Sequel - Spring 2008 - (Page 23)

REND ERING OF THE COMP LETED LIBRA RY. from Ferris State University in Michigan, and brought with him invaluable experience as a former state senator. Although much of the groundwork for university status was in place before he got to UVSC, the vision and strategic plan for how to get there was truly his. “When I first got to Utah, my emphasis was really on getting the lay of the land and understanding the institution,” he said. “It was very clear from the beginning that university status was something the community wanted. It wasn’t something I brought with me from Michigan. This desire was strongly advocated by Utah County Legislators, particularly Senate President John Valentine.” Sederburg may not have brought it with him, but the mission was clear: help this institution obtain university status. Like all good heroes, he focused on creating a plan that would help accomplish this goal. Sederburg and his executive team began to flush out what needed to be done in order to obtain university status, and outlined their strategies on the white board in Sederburg’s conference room. The institution’s weaknesses, along with its strengths were outlined, a timeline emerged and key players were identified. LIBRARY DIRECTOR MIKE FREEMAN POINTS OUT SOME A RECENT TOUR. THE LIBRARY’S UNIQUE FEATURES ON OF “Things evolved quicker than even I thought they were going to,” Sederburg said. “Once the Commissioner of Higher Education Richard Kendell was on board, things really worked out smoothly.” By September 2005, Kendell and Sederburg had constructed eight steps UVSC needed to take in order to become a university: With these steps as a guide, the campus community, including faculty, staff and students, got to work. One by one, the eight items were checked off the list, and with an allocation of $46.75 million from the Utah Legislature in 2006, ground was broken for a new 190,000 square foot library, nearly completing the list. “When we originally laid out the plan, we thought we would push university status during the 2008 Legislative session,” Sederburg said. “But the economy was positive in 2007, the Commissioner was supportive because we had nearly completed the eight steps, and Valentine, who was really the muscle behind all this in the Legislature, suggested we do it in 2007. So everything got moved up a year.” Sederburg’s experience with politics proved to be invaluable throughout the process, particularly with the utah valley state college alumni magazine SPRING 2008 23 .

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sequel - Spring 2008

Sequel - Spring 2008 Contents Campus News At Our Best Q & A A Storybook Tale Uvu.edu Alumni News Gearing Up for UVU Outstanding Educators of the Year Donations Scholarship Report

Sequel - Spring 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.