125 Reasons to Celebrate Successful Fundraising Campaign at WSU

OGDEN, Utah – Weber State University celebrates its successful Dream 125 fundraising campaign by marking some of university’s significant achievements and milestones.

Since the inception of Dream 125: The Campaign for Weber State in January 2014, the university has expanded to new locations and faces have changed, but the focus on helping students discover their passions and reach their educational dreams remains.

Below are 125 of the many reasons donors have contributed generously to Weber State.

WSU invites the community to join the celebration events on April 13. Festivities begin in the Shepherd Union at 9 a.m. and culminate between 1 and 1:25 p.m. with a blast of confetti cannons, music, Waldo, the Spirit Squad and President Charles A. Wight’s announcement of campaign totals to this point.

125 Achievements and Milestones

  1. On Jan. 7, 2014, Weber State University announced “Dream 125: The Campaign for Weber State” — the largest fundraising effort in WSU’s history — to raise $125 million in support of students, faculty and facilities for the next 125 years. The campaign exceeded its goal well before its end date of June 2016.
  2. More than 7,000 alumni have earned a Weber State degree (associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s) since the beginning of the Dream 125 campaign.
  3. Weber State boasts 194,989 total alumni.
  4. In just eight years, WSU’s student population has jumped from 18,000 to more than 26,000.
  5. Low tuition, combined with more than $90 million annually in scholarships and financial aid, means WSU students graduate with the least amount of debt compared to other public universities in the state.
  6. WSU boasted the lowest tuition rate of all schools competing in the 2016 NCAA men’s basketball playoff.
  7. The Dream Weber program began in 2010 to provide free tuition to students whose annual household income was $25,000 or less. Now Dream Weber provides free tuition and general student fees to students whose annual household income is $40,000 or less.
  8. WSU offers more than 225 undergraduate degree programs.
  9. The average student-to-faculty ratio is 22:1, and four out of five courses have fewer than 30 students.
  10. Twenty percent of WSU classes are taken online.
  11. Weber State’s first graduate program, the Master of Education, enrolled its first students in 1978. WSU now has 14 master’s degree programs. In 2010, it became the first university in Utah to offer a stand-alone Master of Taxation degree.
  12. WSU is ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s Best Regional Universities in the West and College Choice’s ranking of Best Western Regional Universities.
  13. The Chronicle of Higher Education honored Weber State University as a “2015 Great College to Work For” in the categories of job satisfaction and support, work/life balance and facilities, workspaces and security.

WSU Wildcat Athletics

  1. Each year, more than 300 student-athletes from around the world come to Weber State University to compete on one of 16 Wildcat NCAA Division 1 sports teams.
  2. WSU student-athletes donate approximately 4,000 hours of community service every year.
  3. Waldo the Wildcat competed against mascots from universities across the country to win first place at the 2015 NCA Collegiate National Mascot Championship.
  4. WSU Athletics has captured four Big Sky Conference Sterling Savings Bank Presidents’ Cups, the most of any Big Sky school since the honor began in 2002. The award recognizes student-athlete success in the classroom as well as in sports competition.
  5. Since Weber State became a four-year school in 1962, WSU Athletics has produced 33 NCAA Academic All-Americans and 148 All-Americans.
  6. Weber State is a charter member of the Big Sky Conference and has clinched 134 conference titles, the most in conference history. Wildcat teams have also won 27 Big Sky All-Sports Trophies, the most in conference history. 
  7. Men’s basketball coach Randy Rahe is a four-time Big Sky Coach of the Year and the most winning coach in Big Sky and Weber State men’s basketball histories.
  8. Weber State men’s basketball teams have advanced to 16 NCAA Tournaments, winning two first-round games against No. 3 seeds Michigan State and North Carolina.
  9. Since becoming the NBA’s No. 6 overall draft pick, former Wildcat men’s basketball All-American Damian Lillard has been named 2012-13 NBA Rookie of the Year and a two-time NBA All-Star.
  10. The 2015-16 women's basketball team set a WSU single-season record with 23 wins, advancing to the WBI Championship game.
  11. The WSU Spirit Squad earned the 2016 Large Co-Ed title and swept the top five spots in the Stunt Division at the USA Collegiate Championships.
  12. WSU men's basketball senior Joel Bolomboy broke the WSU and Big Sky career rebounding record, also setting the WSU single-season record. Bolomboy was second in the country in double-doubles, and earned MVP honors at the 2016 Reese's College All-Star Game.

Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions

  1. With nearly 4,000 declared majors each year, the Dumke College of Health Professions is the largest academic college at Weber State University.
  2. Students learn human anatomy using the Anatomage Table, a life-size, digital cadaver that can deliver customized instruction for different disciplines.
  3. After consulting with Dumke College faculty, health officials in Ghana will soon launch the West African nation’s first university respiratory therapy education program. The new program is patterned after WSU’s current curriculum and could be a model for other developing nations.
  4. WSU’s Department of Radiologic Sciences, which is consistently recognized as one of the top five programs in the nation, was named America’s No. 1 program in 2002 and 2012 by a national organization of professional peers.
  5. To meet growing demand for nurse practitioners in the U.S., especially in rural areas, WSU’s new nurse practitioner master’s degree program prepares registered nurses to provide many of the same health services a physician does, but at a lower cost.
  6. Established in 1953 as a pilot program to address a nationwide shortage of nurses, Weber State’s two-year nursing program was among the first in the nation. Now averaging nearly 700 graduates a year, the WSU School of Nursing is Utah’s largest provider of nurses.
  7. In 2015, WSU’s Master of Health Administration program was ranked No. 1 in the nation for affordability and innovation by the Top Master’s In Healthcare Administration organization.
  8. Weber State established the first paramedic-training program in Utah and was the first in the nation to train students using an ambulance simulator that replicates sirens and outside noises.
  9. After performing an emergency tracheotomy in the back of an ambulance to save a grandmother from choking to death, WSU graduate Zackery Hatch was named 2013 Utah Paramedic of the Year.
  10. WSU is the only school in the U.S. to educate dental hygiene students in head and neck 3-D imaging and hard-model printing.
  11. WSU dental hygiene students donate their services to assist over 400 low-income individuals needing dental care by doing screenings and cleanings at Ogden’s Midtown Clinics.
  12. The Utah State Board of Regents has approved a new Master of Respiratory Therapy degree in 2016, making it the 14th master’s degree offered at WSU.

College of Engineering, Applied Science & Technology (EAST)

  1. To emphasize WSU’s rapidly expanding engineering programs, the College of Applied Science & Technology changed its name to the College of Engineering, Applied Science & Technology (EAST) in 2015. 
  2. The new computer engineering graduate program allows students who complete a WSU bachelor’s degree in computer engineering to earn a master’s degree in a single year.
  3. EAST’s professional sales department is the only one in the nation to offer a four-year program focused solely on sales and customer satisfaction.
  4. EAST is the only college in the world to boast a professional sales graduate who is also a 2012-13 NBA Rookie of the Year and two-time NBA All-Star. Three years after leaving WSU to play for the Portland Trail Blazers, Damian Lillard made good on a promise to his mother that he would finish his bachelor’s degree. Lillard spoke at WSU’s spring commencement in 2015.
  5. EAST offers the Intermountain West’s only engineering technology program, fully accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. 
  6. A recent survey of students in the first semester of their manufacturing engineering technology senior projects showed that 75 percent had already found jobs. The average salary of students in the last two semesters of their senior projects is about $62,500.
  7. EAST sponsors more than 24 educational outreach programs, including WSU PREP, a free, three-summer course that prepares high-achieving grade school students for continued academic success and careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
  8. An international company commissioned a team of EAST engineering students to create an aesthetic indoor integrated growing system that produces fish and organic vegetables. The students presented their “aquaponics” prototype to Horimasa International representatives in Hawaii. 
  9. South Davis Metro firefighters practice life-saving skills in a pitch-black, enclosed training maze designed by WSU engineering students.
  10. WSU is one of only 10 schools in the country with an automotive technology program recognized by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
  11. Between 2011 and 2015, students in the interior design program designed, assembled and sold 140 chairs as part of the Charitable Chair event, raising over $12,000 for the Boys and Girls Club.
  12. WSU hosts the FIRST Tech and Sea Perch challenges, remote-operated robotics competitions for secondary school-aged students.

John B. Goddard School of Business & Economics

  1. Three months after graduating, 96 percent of Goddard School graduates are either employed in business-related fields or enrolled in master’s degree programs.
  2. The average starting salary for a Goddard School bachelor’s degree graduate is $50,000.
  3. In partnership with Catholic Community Services (CCS), supply chain management students researched ways to improve the food bank’s efficiency. By following the students’ recommendation to change its hours of operation, CCS significantly reduced client wait times.
  4. Determined to ease homelessness in his community, WSU entrepreneurship student Isaac Farley, whose own family was once temporarily homeless, helped start O-Town Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that hires homeless parents in Ogden to make and sell jams and jellies.
  5. The Goddard School is the only place in Utah where students can earn a bachelor’s degree in international business economics and a master’s degree in taxation. It is also the only school in Utah to offer an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship program.
  6. The Hall Global Entrepreneurship Program is open to students from any major and provides over $50,000 in funding to grow student businesses.
  7. The Goddard School is fully accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, a distinction earned by less than 6 percent of all business programs worldwide.
  8. The Goddard School’s MBA program has been included in The Princeton Review’s Best Business Schools publication every year since 2006.
  9. To lessen poverty and hunger in Africa, WSU economics students and faculty traveled to Malawi in 2014 to survey 1,800 farmers about their willingness to participate in subsidized agricultural conservation programs.
  10. Students taking the Goddard School’s information systems and technologies design course develop ideas for new companies, use 3-D printers to create product prototypes and prepare to market the products online.

Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities/Val A. Browning Center for the Performing Arts

  1. The Browning Center is the first large performing arts venue in Utah to offer technology that broadcasts stereo sound directly into a hearing-impaired patron’s hearing aid or cochlear implant.
  2. For her role as Vivian Bearing in Wit, WSU theatre student Shawnee Johnson received the 2015 Distinguished Achievement in Acting award from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
  3. In 2015, WSU’s Ling-Yu Lee made history by becoming Utah’s first collegiate pianist to win the state division of the Music Teachers National Association Steinway Young Artist Piano Competition three years in a row.
  4. Associate Spanish professor Isabel Asensio-Sierra and Sigma Delta Pi Hispanic Honor Society organized Utah’s first statewide Spanish spelling bee for elementary and junior high school students.
  5. WSU’s National Undergraduate Literature Conference was the first and is the most-attended undergraduate literature conference in the nation, bringing acclaimed writers like Norman Mailer, Ray Bradbury, Alice Sebold and Michael Chabon to campus since 1985.
  6. After winning an invitational tournament in November of 2015, WSU Debate achieved its first top 10 national ranking from the Cross Examination Debate Association, a professional organization that promotes and oversees intercollegiate policy topic debate competitions.
  7. Competing against professional weekly newspapers and other student publications, The Signpost won 10 first-place awards and was named a General Excellence winner at the 2015 Utah Press Association’s winter convention.
  8. Graphic design student Kiersten Garner was among the top five winners of the Society of Publication Designers’ 2015 national student design competition.
  9. Lindquist College serves the community through more than 20 outreach programs, including Arts in the Parks, which provides seven weeks of free summer arts activities for northern Utah youngsters.
  10. The Salt Lake Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America named communication major Shaquille Heath Utah’s 2015 Public Relations Student of the Year — the fourth consecutive year a WSU student won that title.
  11. WSU is home to the annual July Lindquist Pops Concert and Fireworks, which has provided a tradition of entertainment since 1978.

Jerry & Vickie Moyes College of Education

  1. Weber State University Charter Academy is the first charter academy in Utah to be authorized by an institution of higher education and has served more than 125 kindergarteners since 2013.
  2. The Children’s Adaptive Physical Education Society (CAPES) program teaches children with developmental disabilities a variety of social and sports skills. Each child who completes the program receives a superhero cape.
  3. WSU’s annual Storytelling Festival is the largest of its kind in America. Every year, local K-12 storytellers share the stage with internationally renowned storytellers.
  4. Each year, WSU’s Family Literacy Program helps hundreds of low-income children become better readers by encouraging their parents to engage in home literacy activities.
  5. WSU’s Master of Athletic Training alumni work with a variety of professional sports teams, including the Jacksonville Jaguars and Real Salt Lake.
  6. Each year, more than 100 community members learn how to build and sustain healthy, stable relationships by participating in WSU’s Healthy Marriage and Relationship Project.
  7. Nutrition students at WSU Davis grow organic herbs and vegetables in a greenhouse just outside their classroom and use the produce to prepare fresh, healthy food.
  8. WSU’s Teacher Assistant Path to Teaching program has paid tuition for more than 100 teacher assistants to become licensed educators, especially in areas of high demand like English as a Second Language and special education.
  9. The Practicing as Family Life Educators Project gives WSU students opportunities to improve their teaching and interpersonal communication skills while helping community members improve family relationship and parenting skills.
  10. Since 2007, more than 95 students have completed WSU’s Project PRIME. Created to address the critical shortage of teaching professionals trained to serve children with disabilities, PRIME offers courses in special education and behavior management.

College of Science

  1. Unusual brick patterns on exterior walls of WSU’s new science center represent DNA sequences that spell out Tracy Hall Science Center and steps from the scientific method. Associate dean and zoology professor Barb Trask wrote the code as a teaching tool for her students.
  2. Since 2007, WSU’s High Altitude Reconnaissance Balloon for Outreach and Research (HARBOR) program has provided practical science and engineering research opportunities for undergraduate students from multiple departments. Launching an average of five flights each year, HARBOR teams have gathered atmospheric data for NASA and other agencies.
  3. Zoology professor John Cavitt and a team of students were the first researchers to use satellite technology to track the migration of the American Avocet bird.
  4. The average medical and dental school admission rate for WSU students is 62 percent, well above the national average of 40 to 45 percent.
  5. WSU’s Ott Planetarium received an award from NASA that recognizes the best examples of educators using Hubble Space Telescope images.
  6. Each year, more than 1,000 people attend WSU’s annual Physics Open House for fascinating discussions and mind-boggling demonstrations like glowing pickles, disappearing test tubes and levitating billiard balls.
  7. WSU geoscience students helped create signs about the distinctive geology, ecology and history of the foothills above WSU, and then installed them along popular hiking trails.
  8. In 2015, 17-year-old math major Jessica Brooke set a record as WSU’s youngest graduate.
  9. Physics professor Adam Johnston received the 2013 Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology in Science Education for his work with Science in the Parks, a free summer series of kid-friendly learning activities at Ogden-area parks.
  10. In 2014, microbiology professor Craig Oberg and history professor Gene Sessions presented WSU’s first Massive Open Online Course titled Microbes Rule the World. The five-week course demonstrated, through anecdotes and scientific explanation, the power of diseases and the way they have influenced history.
  11. Ten WSU professors have been selected as Fulbright Scholar recipients since 1999. Most recently, zoology professor Sam Zeveloff used his scholarship to share his knowledge as a visiting professor in Vienna.

College of Social & Behavioral Sciences

  1. Utah’s first state crime lab was housed in the Social Science building on Weber State’s Ogden campus.
  2. The criminal justice department is the largest department within the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences and offers a fully online master’s program.
  3. In 2015, Weber State University became the first university in Utah to host a chapter of Nu Rho Psi, a national honor society for undergraduate students interested in neuroscience.
  4. In 2015, a group of psychology students and their professor spent six months examining motivations and emotional responses associated with Facebook use. Findings were presented at local, state and regional conferences.
  5. The Olene S. Walker Institute of Politics & Public Service provides civic-learning internships to approximately 30 students every year.
  6. The Richard Richards Institute for Ethics has offered more than $115,000 in ethics scholarships to WSU-bound high school seniors.
  7. Social work and gerontology students complete 400 hours of clinical fieldwork before graduating.
  8. More than 900 low-income families have enjoyed Thanksgiving meals thanks to the Social Work Club’s annual November food drive.
  9. Social work student Kristen Mitchell, a 2015 Newman Civic Fellow, led a semester-long effort to raise more than $250,000 for a youth homeless shelter in downtown Ogden — the only one of its kind in Utah.
  10. Associate geography professor Julie Rich has escorted WSU students on service-learning trips to Mozambique to build a women’s center, Peru to renovate parks and playgrounds and Thailand to construct a kitchen and dining hall at an orphanage.
  11. The renovation of the Social Science Building received a $5 million donation from longtime university advocate and contributor John E. Lindquist.

Division of Student Affairs

  1. In the 2014-15 academic year, approximately 86,000 students attended or participated in at least one of more than 400 events, classes or leadership opportunities organized through the student involvement and leadership department.
  2. There are 14 active recreational sports clubs at WSU, including Utah’s only collegiate weightlifting club, which hosted the 2015 USA Weightlifting National University Championships.
  3. With a recent campus survey finding that 7.1 percent of respondents identify as other than heterosexual, Weber State’s LGBT Resource Center opened in 2015 with the primary goal of creating a safe and supportive environment for the LGBT community, their friends and families.
  4. Weber State University is one of only 361 U.S. colleges and universities to receive a Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
  5. During the 2014-15 academic year, WSU offered 287 community-engaged learning classes (taught by 103 professors), and 6,554 WSU students completed 163,060 service hours through CCEL, worth an estimated $4 million.
  6. To help financially struggling students stay in school and finish their degrees, the Weber Cares program provides two emergency food options: Students in need may receive a $10 voucher for food available on campus or visit the Shepherd Union food pantry for free canned goods.
  7. Weber State University recently created the new area of Access and Diversity to coordinate services for underrepresented students who need extra support to stay in school and graduate.
  8. All Student Affairs facilities built since 2010 are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver-certified, meaning they are designed, built, operated and maintained in an efficient and environmentally responsible way.
  9. Following its renovation and expansion, WSU’s Shepherd Union Building received a 2013 Facility Design Award of Excellence from the Association of College Unions International.
  10. In 2014-15, nearly 5,000 WSU students scheduled tutoring sessions through Student Affairs’ Academic Support Centers and Programs, which oversees the only supplemental instruction program in the U.S. to be certified by the National Association for Developmental Education.
  11. WSU and Ogden City’s College Town Initiative was honored with the Larry Abernathy Award. In a brief period of time, city and university leaders have been able to create a college-town environment conducive to student and community learning, growth and development.
  12. WSU has received the esteemed 2015 Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The distinction acknowledges WSU’s longstanding commitment to the greater Ogden community, the region, the state and the world, as well as its dedication to teaching students through community-engaged learning.
  13. The Safe@Weber program promotes safety and improves students’ quality of life by educating them about sexual assault and relationship violence and empowering them to become advocates for a non-violent community.

Sustainability

  1. In fiscal year 2015, WSU saved $1,646,138 on its utility bills by reducing energy consumption
  2. WSU has reduced its direct greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent from the baseline year of 2007 even while the university has grown by more than 354,652 square feet.
  3. In June 2016, WSU will break ground on its largest solar project ever: an approximately 2 megawatt solar installation at the Davis campus. This installation will cover about 7 acres of land and will provide nearly all of the electricity needed for that campus.
  4. Weber State University created and implemented the Susie Hulet Community Solar Program in 2015. The program educated over 600 community members about the benefits of solar energy and ultimately assisted over 140 households to install 715 kW (over 2,500 panels) of solar power.
  5. In 2015, WSU was awarded a DEQ Clean Fuels grant to purchase three electric hybrid vehicles (in addition to the one Chevy Volt in the fleet). WSU’s first electric vehicle charging station will be installed at the Public Safety building to serve the growing electric fleet. 
  6. WSU uses electric golf carts as utility vehicles for facility management crews. This year, WSU will convert the entire golf cart fleet to roof-mounted-solar-vehicles.
  7. Each year since 2009, WSU hosts the Intermountain Sustainability Summit to explore the latest in topics like sustainability policies, clean energy, climate and conservation.
  8. WSU’s sustainability efforts have earned recognition as a “Green College” from the Princeton Review and a “Tree Campus USA School” from the Arbor Day Foundation.
  9. Jeremy Farner, assistant professor in design engineering technology, and a team of WSU students are building a net-zero “tiny studio” to explore creative and sustainable ways to build small homes.
  10. Julie McCulley, associate professor in electronics engineering technology, and her team of WSU students have designed and developed a Mobile Elemental Power Plant — a mobile generator that runs on renewable energy.
Author:

Compiled by Marketing & Communications

Contact:

Allison Barlow Hess, Director of Public Relations
801-626-7948 • ahess@weber.edu