State of USUE address by Dart

Associate Vice President Greg Dart met with faculty and staff on Oct. 24 to talk about updates to Utah State University Eastern. This open forum will take place each quarter. 

He talked about new hires. Director of Student Life Kristian Olsen left the Price campus to be associate vice president over the Blanding campus. He was replaced by Kevin Hurst, the new director of students, who started Oct. 1. 

There is currently an open position for director of student life. That position opened when Gypsie Everett left USU Eastern and took a position in the private sector.

Strategic Enrollment Management personnel released a report on Eastern’s enrollment. Currently, recruitment is struggling with the Price campus lower division student headcount going from 1,012 last year to 937 this year, a decrease of 7.4%. The Price campus’ upper division undergraduate headcount went from 180 last year to 226 this year, an increase of 25.6 %. The upper division graduate headcount went from 23 last year to 33 this year, an increase of 43.5%.

The university is looking at student markets it can do well in. Utah County is a possible market for USU Eastern to recruit from. Dart says that we need to do a better job at getting students in the door.

There are budget changes happening this year. Budget requests will be easier to access and use. Faculty evaluations will be done by department heads in Logan as well as faculty overload.

There will also be a change in the scholarship administration. Two roles will be combined into one. Jessica Prettyman, an administrative assistant for institutional advancement/scholarships, will have that position and be in charge of all scholarships. Her office will be in the One-Stop Center. The Eastern tuition will be available to students with 1-65 credits. It will give USUE a competitive advantage.

There is lots of marketing being done for this campus. There are ads at movie theatres in Spanish Fork.

Dart said that Utah State University Eastern is separate from any other college in the state and it is very independent.