THE NUCLEAR BOMB TESTS in Nevada could make the sun rise in the West. The sun came and went in a flash of premature daylight, sucking the desert into a gravity-defying cloud of radioactive dust and casting a shadow in its wake that violated borders between states.

In St. George teachers rose before dawn to gawk with their students. Outside Cedar City the traffic was diverted to the nearest service station for a car wash. No other precaution was necessary, the townspeople were told. Government officials said the tests were harmless.

Fremont, Utah, was further north and out of the direct line of fire. It didn't matter. By the time he graduated from high school, Stan Albrecht had lost three of his eight classmates to leukemia and other rare cancers.
"Some of the people in power understood the implications, but we didn't," recalls Albrecht, Utah State's new president. "My experiences growing up made me more conscious of the consequences of the decisions we make in administration. We need to be aware of all the consequences, not only to the institution but to the people we serve."

In January, the Utah Board of Regents bypassed their usual national search to promote Provost Stan Albrecht to president. Remembering the lessons of his childhood, their unanimous choice made public pledges to key stakeholders. To the faculty and trustees who nominated him, Albrecht vowed, with wife Joyce at his side, "to do everything we can to justify your confidence in us and to serve the university and the state."

In a breakfast meeting with students his first day in office, with his wife once again beside him, Albrecht promised, "We will never forget the reason we're here - our students." Not long afterward he announced a reduction in previously requested tuition increases, saying, "No student who is prepared and who desires a Utah State education should be turned away or denied that opportunity for financial reasons." more