early on, she took steps to advance the cause of equity, diversity and inclusion at the college in a number of ways. Created in 2002, the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs was given a stronger mandate to support underrepresented ethnic students through mentoring, student access and success coaching, workshops and cultural programming. While still interim president, Huftalin, with community input, established the President’s Council for Inclusivity and Equity and set up the position of special assistant to the president for equity and inclusivity. In 2015, the college appointed Roderic Land to that role.

One of Land’s initiatives was the Diverse Faculty Fellowship program, which sought to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of faculty. “As our community demographics shift, we need to hire more people that look like the community,” says Provost Sanders, adding that the program has since morphed into the Racial Equity in the Professoriate program, “which took the lessons and challenges from the first iteration of the Diverse Faculty Fellowship and incorporated improvements and wraparound support services for faculty of color.”

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Land later moved to become dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and in 2022 the college gave Juone Kadiri the title of vice president for Institutional Equity, Inclusion and Transformation. “It is vitally important — given our value of inclusivity and our role as a community college — that we embed inclusion, equity and diversity conversations and actions into curriculum, practices, policies and our everyday actions,” Huftalin said at the time.

High-impact projects designed to advance and sustain a culture that fully welcomes diversity and inclusiveness at the college continued, including development of a Juvenile Justice Nest pilot program to strengthen higher education partnerships with the juvenile justice system, and the Middle School Family Engagement program to encourage college-going predisposition in first-generation families and underrepresented students in college.

In 2019, the college partnered with the University of Utah to open the SLCC Dream Center. Located at West Valley Center, a small SLCC campus that opened in 2015, it supports undocumented students, known as Dreamers,

who are enrolled in college programs. The name Dreamers comes from the federal Dream Act, which since 2001 has tried, and failed, to permanently protect undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children. Some 550 such students attended SLCC in 2020; Utah recorded about 92,000 undocumented residents that year.

The center is not the first effort SLCC has made to help Dreamers. “About eight or nine years ago we created a landing page on our website for undocumented students,” remembers Huftalin. “It helped them navigate campus and our programs, how to access private funding and basically how to get around as someone whose status is undocumented. Back then it was a very difficult conversation because no one was talking about it. They wanted to stay under the radar. They were scared of accessing higher ed because of what that might mean for them and their families.” Along with the Dream Center, the college also administers two privately funded scholarships for Dreamers.

Adds Huftalin, “I think we’ve done a very good job of supporting undocumented students, even in the face of national and local concern about immigration status.”

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REALIZING YOUR POTENTIAL

Sam Ortiz thought twice about enrolling at Salt Lake Community College. His friends at Olympus High in Holladay, Utah, were all going to the University of Utah or Brigham Young University. “But I wasn’t confident enough to apply to university,” Ortiz says.

As a first-generation student, he felt SLCC seemed the easier route. He was pleasantly surprised. “My experience at Salt Lake Community College was profoundly positive.

It really changed my life.”

Born in the Bronx of immigrant parents — his father was from the Dominican Republic, his mother from Puerto Rico — Ortiz grew up mostly in Kansas City, Missouri, before the family moved to the Salt Lake City area when he was in his teens.

His first semester at SLCC in 2009 opened his eyes. “I was thinking of a career in social work,” he says. “I wanted to be in a field where I could help others who are in need, people who had a background similar to my own.” Between classes, he found a job working for SLCC’s TRIO program, which provides support for low-income and first-generation students on campus. He also discovered the Thayne Center, whose staff told him of a job opportunity in the office of the VP for Student Affairs. “That was the game-changer,” he says.

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A TASTE OF ADMINISTRATION Deneece Huftalin welcomed her new employee. “I was qualified for the job, but I also think she was looking to use that position as an opportunity to support a student like me,” he says.

As part of his work, which he describes as a mentorship, Ortiz became involved with student government. After completing his associate of arts degree in sociology, he applied to the University of Utah to do a bachelor’s of social work.

“Deneece’s fingerprints are all over my transition to the University of Utah,” he says with a laugh. “She knew the vice president in the Student Affairs division, who helped me apply for and get a job with their student government office.” His first semester there he ran for vice president of the student body and won. A couple of weeks later, the incumbent stepped down and he became president.

The summer he graduated from the U of U, he took a position with Congressman James Matheson, Utah 4th District. “I’d decided to move back to New York for grad school, and four months in D.C. serving as a staffer, learning the ins and outs of life on Capitol Hill, even though it was pretty low-level stuff, was a very enlightening experience. I loved it for the most part, but I learned that politics was not for me.”

ONWARD AND UPWARD Ortiz got into teachers’ college at Columbia University to take a master’s in higher education administration, then worked short stints at two New York City universities, testing his administrative skills as a college assistant before winning a spot as community director at Brown University in Rhode Island — his first full-time professional job in higher education administration.

After two and a half years, Ortiz was ready to tackle a doctorate at the University of Dayton in Ohio, which he is currently completing.

He also won a job as the associate director of multicultural affairs at the university, doing what he likes best: helping students from underrepresented backgrounds feel at home and succeed.

Ortiz remembers fondly being asked by Huftalin to come back to SLCC to speak at her inauguration as president. He spoke of her influence on his career, which really took off when he joined her office. “It provided a model for me as a professional. I’m so grateful for Salt Lake Community College as an institution and for those individuals who wrapped their arms around me and really helped make my experience truly amazing.”

The recipient of a 2012 Graduates of Excellence Award, Ortiz spoke at SLCC’s 2022 commencement ceremony. ●

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“WE REALLOCATED SOME OF OUR SCHOLARSHIP DOLLARS TO ALLOW ELIGIBLE STUDENTS TO COME TO COLLEGE ESSENTIALLY FOR FREE THROUGH SLCC PROMISE.” DENEECE HUFTALIN

EVEN WITH FAMILIES, OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OUTSIDE THEIR STUDIES, STUDENTS ARE SUPPORTED

BY SLCC WITH WRAPAROUND SERVICES LIKE SCHOLARSHIPS AND CHILDCARE ALL THE WAY TO COMMENCEMENT.

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In 2019, the college also cut the ribbon on the Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center, which provides programs, services and a safe space for women and LGBTQ+ students at college — another example of how SLCC is responding to the needs of the community it serves.

So how is SLCC doing on its drive to push the diversity needle? A recent article in SLCC Magazine quoted some encouraging figures.

In 2021, minority populations accounted for 22 percent of Utah’s population; in Salt Lake County, that number was just under 30 percent. By comparison, 32.3 percent of SLCC students came from minority groups.

The college has achieved — and surpassed — its goal of parity. Not only that, when SLCC’s demographics are compared to those of other state schools, they come out on top. “We can truly say that SLCC is the most racially and ethnically diverse institution of higher learning in Utah,” says Alison McFarlane, VP for Institutional Advancement.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE? From the 1990s up into the early 2010s, the college experienced aggressive growth in enrollment. These numbers flattened out and even started to fall toward the start of the 2020s. Along with that trend came other statistics that provoked concern. In 2015, the six-year completion rate — students who earn a degree or certificate within six years of enrollment — was only 25 percent. The college identified two solutions.

The first was financial. Early in Huftalin’s term, Charles Lepper, VP for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, brought an idea to cabinet that would make SLCC even more accessible to students struggling to pay tuition. “I had seen other institutions helping Pell Grant–eligible students by filling in the gap between the money that they get from federal student aid and their tuition fees, which were not totally covered,” explains Lepper. The president and her cabinet colleagues seized on the idea as a great access initiative, and SLCC Promise was born. “We reallocated

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ROXANA SEVILLA WAS ABLE TO ATTEND THE FASHION INSTITUTE THANKS TO TUITION AND FEES WAIVED THROUGH SLCC PROMISE.

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DELL LOY HANSEN When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted oncampus learning in 2020, Dell Loy Hansen stepped up. The founder and CEO of Wasatch Group, a real estate investment firm, provided significant support to SLCC’s Students in Crisis Fund. The fund provides short-term assistance to students with housing and childcare costs, and food insecurity, healthcare and other family expenses. It allows them to stay in school when life circumstances, ongoing responsibilities and unforeseen obligations overwhelm them. Through their scholarship foundation, Hansen and his wife, Julie, have also endowed the college with a scholars award that bears their name. Hansen’s generosity helped launch the college’s men’s and women’s soccer program too, with the men’s team taking first place in the nation in 2021. ●

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some of our scholarship dollars to allow eligible students to come to college essentially for free through SLCC Promise,” Huftalin says.

There are strings, of course. In addition to the Pell Grant requirements, students must pursue a full-time, two-year degree at the college.

At the 2016 announcement of the program, the president said that SLCC Promise was aimed at first-generation students and others with limited resources. “It is incumbent on us to keep affordability and access at the forefront of our mission … and lay out a financial path for students and families to earn a degree.”

Bridging the tuition gap helps avoid the student-loan debt mountain that can cause many to drop out. Adds Huftalin, “The state legislature several years ago was so impressed with those programs they actually created a statewide Promise program and funded it, so now all of the Utah institutions can have dollars to support Pell-eligible students who can’t meet the entire cost of their tuition. SLCC has also had many private donors invest in the program, which has doubled the number of scholarships previously available to our students.” By 2020, SLCC Promise had handed out $2.75 million to help more than 2,000 students attend — and stay in — college.

SLCC Pathways was the second solution.

“The purpose of Pathways is to be able to provide students clear direction as they pursue their goals,” says Provost Sanders. “It’s also to help students decide earlier to commit to programs of study, and help students make better and more informed choices.” It entailed a restructuring of academic and training paths, to direct students toward intentional academic outcomes and careers. Under Pathways, programs are clustered into eight areas of study. First-year students are encouraged to choose an area to focus on. “They don’t have to give us their specific major anymore,” explains Huftalin. “A lot of our students are undecided, but they could at least say, ‘I know I’m a science, math and engineering person’ or ‘I know that I’m not a humanities person,’ and we could start to filter them into a more focused space right off the bat.”

Work on Pathways began in 2017 and rolled out for the 2019–20 school year. It’s too early to measure the success of the new model in improving completion rates, but SLCC hopes to see gains as early as 2023. Admissions staff suggest students are already benefitting as they try to figure out educational goals and career plans.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: THE 2018 “RIBBONJOINING” OPENING THE WESTPOINTE WORKFORCE TRAINING & EDUCATION CENTER; THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY’S NEED FOR DIESEL ENGINE TECHNICIANS SPURRED KENWORTH SALES TO DONATE TO WESTPOINTE’S DIESEL TECH PATHWAYS PROGRAM; A BENEFICIARY OF THE TALENT READY APPRENTICESHIP CONNECTION PROGRAM SUPPORTED

BY SWISS-BASED STADLER RAIL.

WORKFORCE JEWEL IN SLCC’S CROWN By the 2010s, Meadowbrook, historically SLCC’s career and technical education training campus, was looking tired. “The lot wasn’t great; it was old warehouses that we had turned into learning environments,” says Huftalin. The college had opened Westpointe Center in 2011. “That space was much better for a career in technical education than Meadowbrook could ever be. So we decided to shutter and sunset Meadowbrook, and put our focus on Westpointe.” With a $43 million appropriation from the 2016 legislature and philanthropic support from many donors, the college broke ground on a 121,000-square-foot building: the Westpointe Workforce Training & Education Center.

Built in response to the needs of business and industry in Salt Lake County, the state-ofthe-art building became the focus for SLCC’s commitment to continue being a leader in workforce training in Utah. Under the leadership of Rick Bouillon, associate vice president for Workforce and Economic Development, the college moved almost 40 percent of its School of Applied Technology and Technical Specialties programs to the new center, along with several Workforce and Economic Development programs. “The building houses expansive workforce training,” explains Huftalin.

“Everything from short-term, non-credit

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programs all the way to an associate of applied science in diesel technology.”

Partnerships with industry are a big part of the center’s success, as Foundation Board member Roger McQueen points out. “The Westpointe Campus has so many partners in the trucking business, the aerospace business, manufacturing, plastics molding — the list goes on. Westpointe answers Salt Lake employers’ concerns for training good people.”

Kyle Treadway, president of Kenworth Sales Company, is one of those employers. “Our industry is in a chronic shortage right now, nationwide. We are desperate to find qualified employees who can fill the ranks of the wave of baby boomers who are retiring. And Salt Lake Community College has a program that exactly fits what we need.” He was so impressed that he made a significant donation to the Workforce Training & Education Center for scholarships and equipment in the diesel systems technology program. His company also provides curriculum advice. “SLCC takes it to another level. They have come up with a formula that really works well, not only with postsecondary education but through their partnerships with industry.

The students they graduate have relevant education and experience that allows them to quickly grasp the ever-changing nature of our industry,” he says.

“WE ARE DESPERATE TO FIND QUALIFIED EMPLOYEES WHO CAN FILL THE RANKS OF THE WAVE OF BABY BOOMERS WHO ARE RETIRING. AND SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE HAS A PROGRAM THAT EXACTLY FITS WHAT WE NEED.”

KYLE TREADWAY VICE CHAIR OF THE FOUNDATION BOARD AND PRESIDENT OF KENWORTH SALES COMPANY

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LOCATED IN THE INDUSTRIAL NORTHWEST DISTRICT NEAR THE AIRPORT, WESTPOINTE IS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN INDUSTRIES CRITICAL TO THE REGION’S ECONOMIC SUCCESS, INCLUDING WELDING, MACHINING, DIESEL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, INJECTION MOLDING, COMPOSITES MANUFACTURING, COMMERCIAL DRIVING AND OTHER HIGH-DEMAND FIELDS.

RINCON FOR STUDENT PRESIDENT!

In 2017, Salt Lake Community College’s student body elected its first Latina president. This is Aynoa Rincon’s story.

COMING TO SLCC “When I came to the U.S. as an international student, I lived in Boston,” she begins. She studied business English at Harvard for a semester before her aunt suggested they visit family members in Salt Lake City.

Rincon had planned to return to Venezuela but decided to check out Utah first. She’s still here.

Rincon remembers that first trip to the Taylorsville Redwood Campus. “Everyone was so welcoming, and it was so affordable compared to school on the East Coast.” What convinced her to attend was how diverse it was. “I was fairly new to this country, English is not my first language, but I was able to meet people who spoke Spanish and see students who kind of looked like me and who were extremely nice to me.”

She joined SLCC in 2015, taking courses leading to associate’s degrees in political science and economics.

Early on, she met with people involved with student government, which led to a greater interest in the subject and, eventually, her win for student body president in 2017.

“It was a perfect fit for me,” says the poli sci student.

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STANDARDS OF LIVING One of her initiatives involved an expansion of the Bruin Pantry. Begun in 2013 on the South City Campus in partnership with the Utah Food Bank, the Bruin Pantry provides food and daily living essentials to students in need. Surveys revealed as many as 45 percent of SLCC students were not getting enough to eat. “Food security is a key issue for students struggling to get by,” says Rincon. Having the pantry — essentially a food bank for students — where they can collect groceries for themselves and their families really helps, she says.

Rincon and her student government worked with the Thayne Center to expand the program, which today is also at Taylorsville Redwood, Jordan and West Valley.

Food security is about affordability, says Rincon.

“SLCC is very affordable, but it is less so for nonresident students who have no access to financial aid.” Part of her work in student government was to support efforts to rationalize the process of accessing scholarships, especially for nontraditional students, by creating an online portal that collected key scholarship resources and information. “Back in the day,” she says, “the scholarship page was not really user-friendly, so a lot of students wouldn’t access it or would quit because it was too complicated and intimidating.”

CORRIDORS OF POWER Rincon’s busy year as student president didn’t stop there.

At one point she accompanied President Huftalin to the Utah legislature to lobby the appropriations committee to release funds for the student center planned for the Jordan Campus. As these things go, the project had been in the works for several years. “Ultimately, they approved it, and now we have that lovely building” — the Tim and Brenda Huval Student Center.

She also served as the student representative on the Board of Trustees, meeting with leaders in the community — people she found very open and accepting. “It was a group that cared about the students and still does.”

When Rincon completed her associate’s degrees in 2018, she went on to the University of Utah to earn a BA in international studies. “I always tell everyone there is a family here at the college. I know it sounds super cheesy, but it’s true.” ●

FORBES MAGAZINE RECENTLY RANKED SLCC EIGHTH AMONG THE TEN BEST EMPLOYERS IN UTAH.

MORE CAMPUS CHANGES As part of its commitment to serve the community, the college constantly reviews the viability of its campuses. Responding to a shift in student demographics, it closed the Highland Center in 2014 in favor of providing more access points for students on the west side of the valley. The following year, the college opened its West Valley Center in West Valley City, offering 50 general education courses and several community-learning courses on the new campus.

Change of an unwelcome sort came to the Taylorsville Redwood Campus in June 2020 when fire tore through the Applied Technology Building, then undergoing renovations. The building was a total loss, and is due to be rebuilt in 2023.

On the Jordan Campus, Spring 2021 saw the opening of the $17 million, 41,000-square-foot

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Tim and Brenda Huval Student Center. “The building looks spectacular, but unfortunately we couldn’t be there for the ribbon-cutting,” says Tim Huval, who suffered a life-changing illness in 2018 that put him at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. The center offers a full range of services for students, including a bookstore, food services, fitness center, health counseling and much more. It also hosts the Veterans Center, International Student Affairs Office, Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Disability Resource Center and other services, including a childcare facility. The Huvals, who have a long history with SLCC, fund scholarships for numerous students. “Brenda and I have been blessed to be able to give back in meaningful ways,” says Huval. “We believe it is so important to give people a chance at higher education, and Salt Lake Community College is so well positioned for that.” Along with naming the new student center after the longtime benefactors, in 2015 the college renamed the childcare center at the South City Campus the Tim and Brenda Huval Child Care Center.

A GREAT PLACE TO WORK In 2019, SLCC’s human resources department became People and Workplace Culture. That subtle shift in title was underscored by a departmental reorganization and a new way

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TIM AND BRENDA HUVAL Tim and Brenda Huval well understand how the college offers a rewarding future to students who might not otherwise have the same opportunities. A prosperous career in banking and healthcare has Tim wanting to give back to SLCC, where his own road to success began. He and Brenda have responded with generous scholarships and donations to the college; the South Campus Child Care Center and the new Jordan Student Center are both named for the couple in recognition of their patronage. Tim is currently serving on the cabinet for SLCC’s capital fundraising campaign. ● of thinking. “We were working toward the college becoming a destination workplace, and that really involved a lot more than just the basic functions of an HR department,” explains VP Jeff Aird. The college expanded to include a suite of other services that included staff and faculty development, professional and leadership development, and employee relations. Adds Aird, “The intent was to focus heavily on culture building and to provide robust attention and support to our most important asset — our people.”

The change in workplace culture evidently hit the right chord. Forbes magazine recently ranked SLCC eighth among the ten best employers in Utah. “I’m proud to be on this list!” said Huftalin in her September 2021 president’s message. “The last 18 months have been hard on all of us and yet, our People and Workplace Culture team, our supervisors, our staff, faculty and students have all pulled together to make value-based decisions and provide care, support and flexibility. Congratulations to you all who make this place a great place to work.”

MEMBERS OF THE HUVAL FAMILY (BOTTOM RIGHT) ATTEND THE 2021 OPENING OF THE TIM AND BRENDA HUVAL STUDENT CENTER. SAID TIM HUVAL: “SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE GAVE ME A CHANCE WHEN I WAS A STUDENT AND CONTINUES TO OFFER CHANCE AND OPPORTUNITY TO THIS DAY TO HELP STUDENTS FOLLOW THEIR DREAMS.”

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“FACULTY TURNED ON A DIME TO ADAPT THEIR CLASSES AND SUPPORT STUDENTS. THEY HAVE BEEN EXTREMELY INNOVATIVE IN FINDING WAYS TO ENHANCE THEIR COURSES IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT.” CLIFTON SANDERS PROVOST FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

NEW RHYTHMS CAME INTO PLACE AS THE SCOURGE OF COVID-19 ROSE AND FELL, BEGINNING IN THE SPRING OF 2020. CLUBS (LIKE THE BLACK STUDENT UNION) WERE ABLE TO MEET SPORADICALLY AND VACCINE CLINICS BECAME MORE COMMON ON CAMPUS. THE MASKED STUDENTS WERE SHOWN ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE WEBSITE, ADVOCATING FACE COVERINGS, WHICH WERE AT FIRST REQUIRED, THEN ENCOURAGED.

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LEARNING THROUGH PANDEMIC TIMES That hard period referred to by President Huftalin was, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the U.S. government declared the pandemic a national emergency on March 13, 2020, SLCC was already preparing to meet the challenge. As confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 started to show up in America in February, the college put in place an emergency plan to deal with the outbreak. In March, it appointed a college-wide COVID-19 task force to monitor public health protocols and communicate complex and important news in the constantly changing environment. With unprecedented speed, the task force put practices in place: conducting testing on campus, hiring contract tracers and developing guidance and support for working from home. The effort was designed to keep the college community not only informed, but as safe and secure as possible throughout the pandemic.

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A POETRY SLAM HOSTED ON CAMPUS

BY THE BLACK STUDENTS UNION.

A POET LAUREATE

By the middle of the month, with the college closed for spring break, faculty and staff were busy converting campus-based courses for online delivery, which began March 25. “In two weeks last spring, the college went from 25 percent of courses delivered online to nearly 90 percent,” Huftalin told the Deseret News.

“We’ve always known it’s an effective delivery method for instruction, and the coronavirus pandemic has given us a semester to prove it on a broad scale.” It also helped that 81 percent of SLCC’s students hold down jobs, so having the flexibility to take asynchronous courses at times that work best for them is a great advantage. These courses have been enhanced with high-tech gadgetry like pan-tilt-zoom cameras in many classrooms and lapel microphones for instructors.

“Faculty turned on a dime to adapt their classes and support students. They have been extremely innovative in finding ways to enhance their courses in an online environment,” says Provost Sanders. There are many examples. Take Cynthia Alberts, associate professor at the Culinary Institute, who prepared dried food kits for students who took part in the demonstrations she live-streamed from her home kitchen in

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Cottonwood Heights; and Dave Alldredge, an accounting professor, whose YouTube accounting channel, with close to two million views, is used by professors across the country. Students have responded in kind.

One example is the physical therapy students who collaborate by watching videos that demonstrate an activity, then film themselves practicing on family or roommates.

Not all courses can be delivered effectively online. Trade labs such as machining, welding, truck driving and diesel engine technologies, and health-related fields like nursing, radiology and dental hygiene — about 11 percent of the 3,871 spring courses — require hands-on instruction and had to be postponed until Fall Semester 2020. The college remained closed until then, when it reopened under strict COVID-19 protocols: mandated face masks, reduced on-campus class sizes to comply with social-distancing requirements, and hybrid courses taught simultaneously online and in the classroom.

The college also created a crisis fund to help students facing serious financial disruptions.

Generously supported by donations, the fund was used to assist with rent, childcare, loss of income and other critical issues facing students.

“The idea was to alleviate some of the anxiety and stress students are experiencing during the pandemic, and let them concentrate on their education,” says McFarlane.

At the start of the 2021–22 school year, the campus was back operating at close to normal. “We started bringing more students back on campus in the summer of 2021, and in the fall, classes were about 70 percent in-person,” says McFarlane. Other than those exempted, students were required to be vaccinated. A survey taken prior to Fall Semester 2021 revealed that 84 percent were fully vaccinated, as were 93 percent of college employees. She adds that as of January 2022, the college continued to strongly encourage the use of masks on campus, despite the removal of a mask mandate in Salt Lake County by the legislature that month. The COVID-19 task force continues its vigilance.

McFarlane thinks the college has done a good job dealing with the challenges raised

by COVID-19. She cites a preliminary report from the Northwest Commission following an accreditation visit in October 2021, which gave SLCC high marks for how it had responded.

“If I had to sum up SLCC’s response in one word, it would be flexibility,” said Huftalin.

Sometime in 2015, President Huftalin called Lisa Bickmore, associate professor of English, into her office.

“I want to have a poet laureate for the college, and I want you to be the first one,” she told her.

“Okay,” Bickmore replied, “but people are going to be so sick of me.”

Huftalin laughed. “I’m thinking as poet laureate you could write a new poem each year for commencement.”

Recently returned from Ireland, where she had won the €10,000 Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize, Bickmore had some questions.

“Is there a budget?”

Huftalin laughed again. “Write me a proposal, and we’ll talk about it.”

Bickmore got excited. “We could start a reading series. Get a bunch of wonderful poets to the college. Maybe publish stuff through the Community Writing Center. A community anthology …” The ideas came thick and fast.

The following year, Bickmore opened the first SLCC Poetry Reading Series in the South City Campus multipurpose room, featuring guest poet Tarfia Faizullah. The reading series has become a popular annual event.

The community anthology idea took off too. Currently working on its fourth edition, the program invites anybody in the community with a connection to SLCC — past, present and even future — to submit poetry, short stories, flash fiction, essays, memoirs, photography and other similar projects. SLCC’s Publication Center produces the resulting anthology.

Lisa Bickmore’s term as poet laureate ended in 2019. Deidre Tyler, a sociology professor, has now taken up the poet’s pen. ●

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IN 2021, SLCC AND THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH BROKE GROUND FOR THE JOINTVENTURE JUNIPER BUILDING ON THE HERRIMAN CAMPUS. PRESIDENT HUFTALIN AND STUDENTS MARK THE SPOT.

chapter eight

INTO THE FUTURE SMART GROWTH Imagine being able to complete a two-year certificate or associate’s degree from SLCC and continue on to a bachelor’s or graduate degree at the U of U, all on the same campus. That dream is becoming a reality at the Juniper Building on the new Herriman Campus.

“The Juniper Building is a partnership with the University of Utah, the first time in the state that two institutions of higher learning have done a joint building together, and we are very proud of that,” says Huftalin.

SLCC had the foresight in 2011 to add to a land donation and purchase 90 acres in the Herriman community.

“Back then, there were just lots of fields; nobody could really see the potential. We knew it was going to happen,” she said. “Today, the southwest valley is the fastest-growing quadrant, and it is booming; it’s really the last available land in Salt Lake County.” With the prospect of a campus opening in its community, Herriman offered its old city hall to SLCC. The Herriman Annex opened in 2018 with 10 general education courses for local students.

These will switch to the Juniper Building when it opens.

Over the years, SLCC has developed close ties with its sister university. “Cynthia Bioteau built on that. She was very close to Michael Young, who was then president of the University of Utah,” remarks Jesselie Anderson, who sits on the Board of Regents. “And President Huftalin is so highly regarded, the partnerships with other universities she’s built, it’s really remarkable.”

Anderson sees an advantage for students in having a campus in the fast-growing community. “The valley is big, and for students to be able to take University of Utah classes in the southernmost part of the valley, it’s a huge benefit to be able to take classes in Herriman. It’s 45 minutes to an hour of travel time to get from that part of the valley up to the U of U.” The same goes for those wanting to take their first two years at SLCC.

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THE JULY 15, 2021 GROUNDBREAKING OF THE JUNIPER BUILDING. ITS STUDENTS SEGUE FROM A TWO-YEAR CERTIFICATE OR ASSOCIATE’S DEGREE FROM SLCC TO A BACHELOR’S OR GRADUATE DEGREE FROM THE U OF U IN FIELDS FROM HOSPITALITY TO MATHEMATICS, COMPUTER SCIENCE TO NURSING.

The 90,000-square-foot building is slated to welcome students in Fall 2023. Some 2,000 are expected, a number projected to grow to 6,000 by 2025. “It’s a huge campus,” says Huftalin.

“It will probably be a priority for the college in terms of new buildings and expanding space for 10 years or so, because there’s so much need in that part of the valley.”

A ROOF AND A DESK SLCC is poised to have its first student housing project on the Taylorsville Redwood Campus.

President Huftalin gets excited talking about the project. “I’ve wanted housing on campus since I was vice president in 2002,” she says.

“Previous administrations didn’t see the need or the value of it, and it is rare for community colleges.” According to a 2015 report from the American Association of Community Colleges, only 28 percent of public community colleges provided housing for their student body. None were in Utah.

Huftalin cites the lack of affordable housing in Salt Lake — an issue that has worsened in recent years — as one factor. Another is demand. A student survey in the mid-2010s found that around 600 single students would consider living on campus and a similar number of those with families. “We are trying very hard

192 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

FE ATURED FACULTY

MARY JANE KELEHER ASSOCIATE DEAN, BIOLOGY

Since joining SLCC in 2004, Mary Jane Keleher has been shaking up biology. She led the department in developing a strong core of full-time faculty who have transformed the student experience from one of “completing prerequisites” to one of appreciating how biology shapes the world, provides answers to largescale health and environmental problems, and teaches us about life in general. Keleher promoted a new vision to provide a more enriched, evidence-based learning experience for students by remodeling classrooms and laboratories with modern facilities that support microbiology, genetics, environmental science, ecology and anatomy instruction — a process that took years. ●

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TECHNICALLY TRUE

As of July 2022, the School of Applied Technology has become Salt Lake Technical College, in response to the latest realignment of higher education in Utah.

Back in 2009, smaller technical colleges in Utah amalgamated into the Utah College of Applied Technology. The one exception was Salt Lake County, where they merged with SLCC’s Skills Center, becoming the School of Applied Technology. “That system of technical colleges was separate, and in some ways parallel to the higher ed system of degree-granting institutions in Utah,” explains Jennifer Saunders, dean of Salt Lake Technical College and the School of Technical and Professional Specialties. “After a series of studies, the legislature and the Commissioner of Higher Education had decided that, effective July 1, 2020, the two systems would become one.”

Before the latest change, SLCC’s School of Applied Technology had a unique position straddling the two systems. “We were positioned to serve students far better than other institutions because they could start out in the technical programs and then transition to programs leading to degree completion,” says Saunders, who sees the new realignment as a great opportunity to better serve SLCC’s students and its community through the removal of unnecessary duplication, more efficient use of taxpayer dollars and resources, “plus improved ways to communicate clearly to students about educational pathways and how that education connects with career options.”

She adds that because SLCC is the only comprehensive community college in Utah, its role as a technical college is not always clearly understood in the community. The change of name has made a strong statement to those in Salt Lake County that Salt Lake Technical College is the place to go to earn a technical degree or workforce-related credential. ●

194 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

to make the housing project a reality,” she says. “We have to be patient until the market stabilizes and we can secure an acceptable investment package for construction of the housing project. We look forward to the day when students will benefit by living on campus, including some of SLCC’s student athletes; Native American students who live in southern Utah; Bruin Scholars, who are first generation, low income, undocumented or transitioning out of foster care; international students; and even veteran students.”

HOPES AND DREAMS The 2016 strategic plan guided the college through to 2023; the next one is now in the works. The new strategic plan will be crafted through an inclusive community-wide process.

“The future is bright for SLCC,” says VP Jeff Aird, and “this next plan will chart the SLCC response to changing enrollment patterns, new critiques on the value of higher education and the never-morerelevant role of community college education for the next century. This plan will carry the college toward its 80th year and beyond.”

As the college and all its communities join to celebrate 75 years in 2023, some of those who have shared their memories in this book reflect on the years ahead. Like Gail Miller.

“I THINK THE COLLEGE IS GOING TO BECOME MORE VISIBLE, MORE IMPACTFUL. IT’S GOING TO HAVE AN EVEN BIGGER ROLE GETTING STUDENTS PREPARED FOR JOBS.” GAIL MILLER TRUSTEE EMERITUS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

A CABINETMAKER AT THE SCHOOL OF TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL SPECIALTIES.

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AT HEART, SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE HAS ALWAYS EXISTED TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF BOTH ITS STUDENTS AND ITS COMMUNITY. THAT MISSION REMAINS, EVEN AS TECHNOLOGY BECOMES MORE COMPLEX. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: THE DENTAL HYGIENE CLINIC; EXCELLENCE IN DIVERSITY SCHOLARS, 2021; SURVEYING STUDENTS IN THE SCHOOL OF GEOSCIENCES; THE AUTOMOTIVE TRAINING CENTER ON THE MILLER CAMPUS.

“I think the college is going to become more visible, more impactful,” says the donor and former trustee. “It’s going to have an even bigger role getting students prepared for jobs.

Right now, if you came to Salt Lake and you talked to the man on the street about Salt Lake Community College, it has kind of an underdog reputation. I would like to see it be on the top, on the level with any other university.”

Miller adds that she thinks Huftalin and the presidents of colleges and universities in Utah have done a good job of working together and collaborating on education programs. “I’d like to see more of that because I think we can all lift each other and help students become their very best selves.”

Regent Jesselie Anderson sees the college continuing on its vibrant path. “I think in many ways, the college is going to be more adaptable

196 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

than some of our more traditional higher ed institutions in Utah because of the clear technical education it offers: the certification, the partnerships with businesses, training employees and so on. Salt Lake Community College is more nimble. It can change. They can teach what the workforce is demanding.

For a student who doesn’t want to join a fouryear traditional program, they can, in a year or 18 months, get a certificate in, say, heating and air conditioning, and they’ll be fighting away jobs just to complete their certification process because they’re in such high demand.”

Provost Clifton Sanders in a 2018 Bruin Voices talk stressed the importance of SLCC continuing its progress toward equity, diversity and inclusion. “Our willingness and our ability to be different, to change who we are, to become what we need to be are absolutely important, because otherwise we will be doing what we have done before, and we will get exactly the same results, and needles will stay stuck. Our community, on the other hand, is on the move.

I’ve been here 25 years, our demographics have changed dramatically, which means that we need to change dramatically if we want to see success.

We can celebrate the excellent work that we’re doing, but we really do need to move forward.

I think the best way to do that is to cultivate a sense of being academic professionals in community. In vibrant community, in supportive community, in risk-taking community and in professional community.”

chapter eight into the future 197

TEAM USA BROUGHT SLCC STUDENTS AND ALUMNI TO THE 2022 BEIJING WINTER OLYMPICS, INCLUDING FORMER STUDENT ERIN JACKSON (LEFT), WHO WON GOLD IN THE 500-METER SPEEDSKATING EVENT.

COLLEGE CHAMPIONS

President Deneece Huftalin, while optimistic, worries about a recent trend in enrollment. “I want to get more students coming to SLCC. The college-going rate in Salt Lake County is declining. Over the years we’ve stressed to the community that anyone can go to college. Our programs, curriculum and financial aid are structured to be inclusive, to prepare students from all cultures and economic backgrounds for further schooling and meaningful careers. We have made huge strides toward equity across the entire sectors of students of color in terms of their degree and certificate attainment. We need to continue that progress, and continue to build our profile as an important part of the higher education fabric of Utah. I want everyone in the community to understand that SLCC is the place where all students can start their college education and then move on to a university or into the workforce.”

198 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

THE LARRY H. & GAIL MILLER FAMILY FOUNDATION Gail Miller’s outstanding support for the college, both financial and personal, resonates throughout this book.

She and her late husband, Larry, donated the land and funding to build the Miller Campus, at the time the largest gift given to a community college in America.

The Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation — now representing three generations of philanthropic support to the college — also provides ongoing scholarships to SLCC. An ATHENA Award winner, Gail Miller served as chair of the SLCC Board of Trustees and still sits as a trustee emeritus. Her matching gift launched the college into its current comprehensive fundraising campaign, of which she is honorary chair. ●

chapter eight into the future 199

BECOMING A HISPANIC-SERVING INSTITUTION As of Fall 2021, more than 25 percent of SLCC’s students identify as Hispanic or Latinx.

This growing demographic has become a key focus for the college, which over the years has put in place facilities and resources to cater to Latinx students, including admissions and enrollment, campus tours, orientation and counseling in Spanish. Many staff members are bilingual, and there is even a duallanguage course in biology, with plans for more offerings. And then there’s the Dream Center for undocumented students.

The future holds even more. “We believe that becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution is a natural next step in the evolution of our justice, equity, diversity and inclusion work at SLCC,” said Alonso Reyna Rivarola, interim chief diversity officer at a recent SLCC 360° event. “To us, at the heart of being an HSI is not just serving Latinx students, but fundamentally reimagining our practices, with minoritized students at the center.”

As a federally accredited HSI the college will gain access to Department of Education grants for many academic programs for all ethnicities — programs like those currently in place at the West Valley Center. “People in the

Latinx community know they will be helped here and that they will find someone who understands them and knows their struggles,” states Idolina Quijada, coordinator for the center. “We tell them, ‘You are not different here. You belong here.’”

A RECORD OF SUCCESS After 75 years, everyone at SLCC is preparing for a big celebration that will involve the entire college body and the larger community it serves.

All can be justly proud of the college’s history.

It’s been an amazing journey with twists and turns, setbacks and successes as a small vocational training school struggled to survive — and succeeded against the odds.

Those early days gave way to a strong period of steady growth guided by Jay Nelson, who for 35 years shepherded the college through changes in name and challenges to its role as a purely vocational and technical college.

Under him, the seeds of what the college would become were sown with the beginnings of general education courses. They brought new academic faculty to the school and the idea that one day the school might be a community college. What a battle that was!

“WE HAVE MADE HUGE STRIDES TOWARD EQUITY ACROSS THE ENTIRE SECTORS OF STUDENTS OF COLOR IN TERMS OF THEIR DEGREE AND CERTIFICATE ATTAINMENT. WE NEED TO CONTINUE THAT PROGRESS.” DENEECE HUFTALIN

THE SLCC LATINX HERITAGE COMMITTEE COMMISSIONED THIS MURAL FROM DACA GRADUATE AGUSTIN BAUTISTASILVA. THE MURAL EXPLICITLY CONNECTS A MONARCH BUTTERFLY WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS NAVIGATING THE CLASSROOMS OF SLCC. AT THE 2021 UNVEILING, BAUTISTA CALLED IT “A REPRESENTATION OF ALL THE TIMES OUR PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, AND ANCESTORS WANTED US TO FLY.”

chapter eight into the future 201

“WE DON’T CARE SO MUCH IF WE’RE NUMBER ONE; WE WANT [OTHER COMMUNITY COLLEGES] TO LOOK AT US AND THINK, ‘THEY’RE DOING IT RIGHT.’” DENEECE HUFTALIN

SCENES FROM PARADISE. SLCC HAS ALWAYS BALANCED THE VOCATIONAL PRACTICALITIES OF INSTRUCTION WITH A SETTING THAT WOULD STOP ANYONE IN THEIR TRACKS, EVEN THE STUDENTS MODELING COLLEGE SWAG TOP RIGHT.

202 A COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE

The drive to become a comprehensive community college, with all its turmoil and tensions, began in earnest with Nelson’s retirement. It took nine years and several presidents before that dream was realized. The new era brought expansion in both credit and non-credit programs, the former now seamlessly transferable to four-year universities. The last two decades of the 20th century were marked by rapid growth in both student numbers and the faculty to teach them. Campuses started to sprout in different parts of the valley as the college sought to bring its programs to other communities. Also came the growing realization that the community was becoming more diverse, and there was a need for the college to change in response.

The new century came in on a wave of exciting new high technologies delivered by a president

who would transform educational delivery. It was a faltering step forward, but under new leadership the college rallied and set its sights on greater things. The first female president challenged the college to be the best in the land; the second, to be a model for inclusive and transformative education — visions that have made SLCC one of the largest and most diverse institutions of higher learning in the state.

Running throughout this story is the school’s intimate ties to the community. In its first iteration, the school came about because of critical needs for trained personnel in industry and business in Utah. That role for the school has never wavered; the connection to community has only grown stronger with passing years. Becoming a community college sealed the deal. That is what SLCC is: a college for the community — a college for all of us.

chapter eight into the future 203

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As we mark 75 years of Salt Lake Community College, tracing its evolution from a small vocational school to a comprehensive institution vital to Utah’s community, we express our deep gratitude to the numerous individuals instrumental to its present success and to the making of this commemorative book.

SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE EXECUTIVE CABINET

Dr. Dennis Bromley, dean for School of Business

Dr. Deneece G. Huftalin, president

Dr. Craig Caldwell, dean for School of Science, Mathematics and Engineering

Jeffrey Aird, vice president for Institutional Effectiveness Dr. Juone Kadiri, vice president for Institutional Equity, Inclusion and Transformation Dr. Charles Lepper, vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Chris Martin, vice president for Finance and Administration, and chief financial officer Alison McFarlane, vice president for Institutional Advancement Dr. Clifton Sanders, provost for Academic Affairs Tim Sheehan, vice president for Government and Community Relations

SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP Rick Bouillon, associate vice president for Workforce and Economic Development

Dr. Robert Pettitt, dean for School of Health Sciences Dr. David Hubert, associate provost for Learning Advancement Dr. Roderic Land, dean for School of Humanities and Social Sciences Rachel Lewis, assistant provost for Curriculum and Academic Systems

Silvia Castro Lori Chillingworth Lindsay Lauren Simons, student association president

UTAH BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION Lisa Michelle Church, chair Jesselie Barlow Anderson, vice chair

Jim M. Wall

Grace Acosta

Sunny Washington

Mike Angus

Kim R. Wilson

Julie Beck

Tashelle Wright, alumni president

Stacey K. Bettridge

Gail Miller, trustee emeritus

Sanchaita Datta

Shawn E. Newell, trustee emeritus

Heather Johnson

SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION BOARD

Arthur E. Newell

Kevin Potts, chair Kyle Treadway, vice chair and treasurer Mary Bangerter Norma Carr Cici Compton William Gelegotis

Patricia Jones

Shawn Newell Scott L. Theurer Richard Wheeler Xitlalli Villanueva David R. Woolstenhulme, commissioner of higher education, Utah System of Higher Education

Scott McCullough

75TH ANNIVERSARY BOOK COMMITTEE

Zane Miller

Alison McFarlane, co-chair

Steve Pagoaga

Richard Scott, co-chair

Jessica Pantages

Marilee Dunn

Craig Sandberg

Jennifer Hughes

Amy Taylor

Dr. Ted Moore

SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Maxine Turner

Michael Navarre

Nikki Walker

Ann Richins

Brady Southwick, chair

Beatryx Washington

Hilda Sandi

Coralie Ashton Alder

Bryce Whittaker

Rebecca Sparagowski

Nate Boyer

Nancy Michalko

Steve Speckman

Dr. Jason Pickavance, associate provost for Academic Operations Dr. Jennifer Saunders, dean for Salt Lake Technical College and School of Technical and Professional Specialties Richard Scott, dean for School of Arts, Communication and Media

PEOPLE AND WORKS CONSULTED CONSULTED Interviews for this book took place between June and August 2021 unless otherwise indicated.

Nelson, J.L. (1982)

Randa, E.W. (2000). The Mature Community College

The Salt Lake Tribune

Randa, E.W. (2000)

Randa, E.W. (2000). In the Beginning

Sanders, C. (interview)

Richardson, D. (interview)

PROLOGUE: ONE IN A MILLION

Utah Technical College at Salt Lake. Tech Topics

SLCCTV Vid Archive (2015). “History of the Grand Theatre in Salt Lake City.” Salt Lake Community College (youtube.com/watch?v=xsK4jt-Jy4E)

Anderson, J. (interview)

SLCC Bruins (slccbruins.com)

Salt Lake Community College. “SLCC Strategic Priorities and Objectives 2008–2011”

The Globe Huftalin, D. (interview)

Storrs, G. (interview)

Salt Lake Community College. “SLCC Strategic Plan 2010–2015”

Sanders, C. (interview)

Kaddas Enterprises (kaddas.com) Kaddas, Natalie (interview) | Alumnus; CEO, Kaddas Enterprises

PART 2: A COLLEGE FOR THE COMMUNITY (1978–2000)

Salt Lake Community College. Horizon

CHAPTER 3: YOU SAY YOU WANT AN EVOLUTION?

The Salt Lake Tribune

The Mill (themillatslcc.com)

Askerlund, Bob (correspondence) | Associate vice president emeritus for Facilities Services

Sanders, Clifton (interview) | Provost for Academic Affairs

Bartholomew, Earl (interview by E.W. Randa, 1995) | Former professor

Scott, Richard (interview) | Dean for School of Arts, Communication and Media

Carnahan, Orville (interview by E.W. Randa, 1990, vimeo.com/81985864) | Former president

SLCC Magazine

Salt Lake Community College. SLCC Magazine PART 1: A SCHOOL OF VOCATIONS (1948–1978)

CHAPTER 1: THE STARVATION YEARS Bradley, Michelle C. (2007). “Sputnik and the Space Race: 1957 and Beyond.” Library of Congress (guides.loc.gov/sputnik-and-the-space-race) Deseret News Erickson, Anne (interview) | Vice president emeritus for Academic Affairs Kremen, Gladys R. (1974). “MDTA: The Origins of the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962.” U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov/ general/aboutdol/history/mono-mdtatext) Launius, Roger D. “World War II in Utah.” Utah History Encyclopedia (uen.org/utah_history_ encyclopedia/w/WWII.shtml) Nelson, Jay L. (1982). “The First Thirty Years: A History of Utah Technical College at Salt Lake.”

Utah Technical College at Salt Lake Randa, Ernest W. (2000). In the Beginning. “Salt Lake Community College: A College on the Move.” Agreka Books The Salt Lake Tribune Taylor, Jerry (interview) | Alumnus; donor; former owner, Taylor Electric Inc.

Deseret News Erickson, A. (interview) McQueen, Roger (interview) | Former vice president of SLCC Foundation Board; donor Morgan, J. (interview) Randa, E.W. (2000). Transitional Years and Student Life Salt Lake Community College. The Globe The Salt Lake Tribune Standard-Examiner (1978) Treadway, Kyle (interview) | Vice chair of SLCC Foundation Board; donor; president, Kenworth Sales Company Utah Technical College at Salt Lake. Points West

Baird, Brett (interview) | Professor emeritus (automotive) for School of Applied Technology and Technical Specialties Deseret News Erickson, A. (interview) Morgan, Judd (interview) | Former interim president

Thayne Center for Service & Learning (slccthaynecenter.blogspot.com) U.S. Census Bureau (census.gov)

The Salt Lake Tribune Sanders, C. (interview)

CHAPTER 6: THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT Anderson, Jesselie (interview) | Former chair of SLCC Board of Trustees; vice chair of Utah Board of Higher Education ATHENA International. “ATHENA Leadership Award” (athenainternational.org/page/athena_ leadership_award)

Scott, R. (interview) SLCC Magazine Tech Topics UCAT Utah College of Applied Technology. “UCAT History” (ucats.org/abouthistory.html)

CHAPTER 7: A MODEL FOR ALL

White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. “Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs).” U.S. Department of Education (sites. ed.gov/hispanic-initiative/hispanic-servinginstitutions-hsis) ARCHIVAL SOURCES

Anderson, J. (interview)

Budget Office (2014). “Salt Lake Community College Informed Budget Process, Initial Report: FY 2015.”

Salt Lake Community College

Bickmore, L. (interview) Deseret News

Salt Lake Community College (slcc.edu)

PART 3: A PLATFORM FOR SUCCESS (2000–PRESENT)

Deseret News

The Globe

CHAPTER 5: TURBULENT TIMES

Farrington, Maria (interview) | Former member of SLCC Board of Trustees

Huftalin, D. (interview)

Salt Lake Community College. “SLCC Fact Book” (various editions)

Bickmore, Lisa (interview) | Associate dean emeritus (English) for School of Humanities and Social Sciences Carr, Norma (interview) | Member of SLCC Foundation Board; athletic director emeritus Deseret News Huftalin, D. (interview)

George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation (2018).

“Sixtieth Anniversary Report: 1958–2018”

McFarlane, Alison (interview) | Vice president for Institutional Advancement

The Globe

Moosman, Peter (interview) | Manager for Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center; alumnus

Fowler, Lisa (interview) | Assistant professor (business) for School of Business The Globe Grover, Barbara (interview) | Vice president emeritus for Institutional Effectiveness Horizon Hubert, David (memos and proposals, SLCC ePortfolio) | Associate provost for Learning Advancement Huftalin, D. (interview) Izrailevsky, Alexander (interview) | Associate professor (philosophy) for School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Huval, Tim and Brenda (interview) | Donors; Tim is an alumnus and chief administrative officer of Humana Inc. McFarlane, A. (interview) Miller, G. (interview) Ortiz, Sam (interview) | Alumnus; associate director for campus and community engagement, University of Dayton Rincon, Aynoa (interview) | Alumnus Salt Lake Community College. “SLCC Access and Affordability Messaging” Salt Lake Community College. “SLCC Strategic Plan 2016–2023”

Jessen, Gail (2013). “Program Review: 2012–2013.”

Thayne Center for Service & Learning at Salt Lake Community College

Nelson, J.L. (1982)

The Mill (web)

Salt Lake Community College. “SLCC Strategic Plan 2016–2023 (2019 Update)”

Miller, Gail (interview) | Trustee emeritus of SLCC Board of Trustees; donor

Randa, E.W. (2000)

Miller, G. (interview)

Sanders, C. (interview)

Richardson, David (interview) | Vice president emeritus for Academic Affairs

Morgan, J. (interview)

SLCC Magazine

Nelson, J.L. (1982)

Salt Lake Community College (2009). “Crime Awareness and Campus Security Report”

PACE Scholarship Program. “10th Anniversary” (booklet). Salt Lake Community College

Treadway, K. (interview)

McFarlane, A. (interview and correspondence)

Salt Lake Community College. SLCC Institutional Repository (various collections) Sparagowski, Rebecca (research and correspondence) | Librarian for SLCC Archives

McQueen, R. (interview)

Morgan, J. (interview, CV, and list of accomplishments)

Perlich, Pamela S. (2002). “Utah Minorities: The Story Told by 150 Years of Census Data.” David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah

Saunders, Jennifer (interview, March 2022) | Dean for Salt Lake Technical College and School of Technical and Professional Specialties

Bioteau, Cynthia (interview) | Former president

U.S. Department of Education. “Title III Part A Programs: Strengthening Institutions” (ed.gov/ programs/iduestitle3a/index.html)

CHAPTER 4: A BIGGER STAGE

The Grand Theatre (grandtheatrecompany.com)

Utah State Board of Regents (2005). Resolution of Appreciation: Judd Morgan. “Minutes of Meeting”

Hughes, Jen (research and correspondence) | Librarian for SLCC Archives, New Media and Educational Initiatives

The Globe

Huftalin, Deneece (interview) | President

CHAPTER 2: GROWING PAINS

Storrs, Gordon (interview) | Academic advisor for School of Arts, Communication and Media

SLCC Magazine

CHAPTER 8: INTO THE FUTURE

COLLEGE ENROLLMENT NUMBERS

In Part 1, all figures representing the size of the college are from Nelson (1982), Appendix 27, or as quoted in Randa (2000). In Part 2, enrollment numbers are from Randa (2000). In Part 3, numbers were supplied by the college’s Institutional Advancement and Institutional Effectiveness divisions.

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When it opened with a few hundred students in a former laundry, no one could have foreseen that a fledgling trade school would mature into a vital pillar of the Salt Lake community. Yet today SLCC stands as one of the largest and most diverse institutions of higher learning in Utah. A celebration of the past 75 years, this book chronicles that evolution — the wins, the trials, the partnerships, the stories of student success. Much has changed, but what has never wavered is the school’s connection to its community, which only grows stronger with the passing years.