CEU’s Fine Arts Center and its rollercoaster ride

This archived article was written by: Heather Myers

College of Eastern Utah’s dream for a new fine arts complex has been a rollercoaster ride of lists, recommendations and planning.
The building has been in the works for years, and CEU hopes to have funding for it in the near future. It is hoped that the new complex would house a state-of-the-art theatre, dance, music, art and communications areas. No planning has taken place due to the lack of funding from the legislature, but there are many ideas for what could happen.
The legislature receives recommendations from three different places; the Board of Regents, the Building Board and the Department of Facilities Construction Management.
The Board of Regents and the Building Board make recommendations based primarily on the need of the school calculated on square footage per student i.e. the ratio of students who would be taking advantage of the space to the floor space required. The DFCM, on the other hand, makes recommendations based on health and safety.
CEU’s new fine arts complex ranked 17th on the Building Board’s list, seventh on the Board of Regent’s list, and third on the DFCM’s list. However the legislature does not always follow the recommendations of all, or any, of the lists. For example, there was a new building built last year on CEU’s Blanding campus and it was ranked in nearly the same positions as this building.
According to President Ryan Thomas, “Since it is unusual for an institution to receive building two years in a row, we had determined that we would focus our efforts on trying to secure funding during the 2006 legislative session.”
There are no definite plans for the complex yet, but Grady McEvoy, CEU theatre instructor, is trying to come up with basic plans to encourage CEU faculty to stay interested. Mesa State College, Snow College and Dixie State College all have new arts facilities which McEvoy is planning to visit with faculty members from CEU that will be most affected by the new complex. They have already visited Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo., and discussed which of their ideas would work at CEU. They will be traveling to Snow College and Dixie State College in the next few weeks to tour their facilities.