USU students, staff visit statewide campuses in annual tour
This week, a bus full of Utah State University students, staff and administrators traveled the state of Utah to visit 13 of USU’s statewide campuses and centers.
In addition to tying hair tinsel and playing get-to-know-you games, those on the statewide campuses tour were able to learn more about what is going on at the different USU campuses and connect with students and staff across the state.
The statewide campuses tour is an annual trip, first started seven years ago by James Morales, the vice president for student affairs. He said the tour’s initial purpose was for his staff to learn more about the other campuses they also serve. The tour was later expanded to include USUSA officers.
Morales said another reason he started the statewide tour was so everyone would have at least one familiar face at each campus.
“That’s really why this program exists is to facilitate those kinds of relationships,” Morales said. “That’s why I’m here: to help do that and help support that.”
Of all the years USUSA officers have toured the statewide campuses, this is the first year that all of USU’s campuses and centers are governed under one statewide constitution.
“The roles of the various officers have changed somewhat, and so automatically, they’re already beginning to think differently. They’re beginning to think more broadly,” Morales said. “I think this trip helps solidify that a little bit more for them.”
Adrianna Mortensen, the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services senator, represents all students in her college, even the ones at statewide campuses. She said the tour allowed her to see where students are at and the communities they are a part of.
“I didn’t realize the footprint that the College of Education and Human Services had across all the different campuses,” Mortensen said. “That’s something that I wanted to see and hopefully find ways that I could incorporate more, focus more on the statewide students throughout my tenure.”
In discovering the footprint her college has across the state, Mortensen realized how many statewide students were in the nursing program. She said these statewide programs are “an opportunity that’s missed.”
“Some people may need to move but want to stay in Logan for nursing school, which is great, because we have an incredible program, but we have that incredible program statewide,” she said.
Staff from multiple campuses and regions were also on the tour, including advisers, program coordinators, recruiters and directors of students.
Tim Olsen, the director of students for the Brigham City Region, said since he has held his position, he hasn’t been able to meet many of his colleagues in person. This tour allowed him to meet them outside of Zoom and see their campuses.
“It’s certainly been enlightening for me, having worked at the Brigham City Region for the past year, to see how our other statewide regions and campuses run, how my colleagues handle things and interact with their students,” he said.
Another staff member on the trip was Anson Ho, the coordinator of esports for USU Campus Recreation. He came on the trip to see how student leaders and administrators at other campuses get students involved in their programs.
“Esports is kind of new to being in the space of student involvement, and so I want to see what different spaces that students are using and how to bring them back onto campus,” he said.
Full of snacks, suitcases, students and staff from multiple campuses, the bus left Logan on Tuesday at 7 a.m. and traveled to the campuses in Brigham City, Kaysville, Tooele, Salt Lake, Roosevelt and Vernal.
Of all the campus tours that day, Alex Petersen, a Brigham City representative, said her favorites were Salt Lake and Kaysville.
“I really loved Kaysville,” she said. “It has such a big yard and all of their plants and everything. The agriculture there is really beautiful. I was surprised by that one. I didn’t expect to really love that one, but it was really pretty.”
USU’s botanical gardens reside on the Kaysville campus. There are multiple greenhouses, orchards and gardening boxes available for students to use.
Petersen said she came on the tour to become more connected with the people and the campuses.
“I just wanted to learn more about USU and see all the campuses, be able to talk to some more of the student council from other campuses,” Petersen said. “Brigham is a pretty small campus, so we don’t always get to see the big picture.”
The tour started up again on Wednesday morning at USU Eastern in Price and was followed by a long bus ride to the south border of Utah for a tour of USU Monument Valley.
The Monument Valley campus is housed in what used to be a hospital. Don Mose, the site supervisor for Monument Valley, showed the tour group a special classroom where his wife gave birth to two of his sons.
A new building is in the works for this campus that will be much larger — and not attached to an old hospital.
After a quick jaunt across the Utah-Arizona border to check out the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, the bus left for USU Blanding.
Those on the tour were able to see Blanding’s new Navajo hogan, which finished construction and was blessed in November. It was built to help Native American students feel more at home.
USU Blanding constructed their very own Navajo hogan during 2021. It was blessed on Nov. 30, 2021. The hogan was built to give students a place to feel at home no matter how far away they are.
The Blanding campus is home to a predominantly Native American student body. Hunter Warren, the Blanding Service Region vice president, said what makes Blanding special is how everyone is included, describing the campus as having a “family vibe.”
As a student at a statewide campus, Warren said it’s important students at the Logan campus see how the different statewide campuses work.
“I feel like it’s going to be an eye opener for them,” Warren said. “Especially going down to Monument Valley too, how that center is inside an old hospital, just to see how diverse our student population is, as well as where we’re located in the community.”
Thursday’s tours started at USU Moab, which opened in April. This campus is USU’s first net-zero energy building, as well as the most recent addition to USU’s statewide campuses and centers.
Lianna Etchberger, the associate vice president for the Moab campus, talks about further plans for the campus, including charging stations and a donor wall.
After Moab, the bus headed north to visit two centers in USU’s Southwest Service Region.
Though the Southwest Region makes up the largest geographic area of Utah, most of the centers are small, taking up just a few rooms in other buildings. The tour stopped first at the Ephraim Center, which has space in one of Snow College’s buildings, and then at the Nephi Center, which is located in the basement of the Juab School District office.
The tour finished with a visit to the Orem Center, and the bus returned to Logan Thursday evening.
Driving the bus up and down the state of Utah was Jim Brague, a retired music teacher with 50 years of experience driving buses. Though he spent most of the week behind the wheel, he said the trip was interesting.
“I had no idea that Utah State had so many campuses in the state of Utah,” Brague said. “It’s been really fun to see all the different campuses, and they seem to have a little different emphasis at each one, depending on the clientele, the students — where they come from and their backgrounds.”
Morales expressed a similar sentiment. When asked which campus was his favorite, Morales said all the campuses are his favorite because each is so unique.
“What I learned and saw even more this year than ever before was that idea that each center or campus is meeting the needs of those people in their unique way, and we shouldn’t try to create one model for every place,” Morales said. “It needs to be unique and very idiosyncratic and unique to the needs of that area.”
— darcy.ritchie@usu.edu