Brittani Lusk

The work is done; now it's time to party -- big.

When the school changed from a community college to a state college in 1993, UVSC Vice President Val Peterson remembers a party with fireworks, but nothing as big as the bash that's coming up.

UVSC President William Sederburg said the school is giving sledgehammers to former student body presidents and dancing until midnight to get the community ready for the new university. The concert -- featuring artists Collin Raye, Joe Nichols and Josh Gracin -- has sold 15,000 tickets.

"You need to inject the organization with energy. These things [can] really get everybody kind of fired up," Sederburg said.

Energy is something Peterson says people have more of than they did in 1993 when the school became UVSC.

"We can just see the excitement, the pride, 'I'm going to Utah Valley University,' " Peterson said. "There is definitely a status that comes with a university name."

University status is the latest in many name changes for the school, which began with 12 classes of vocational education in Utah and Heber valleys in 1938. The school was named the Central Utah Vocational School in 1940.

This transition, however, is different than any other.

"Going to a university is a little bigger deal than going to a state college," said Stan Plewe, vice president of college services at Dixie State College of Utah. Dixie College became Dixie State College in 2000.

"With the university [status], that's a big license to do a lot of things," Plewe said.

Peterson said the addition of graduate degrees adds a whole new dynamic to the school. The graduate degree in education begins this fall with master's degrees in business administration and nursing to follow.

Graduate students tend to be older and more mature and come with a different set of needs than bachelor's degree-seeking students.

"The change from two-year to four-year is just as big a change as from four-year to including graduate programs -- it's just more significant," said David Buhler, state interim commissioner of higher education. He said that graduate programs tend to be expensive to implement.

UVSC received $10 million from the state Legislature to make the transition. Most of that money has been used to hire new faculty, and the school had to reduce its reliance on adjunct faculty during the transition.

Technology has also been a challenge for UVSC, which had to change 80,000 Web pages to a new domain name, whereas there were perhaps 10 pages in 1993.

Plewe said Dixie didn't have as large a technological hurdle because it could leave some things the same. Dixie didn't have such a large party, either. Plewe said he thinks there was a celebration, but he doesn't remember it.

Sederburg said Monson has been invited to festivities Tuesday and is on the program to speak at a luncheon following a ribbon-cutting for the school's newly completed library. The report was confirmed by the LDS church.

Sederburg said Monson has been a longtime friend to the school and was at the groundbreaking for the school's Orem campus more than 30 years ago.

"He really has had a strong interest in the college. In fact, he has some great stories to tell about the groundbreaking," Sederburg said.

Other expected dignitaries include U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and several state legislators.

• Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it