Hall’s speech Friday encouraged investment
In an effort to raise awareness and support of Utah’s two major research universities, Utah State University President Kermit L. Hall spoke to members of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce Friday afternoon.
The speech focused on the benefits state support of research universities can bring to the state as a whole, Hall said.
Hall said the large returns of such an investment would be “not only for the university but for the state,” including a greater level of research productivity, the creation of more companies and a stronger stream of revenue.
Other benefits would include increasingly better job opportunities with better wages and life expectations, Hall said.
People tend to think of places like the Silicon Valley or the Boston corridor when they think of technology, he said.
“But for a place like Salt Lake City and a place like Logan,” he said, “that really isn’t the competition. We’re better advised to understand the role that emerging second-tier cities play and the commitment they’ve made to high-tech based economies.”
Investment in research is critical to the economic success of areas the size of Salt Lake and Logan, Hall said.
During his speech, Hall gave several examples of other medium-sized and second-tier cities – cities that have economically surpassed the Wasatch Front – and have followed through on the ideas Hall presented Friday.
“I think that the group that was there understood and appreciated that concern. That this area, while it has made some progress, lags significantly behind even these second tier cities,” Hall said.
Hall said Albany, N. Y. is a perfect example of what can happen when a community invests in research.
“Albany was a down and out 19th century industrial city that is completely remaking itself,” Hall said.
Albany, home to State University of New York, has been able to bring in a $100 million contract from IBM, an expansion of the high-tech company SEMATECH, and even a base for Tokyo Electron located on the university’s campus, Hall said.
A lot can be learned from Albany’s success, Hall said, and used to help Utah.
“The message is there needs to be a much stronger relationship between the two universities, there needs to be there needs to be a much more dynamic agressive relationship between the business community and these two universities,” Hall said, “and in the end, as a matter of public policy, encouraging that interaction needs to be one of the top priorities for the state of Utah.”
Another example Hall used is the relationship Indianapolis has with Purdue University and Indiana University.
“These medium-sized cities often ones who have suffered some economic downturn as a result of the collapse of industrial manufacturing are reinventing themselves, they are the competition.”
Hall said the opportunity to speak to the group was a result of months worth of effort to build positive relationships with members of the Salt Lake business community.
“The group of people who are the emerging business leaders are an especially good group to understand how significant Utah State University and the University of Utah are as research and economic engines for the state.”
Ongoing collaboration with the University of Utah has also been a part of the process, Hall said.
“The level of communication involving matters of research is unprecedented in the history of these two institutions,” Hall said. “Can it be even more robust? Yes. Will it be even more robust? Yes.”
The presidents of the two universities are sharing speeches and press releases and the boards of trustess for both schools have met together several times, Hall said.
“It’s clear to me, and clear to President Young (president of the U of U) as well, that in order to compete with the Berkeleys, Stanfords, Ohio States, the Michigans, we need to pool our collective intelligence and resources,” he said. “We will always be rivals, but I think some of those barriers are collapsing.
Hall said he was very pleased with how the presentation went and said he is confident there will be favorable results.
“The reaction was very postive and very strong,” Hall said.
“I spent some time talking about the work of Richard Florida and his book the ‘Rise of the Creative Class,'” he said. “I think they were takened by Florida’s ideas whiech emphasized the importance of research universities to creating robust technology based economies.”
-bnelson@cc.usu.edu