This story appears in the 2024 Advisor, a publication sponsored by Colliers Utah. 

The story of Utah Valley University (UVU) begins in the wake of the Great Depression and on the brink of the United States’ involvement in World War II. In the fall of 1941, vocational classes taught throughout Utah were consolidated into the Central Utah Vocational School in Provo, Utah. Here, students were trained in the critical skills needed to construct arms and ammunition for the war. 

After the war ended, advocates for the school petitioned for funding to make the school a state-supported, two-year vocational school. In 1945, Wilson W. Sorensen (Willie the Wolverine’s namesake) was appointed director and obtained a 13-acre site for a Provo campus. 

In his almost 40-year tenure, Sorensen was instrumental in the institution’s development. By 1971, the Provo campus was already beyond capacity, and Sorensen began looking for larger pieces of land where they could establish a new campus. One hundred and eighty-five acres of farmland were purchased in southwest Orem adjacent to Interstate 15. This initial campus was dedicated in March 1977. 

The rise of UVU

After decades of transformative growth, the institution grew into a community college, then a state college and, finally, a university. Today, in addition to the central Orem campus, UVU manages university locations in Provo, Lehi, Vineyard, North Orem and Wasatch County—as well as a planned facility in Payson—with a total of about 524 acres and 4,051,112 square feet of building space.

When UVU gained university distinction in 2008, the fall enrollment was 26,696, and it has only continued to grow—bucking national trends—increasing its student population by approximately 4-5 percent each year. In fall 2023, enrollment reached 44,653 students. 

UVU’s Orem campus buildings have also continually expanded, using concourse connections to link many of its main buildings and create a distinctive university experience that students especially appreciate in the winter. In the past five years, four new buildings have been constructed on the Orem campus, including the Noorda Center for the Performing Arts, the Scott C. & Karen Keller Business Building, the Brandon D. Fugal Gateway Building and the Young Living Alumni Center.

One of the biggest projects currently underway on the main campus is the Scott M. Smith Engineering and Technology Building, which broke ground on September 21, 2023. The state-of-the-art facility will educate future engineers to fill crucial gaps in Utah’s workforce and help drive the innovation economy forward. 

But UVU has also been expanding beyond Orem. Utah, Summit and Wasatch counties all fall within UVU’s service area, and university planners are committed to aligning new and expanded campuses according to the forecasted population increases in those areas. The university planners work with Colliers Utah when exploring specific projects.

As part of its 80th anniversary in 2021, UVU released an updated Facilities Master Plan. “This plan looks to the future,” says UVU President Astrid S. Tuminez. “It will facilitate UVU’s ability to deliver inclusive, effective and affordable education. It honors our commitment to meet the educational and workforce needs of the state of Utah and beyond. We will expand our digital and physical footprint to serve students, industry and the community more effectively.”

Strategic expansion for better education

UVU has intentionally located campuses near FrontRunner stations to help relieve the area’s burgeoning transportation challenges. A key to developing these campuses was ensuring they were accessible by multiple modes of transportation. The Orem, Orem-West, Lehi and Vineyard campuses are located near FrontRunner stations, and UVU funded the construction of a pedestrian bridge across I-15 to help students using the Orem FrontRunner station on the west side of the freeway get safely to UVU’s campus on the east side.

UVU’s enrollment has increased yearly, but it also has Utah’s smallest square feet per full-time student in the state as of 2019. With rapidly growing communities putting extreme pressure on city and neighborhood planning, land is becoming a diminishing resource in Utah Valley. UVU’s Master Plan is trying to scale the campus’s capacity to support sustainable future development. 

The fastest-growing area in Utah County is currently Vineyard. Situated on the property formerly occupied by the Geneva Steel Plant, Vineyard has grown to 107 times its original size in the past decade, expanding from a population of 110 people in 2010 to 11,866 in 2019. 

As developers grappled for space, UVU was able to purchase around 225 acres of land in Vineyard. While they have set up four interim sports fields to help alleviate strains on their main campus athletic facilities, the university has impressive plans for future development, including a “Health and Wellness Village” that will provide health services to the community and clinical space for UVU students as they support the Huntsman Cancer Institute planned for that area.

Location was also key in purchasing a building and additional acreage for UVU’s Lehi Campus, strategically located in Silicon Slopes to build partnerships and synergies between industry and academia. The convergence of these giants and startups naturally creates an international hub of ideas and innovation in which UVU has strategically positioned itself. 

“Our mission is simple—to educate every student for success in work and life through excellence in engaged teaching, services and scholarship,” says UVU VP of Administration and Strategic Relations Val Peterson. “None of this can happen without physical structures where faculty can teach and students can learn with the latest technology.”

UVU’s rapid expansion has drawn the attention of major players in Utah who are willing to invest in the university’s development. Scott and Karen Keller, doTERRA, James and Andrea Clarke, Karen and Scott Smith, Young Living, and Brandon Fugal have all contributed millions of dollars to building projects.

At the opening of the Brandon D. Fugal Gateway Building, Fugal shared, “Utah Valley University is my school. It is in my DNA. It gave me a solid foundation that helped me launch my real estate and business career. There are many people who taught and showed me the way. Now, I want to give back to help those who follow me.”

With so many plans on the horizon, the story of UVU is still unfolding. From a small vocational school to boasting some of the highest enrollment numbers in the state, UVU continues to prove itself a major player in Utah’s higher education. University leaders are sure that the planned additions to their campuses will only improve the value and quality of a degree from Utah Valley University. 

“Artists need performing venues and space to showcase their work,” Peterson says. “Business students need a learning environment that allows them to engage in group work, presentations and access to the latest technology. Engineers need lab and office space, classrooms, and technical infrastructure that can exist with emerging technologies. These buildings are the foundation of excellent learning.”