The University of Utah (UU, U of U, or simply Utah)[12] is a publicresearch university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (/ˌdɛzəˈrɛt/ⓘ)[13] by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret,[1] making it Utah's oldest institution of higher education.[14] It received its current name in 1892, four years before Utah attained statehood, and moved to its current location in 1900.[1] Along with Utah State University, UU is one of two formally recognized flagship universities by the state of Utah; UU is the largest public university in the state of Utah in total budget, revenue, endowment size, and total research expenditures.
Following years of intermittent classes in the Salt Lake City
Fort Douglas land has been granted to the university over the years, and the fort was officially closed on October 26, 1991.[39] Upon his death in 1900, Dr. John R. Park bequeathed his entire fortune to the university.[1][40]
The University of Utah campus in the early 1920s
The university grew rapidly in the early 20th century but was involved in an
The Great Depression and World War II. Student enrollment dropped to a low of 3,418 during the last year of World War II, but A. Ray Olpin made substantial additions to campus following the war, and enrollment reached 12,000 by the time he retired in 1964. Growth continued in the following decades as the university developed into a research center for fields such as computer science and medicine.[1][42]
During the
Rice-Eccles Stadium,[44] a light rail line leading to downtown Salt Lake City,[45] a new student center known as the Heritage Center,[43] an array of new student housing,[46] and what is now a 180-room campus hotel and conference center.[47]
The University of Utah Asia Campus opened as an
Songdo, Incheon, South Korea in 2014. Three other European and American universities are also participating.[48] The Asia Campus was funded by the South Korean government.[49][50]
In 2015, the university helped open the Ensign College of Public Health in Kpong, Ghana.[51]
Most courses take place on the west side of campus, known as lower campus due to its lower elevation.
student activity center is the A. Ray Olpin University Union, and campus fitness centers include the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Complex (HPER) and the Eccles Student Life Center.[8][53]
Utah Museum of Natural History, is located on the far east side of campus.[54]
Fort Douglas and the Heritage Center, which serves as a student center and cafeteria for this area.[57] In addition, there are 1,115 university apartments for students, staff, and faculty across three apartment complexes on campus.[58] At the southeast end of campus is Research Park, which is home to research companies including ARUP Laboratories, Evans & Sutherland,[59]Sarcos, Biofire Diagnostics, and Myriad Genetics
.
Courses are also held at off-campus centers located in St. George and Sandy.[60]
In July 2017, the Academic Senate bestowed the designation of tobacco-free campus on the university, but rules were not enforced until 2018. The rule prohibits students and faculty from "smoking or using chewing tobacco, electronic cigarettes and all other recreational nicotine-delivery products on any property owned, leased or controlled by the University of Utah."[61]
Student residences
The University of Utah provides student housing in a 34-building housing complex on campus. The complex consists of nine housing areas: Chapel Glen, Gateway Heights, Sage Point, Officer's Circle, Benchmark Plaza, Shoreline Ridge, the Donna Garff Marriott Honors Residential Scholars Community (MHC for short), the Lassonde Studios, and Kahlert Village. The MHC is a dormitory strictly for honors students and was completed in fall 2012.[62] Built in 2016, the Lassonde Studios is part of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and houses 400 students; the studios also feature a "creative garage" with 3D printers and spaces for startups.[63] Kahlert Village, completed August 2020, houses 990 first-year students.[64][65]
Transportation
A number of campus shuttles, running on biodiesel and used vegetable oil,
In 2012, the university unveiled a new plan for a more conducive campus for bicyclists called the "Bicycle Master Plan" which aims to transform the campus into a safer and more accessible place for cycling and to promote bicycle ridership. The plan emphasizes both campus pathways and on-street facilities that connect the core campus area with surrounding neighborhoods. The Bicycle Master Plan gives guidelines for facilities and programs that are within the University's jurisdiction. It also provides recommendations for the University to work with external entities such as UDOT, UTA, and Salt Lake City to improve bicycling conditions in locations that are important to the campus environment, but which are not under the University's direct control.[69][70][71]
Sustainability
Sustainability efforts include a permanent sustainability office, a campus
climate change and energy, food and recycling, student involvement, and transportation.[73]
The expanded recycling program launched on July 1, 2007. Since its launch, the program has continued to grow and refine its procedures to better accommodate a growing campus' needs. Currently there are programs in place for paper, cardboard, aluminum, batteries, glass, printer cartridges, wooden pallets and plastics #1 and #2.[74][75]
Renewable energy
The university is ranked 8th by the
green power usage among universities, with 49% of its power coming from geothermal and solar sources.[76]
The university houses 10 solar array systems, including a 330-kilowatt system on the rooftop of the Natural History Museum of Utah and a 262-kilowatt system at the HPER East building. The combined arrays annually produce 1,096,340 kilowatt hours, and are supported by a student fee sustainability program established in 2008.[77][78]
On November 1, 2019, the university entered into a renewable energy partnership with
Rocky Mountain Power and Cyrq Energy which allows the purchase of 20 megawatts of geothermal energy for 25 years. The contract offsets half of the electricity produced by the university and reduces the university's carbon emissions by 23%.[79]
Organization
The University of Utah is governed by a 10-member
Utah Senate. The President of the University of Utah Alumni Association serves as the 9th member, and the President of the Associated Students of the University of Utah (ASUU) serves as the 10th member. The 8 appointed members serve for four-year terms, four expiring on June 30 of each odd-numbered year. The two ex officio members serve for the terms of their respective offices.[80]
The University of Utah and the other public colleges and universities of the Utah System of Higher Education are governed by the
Utah Board of Higher Education (previously the Utah State Board of Regents)[81] whose chief executive officer is the Commissioner of Higher Education.[82]
The chief executive officer of the University of Utah is the president, who reports to the Board of Higher Education and, with the approval of the trustees, submits budgets, tuition adjustments, and academic program plans, appoints faculty, and develops policy initiatives.[83][84]
Subject to the Board of Trustees, the university faculty have authority to legislate on matters of educational policy via the
University President, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, and all non-elected deans as ex officio members who may debate and present motions but do not vote. Much of the actual Senate work is carried out by 12 Senate-elected committees which work on the central academic issues of the institution. The committees report to the full Senate and the Senate often acts on their proposals as well as on issues brought to its attention by the administration.[85]
As of 2014, the university's revenues totaled $3.6 billion, of which 44% comes from patient care, 19% from sales and services, 10% from grants and contracts, 8.2% from tuition and fees, 7.7% from state appropriations, 3.4% from auxiliary enterprises, and the rest from other revenues.[5] Football income was $56 million in 2017-2018.[86]
The University of Utah is a public flagship four-year research university accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities since 1933.[96] The university organizes its 150 academic departments and programs into 17 colleges and schools.[97] The School for Cultural and Social Transformation is the university's newest college, with its first graduating class in 2018.[98]
semester calendar with the rest of the Utah higher education system.[99] Undergraduate tuition and fees for 2015–2016 were $8,240 for Utah residents (about 325% the cost of tuition and fees in 2000, $2,534 for 13 credit hours per semester, 2 semesters), and $26,180 for non-residents per 12-credit-hour semester.[100]
The university uses a holistic admissions process and weighs ACT/SAT standardized test scores, GPA, grade trend, rigorous AP/IB/Honors classes taken in high school, academic achievements, along with other "personal achievements and characteristics".[103]
In Fall 2015, the undergraduate and graduate student body was 31,551, with 23,794 undergraduate students and 7,757 graduate students; 73% of students were full-time, 56% were male and 44% female, and 82% were Utah residents.[104] The undergraduate student body was 69% white, 11% Hispanic, 6% non-resident alien, 5% Asian, 4% two or more races, 1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 1% black, and 1% Native American. Ethnicity or citizenship was unknown for 2%.[104]
Notable programs
Ballet
The Department of Ballet offers the top ranked ballet and ballroom dance program in the United States and is one of the oldest and most reputable university ballet departments in the country.
The university has made unique contributions to the study of genetics due in part to long-term genealogy efforts of the LDS Church, which has allowed researchers to trace genetic disorders through several generations. The relative homogeneity of Utah's population also makes it an ideal laboratory for studies of population genetics.[107] The university is home to the Genetic Science Learning Center, a resource which educates the public about genetics through its website.[108]
Computer Science
The University of Utah was one of the original four nodes of
In March 2012, the university received unanimous approval from the board of trustees to create a new academic college, the School of Dentistry, which is the university's first new college in sixty years.[114] The new school has received funding for a new structure and has started as a debt-free program.[114] The new school enrolled its first students for the fall semester of 2013 and averages the same cost as the university's medical school tuition.[115]
Law
The S.J. Quinney College of Law, founded in 1913,[116] was the only law school in Utah until the 1970s. The law school was ranked the #37 best law school in the country in the 2023 U.S. News "Best Law Schools" rankings.[117]
The University of Utah College of Pharmacy is ranked 15th in the nation for NIH research grants as of 2023,[119] and its PharmD program is ranked 14th in the nation.[120] The department of Pharmacology and Toxicology within the School of Pharmacy is world-renowned for research in epilepsy treatment with their Anticonvulsant Drug Development (ADD) program.[121]
Political Science
The university is host to the Neal A. Maxwell Lecture Series in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics, a forum for political theorists to share their newest theoretical work,[122] and is home to the Hinckley Institute of Politics, which places more than 350 students every year in local, state, national, and global internships.[123]
Turkish Studies Program and Armenian genocide denial
Professor Keith David Watenpaugh charges the program with "promoting the falsification of history through its grants and political advocacy... the University of Utah has provided an institutional home to genocide denial."[130] In 2020, regarding "a student complaint and messages of concern from the Armenian community about the content of an article written by and assigned in a class taught by Hakan Yavuz," the university made a statement, according to which: "The United States, the state of Utah and the University of Utah (as a state entity), recognize the historical events of 1915 as the Armenian genocide".[131]