USU-Eastern holds Founder’s Day celebration
The donation of a 25-acre plot of land was announced last Saturday at the USU-Eastern 73rd annual Founder’s Day celebration in Price.
USU President Stan Albrecht announced the donation by Bob Henry at the beginning of the celebration.
“We are creating the opportunity for USU to bring, in greater measure, its land-grant mission to this part of eastern Utah,” Albrecht said.
He praised Peterson for his role in bringing together all aspects of the land donation to USU-Eastern.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, USU-Eastern Chancellor Joe Peterson and others took a tour Saturday of the land prior to the celebration. Chancellor Peterson described the land as a beautiful place.
“This has been a very productive process and opportunity for USU-Eastern as we continue to work closely with our various stakeholders,” Peterson said. “We are very grateful to everyone for stepping up and allowing us to move forward into a new era.”
He said the donated plot given to USU-Eastern, in cooperation with the city of Price, is to be used as a future site for an education and energy research facility. These plans are similar to those of the Bingham Center in Vernal that began operation in fall 2010. Price city planners have already begun a road project around the property.
Peterson said the gift paves the way for an even brighter future for USU-Eastern and the community. At the celebration, Herbert expressed similar sentiment, as he spoke about the need to build for the future.
“It’s not what we are today that we are building for, it’s what we can become tomorrow,” Herbert said.
Herbert said there is a need to bring “better vitality” to the area, and said he promised to help Utah citizens be the best they could be. Herbert said Mayor Joe Piccolo and other Price leaders are visionaries for their thinking and creation of this unprecedented partnership with USU.
Thomas Garvin, president of the Eastern Utah Student Association said the Founder’s celebration is a “new chapter in the book” and a “great day for the community.”
“There is still much work to be done,” Albrecht said. “We will work with the various stakeholders in the community to determine the scope of our efforts as they relate to education and research. We are enthusiastic about taking these initial steps to create the opportunity to do more in the future.”
“We must always look for ways to work together, to use our resources wisely and to leverage those resources to create new opportunities for growth and prosperity,” Herbert said. “We have people, we have vision.”
– page.e.ren@aggiemail.usu.edu