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St. George • After eight years on the helm of what’s now Utah Tech College, President Richard “Biff” Williams is happy with how far the establishment of upper studying has come and says the controversy over the varsity’s identify change hasn’t held the varsity again.

On July 1, Dixie State College was renamed Utah Tech over the heated opposition from some longtime residents and others on social media websites just like the Defending Southwest Utah Heritage Coalition on Fb, a few of whom accused state legislators who mandated the identify change and college officers of going “woke.”

Regardless of the furor, Williams stated the identify change has proved to be a very good factor up to now.

“There’s all the time going to be that 10% who’re nonetheless upset with issues and can proceed to chip away on-line,” the president stated. “However I’d say the vast majority of [people] have been extraordinarily supportive.”

Some numbers appear to lend credence to Williams’ assertion. Attendance at college occasions stays excessive and donations to the college are up roughly 33% over final yr, from $2.7 million to $3.6 million, which Williams says signifies most individuals understand the identify change was crucial for the varsity to maneuver ahead in its quest to turn into a nationwide regional college.

Certainly, loads of numbers have been trending in a constructive course since Williams grew to become the establishment’s 18th president in 2014, a yr after then-Dixie State Faculty grew to become a college. There are actually 4 grasp’s diploma applications, up from zero in 2014. Bachelor’s diploma applications have greater than doubled over the identical time-frame, from 23 to 56. The identical goes for affiliate diploma applications, which have jumped from 10 to 21. The college has additionally added its first scientific doctorate in occupational remedy.

Enrollment can be on the upswing. It presently stands at 12,556, up 50 % from the 2014 fall semester, when the establishment welcomed 8,341 new college students to campus. Furthermore, the variety of buildings on the 110-acre St. George campus has gone from 49 to 60 and now covers 1.75 million sq. ft.

“You come on campus now and it seems like a campus, it seems like a college, ‘’ Williams stated from the consolation of his workplace within the diminutive Atkin Administration Constructing, which is dwarfed on the north and south by the Eccles Fantastic Arts Heart and Human Efficiency Heart, respectively.

In 2016, the college opened the Atwood Innovation Plaza within the former East Elementary Faculty, which is now a hub for fledgling entrepreneurs and budding companies.

“We’ve had about 65 companies crank out of there,” Williams stated. “And we’ve had over 100 patents accepted and greater than 200 submitted by college students, college and workers.”

Furthermore, the college used $15 million allotted by the Legislature to purchase 183 acres west of St. George Regional Airport, the place the objective is to create an Innovation District on a part of the property the place college students can rub shoulders with innovators and enterprise leaders and get hands-on coaching and academic experiences. It’s also projected to generate $100 million or extra in financial exercise, in keeping with college officers.

Matt Devore, former pupil physique president and now director of Pupil Outreach Companies on the college, says a lot of the credit score for the varsity’s fast rise is because of Williams and his management.

“I’m amazed at his work ethic and his imaginative and prescient, and the way he is ready to flip that division into actuality,” Devore stated. “To me, that’s the primary attribute of management …, to make that imaginative and prescient and actuality and create buy-in from everybody.”

That imaginative and prescient may need been deemed delusional by some when Williams took over in 2014. Some, each on and off campus, thought-about the faculty to be extra of a glorified highschool.

They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s thirteenth grade for those who go to Dixie Faculty.’ Effectively, that modified over time as [the university] bought four-year levels. And now you don’t hear that in any respect. Now we’ve engineering and well being care applications and enterprise applications and grasp’s diploma applications. In order that thirteenth grade is just about gone.”

Earlier than he was president of Utah Tech, Williams served as provost and vice chairman of Pupil Affairs at Indiana State.

Since his arrival in St. George, Williams stated he and his spouse Kristin have felt at residence. The couple serves dinner to a whole bunch of scholars of their residence every semester. The college caters the dinners.

Williams says what makes Utah Tech so distinctive from the opposite colleges is that he and others primarily have constructed up the establishment from the bottom up by speaking to college and college students, assembly with city councils, holding city halls and consulting with enterprise leaders to find out what sort of college and educational applications they wished.

That’s the place the varsity’s focus as a polytechnic college — with a deal with science and expertise — got here from. Whereas Utah Tech is, by state statute, required to supply a complete curriculum, it closely emphasizes well being care, innovation and STEM training.

For all of the progress Utah Tech has made, it’s not with out its challenges. For starters, in contrast to prestigious polytechnic universities comparable to Texas Tech and Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, Utah Tech doesn’t get to select and select its college students. As an open-access college, it’s required to simply accept individuals with highschool diplomas, regardless of their educational preparation.

Consequently, retention has been a difficulty. A measure of what number of college students return every year, retention was 54% amongst first-time, full-time college students looking for bachelor’s levels in 2014. By rising college students’ accessibility to educational advisers, peer coaches and profession counselors, Williams stated, that charge is now 59%. Equally, commencement charges for full-time college students looking for bachelor’s levels — over a interval of six years — have elevated from 18% to 25% since 2014.

Regardless that the college should meet college students the place they’re, no matter their educational prowess, Williams is assured the college now has the help system, educational applications and inclusive ambiance in place to assist them obtain their academic {and professional} aspirations.

Inexpensive housing is one other concern. The college has two on-campus dorms that sleep a mixed 1,168 college students. A 3rd dorm slated for completion in fall 2024 will bump that whole to 1,614 — far in need of the demand. To bridge that shortfall, Utah Tech is attempting to encourage the non-public sector to construct extra student-type housing off-campus, however Williams acknowledges that’s tall order with inflation and the rising costs of development supplies.

Apart from dorms, extra brick-and-mortar buildings are wanted on campus. The 120,000-square-foot Science, Engineering and Know-how Constructing accomplished a yr in the past is already about full. And Williams stated the varsity will seemingly have to lift $70 million in private and non-private funds to construct a brand new pupil heart within the subsequent a number of years.

With pupil enrollment projected to achieve 16,000 by 2025 and develop between 4,000 and eight,000 each 5 years thereafter, the necessity for extra buildings and different infrastructure will solely improve. Nonetheless, Williams stated he embraces the challenges and is optimistic concerning the years forward.

His message to college students: irrespective of the place or what stroll of life you come from, “in case you are keen, we’re going to aid you turn into an engineer, or a doctor, a instructor or an artist … We’ll offer you the help you should try this.”