Michael's ME-anderings, 2012: POST #13 -- Utah State University

Utah State University

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, providing funding for the establishment of a new college in each state and territory. These schools were to promote higher education and practical learning to people of all classes and walks of life, especially rural life. In 1888, the Agricultural College of Utah was founded as the state's land-grant institution. It became Utah State University in 1957.

Today, USU remains true to its roots as an institution dedicated to the land and its people. But it has also become a very modern, very tech-intensive university offering courses and degrees across an extraordinarily broad spectrum. And it's big, with 28,000 students spread across all its satellite locations statewide and 16,000 students on the Logan campus alone. USU now has a special emphasis on graduate studies, offering more than 140 graduate degrees. It offers 160 undergraduate degrees, plus 94 undergraduate minors. Who'da thunk it?

Old Main, as viewed from the Quad

I discovered USU when a gaggle of university officials and Logan town boosters visited Palm Desert this past winter to pitch their Summer Citizen program to sun belt retirees. "The students all leave Logan in the summer," they explained, "so we've assembled an irresistible menu of summer culture and coursework to lure you into town to keep the local economy humming along." And it works. The culture is great. (See my 'Cultural Cornucopia' post.) The coursework is great, too.

USU's Summer Citizen curriculum is definitely 'Academic Lite.' It's adult education/amusement kind of stuff, offering no credit toward any sort of degree. But it's just right for the intended audience. I signed up for 2 courses: 'Genealogy' (hey, these Utah Mormons know more about me than I do) and 'The Taste of Summer', a thinly-veiled answer to the question: 'What's for lunch today?'

my personal welcome to campus

I've been living on campus for the past 2 weeks, in the almost posh University Inn, the preferred accommodation for out of town conference attendees during the academic year. Both my classes are a stroll from my door. And I've been able to easily explore the rest of the impressive 400 acre campus on foot and on my clown bike. I use my Summer Citizen/Student I.D. to give me access to virtually all the university facilities, including the computer labs and the gym/recreation center where I've been able to enjoy swimming in a very good indoor lap-pool. My card even gives me a discount for food services in the Student Union.

Hey, what's not to like? Well, nothing it seems. And I'm not alone. There are close to 1,000 Summer Citizens who spend time here each summer. Some spend as long as 10 weeks here. And many are happy return-registrants. I met a couple of Summer Citizens on one of my recent hikes into Logan Canyon (see Post #10) and they told me that they'd been coming for 12 and 13 summers respectively.
What's not to like, indeed.