For the People

The federal mandate, as authorized by the Morrill Land-Grant College Act during the Civil War was to open wide the doors of higher education to farm and working class families. Land was set aside in every state in the union for this purpose. In 1888, eight years before Utah became a state, the Agricultural College of Utah was born on a bench overlooking Cache Valley. The first student to enroll was 14-year-old Miss Vendla Berntson The entire college was housed in one wing of Old Main. Daily chapel attendance was mandatory. Four years later the first class to graduate boasted 12 graduates who majored in agriculture, commerce, engineering or domestic science. Early in the 20th century, Cooperative Extension was added to the land grant system, and Extension faculty and agents took up residence in virtually every Utah county, where today they continue to deliver research-based education to residents.

Bigger and Even More Indispensable

In his nearly 30 years at the helm, President E.G. Peterson ’04 did for Utah Agricultural College what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did for the United States during one of the most turbulent times in its history.

A relatively isolated rural agricultural school was pressed into national service. World War I could have emptied the campus of male students. But, with the help of the governor of Utah, UAC became a military training camp.
The Army wanted to build barracks, but Peterson convinced the feds to also invest in brick: engineering, and animal and plant science buildings; later on, a library and football stadium. Even the Great Depression was turned into an opportunity; the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the family life building and first dorm on campus since 1891.

In two years the size of the college nearly doubled and its educational offerings went beyond the merely technical to incorporate the dominant scientific questions and cultural themes of the age. A national summer school was started to bring the most eminent scholars in the country to campus, scholars like Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Frederick Jackson Turner, whose frontier thesis linked America’s manifest destiny to westward expansion; David Starr Jordan, the former president of Stanford and Charles Darwin of fish zoology; and E.V. McCollum, who founded Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

In 1926, the college was accredited and its role as a state provider of undergraduate education secured. Three years later, its name was changed to Utah State Agricultural College.

From Technical College to Research University

The passage of the GI Bill after World War II flooded the campus with married vets. In 1957, on President Daryl Chase’s watch, the governor of Utah signed an act of the state legislature changing Utah State’s name from agricultural college to university. The renaming reflected the evolution of Utah State’s mission. Utah State had grown beyond a technical school for farmers, mechanics and homemakers and into a full-fledged research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in every academic area except medicine and law.

Any Time, Any Place

Campuses in the Uintah Basin and on the Wasatch Front, collaborative degree programs in China and the Dominican Republic; Internet courses available day and night, all over the world — 119 years after its founding, Utah State University is crossing even more borders and harnessing the latest technology on behalf of universal access. Students from southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America come to Logan to complete undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science, engineering, and natural resource management. And our students go overseas to enhance their understanding of the arts, the global economy and indigenous cultures.

In this country and overseas USU scientists and their students are toiling away on global concerns. They’re converting cow manure into electricity and pond scum into biodiesel fuel, keeping soldiers and security agents out of harm’s way with bomb-detecting robots; reclaiming toxic waste sites, treating undrinkable water and restoring grazing pastures of herders impoverished by drought and war.
You can even find USU orbiting the Earth. USU space scientists and students have designed wheat experiments for the International Space Station and satellite systems that map global weather patterns, track killer storms and detect military build-ups.

Why a Campaign?

Public universities used to rely on tuition and state funding so students from all walks of life could afford a college education – the gateway to better jobs, well-informed citizenship and cross-cultural understanding. But all that has changed in the wake of declining dollars from state legislatures. Public universities are turning to their alumni and other friends for support. They’re embarking on comprehensive campaigns not only for the sake of maintaining access but on behalf of all the services they provide their states. They prepare the school teachers and engineers and counselors. They do the research that will enable us to eat more nutritiously.

On March 2, 2007, President Stan L. Albrecht announced Honoring Tradition, Securing Our Future: The Campaign for Utah State University, the first comprehensive campaign in USU history.

The university has been raising private funds for scholarships, professorships and buildings since 1958. As the needs have grown, so have the dollar objectives. The goal today: $200 million.