Happy anniversary! University of Utah celebrates 175 years

SALT LAKE CITY — It's unlikely that University of Utah founding regent William Ivans Appleby — 175 years ago — envisioned legions of laptop-toting students hustling from class to class across today's sprawling, 1,500-plus acre campus.

And Appleby's mind's eye surely never witnessed lifesaving medical research being performed at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Or modern dance, music and comedy being performed on the Kingsbury Hall stage. Or student-entrepreneurs launching start-ups at the business school's Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute.

The founding regent never knew the names of future University of Utah alums such as Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Wallace Stegner or Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, astronauts Don Lind and Jake Garn, Pixar co-founder Edwin Catmull; or heart surgery pioneers William DeVries and Latter-day Saint President Russell M. Nelson.

And Appleby surely never envisaged 50,000-plus crimson-clad Ute football fans squeezing into Rice-Eccles Stadium and going wild on crisp November afternoons during Big 12 gridiron battles.

But William Ivan Appleby's words — recorded in 1850 — reveal a clear vision of today's University of Utah:

"We wish … (to) lay the foundation of a glorious institution …, where knowledge may be disseminated in all its various branches, where literature, arts and sciences can be taught in all their present perfection and improved thereon."

It's a historic moment up on The Hill: The University of Utah's demisemiseptcentennial. (That's a fancy word for 175th anniversary.)

On Feb 28, 1850, the University of Utah (chartered as the University of Deseret) was founded under the direction of Latter-day Saint prophet Brigham Young — becoming the first state university west of the Missouri River.

An auspicious desire that began 175 years ago to build a serious institution of higher learning in the shadows of the Wasatch Mountain is still evolving, said University of Utah President Taylor Randall.

"The work of our founders is the bedrock for the student-focused teaching, innovative research, world-class health care and thoughtful service performed every day by our campus community," declared the school's 17th president in a university statement.

Humble campus beginnings

When the University of Deseret was founded in 1850, it was led by Randall's distant presidential ancestor, Chancellor Orson Spencer, who had been the president of the University of Nauvoo, according to Fred Esplin, a retired University of Utah vice president who spent over four decades at the school.

"When the University of Deseret was originally established, it met in the John Pack home in downtown Salt Lake City — and a replica of that home is in the This is the Place Heritage Park," said Esplin.

The tiny school's charter student body included 25 students — and tuition was $8 for the quarter, according to the university. Private donations supported teacher salaries and supplies.

Some interesting University of Deseret trivia, revealing the institution's earliest impulse to innovate: It produced a primer of the Deseret alphabet — a phonetic writing system developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help immigrants and children learn English.

Alas, continual operations at the original iteration of what would later be known as the University of Utah were relatively short-lived.

"The University of Deseret went into hibernation in 1853 because of the difficult economic situation, the Walker War, and the (Utah Territory's) emerging conflict with the federal government," said Esplin.

Several years later, Brigham Young "brought it back into being" with the 1869 appointment of John R. Park as the University of Deseret's first official president.

President Park, noted Esplin, "was arguably the intellectual father of the University of Utah — an Ohio man from Ohio Wesleyan University that had a medical degree from NYU."

Park had settled in Utah in 1861 and became a Latter-day Saint a year later. He was elected Utah Superintendent of Education in 1895.

The school's forward-thinking leader also established branches in areas across the state, including one in Provo — the Timpanogos Branch — that would later become Brigham Young Academy and, eventually, Brigham Young University, noted Esplin.

The fledgling institution of higher education was housed for several years in the Council House on the corner of Salt Lake City's Main Street and South Temple before moving, in 1884, into its very own building called Union Square, located at the current location of West High School (241 N. 300 West).

"By 1886, they were awarding degrees, and they organized the alumni association and so forth," said Esplin.

In 1892, the school was formally renamed the University of Utah — and the Utah Territorial Legislature petitioned Congress for 60 acres to be utilized for a new campus. That request was granted in 1894, landing the university on the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley where it operates today.

Some key Utah/University of Utah history: In the mid-19th century, the federal government claimed land that would become the Fort Douglas Reservation. That land provided the basis for the current University of Utah campus and Research Park.

"That's significant because of most urban universities don't have a campus like the University of Utah does," Esplin observed.

In its effort to secure statehood, territory leader separated its public education system from the church, and the institution became a secular school.

Utah became a state in 1896.

Science-driven leaders

The University of Utah's global identity as an institution of scientific inquiry and research is intrinsically linked to the influence of its early leaders, beginning with the medically-trained John R. Park, and continuing through subsequent presidents such as James E. Talmage and John A. Widtsoe — both scientists and academics who would later become Latter-day Saint apostles.

"At the time, there was a lot of tension between science and religion — and James Talmadge and John Widtsoe didn't see that," said Esplin, "They really built up the sciences at the University of Utah, and laid a strong foundation."

Those science-driven campus sensibilities further evolved with scientists/university presidents such as A. Ray Olpin and James C. Fletcher.

During the Olpin administration, the University of Utah enjoyed historic growth in the years following World War II as veterans began utilizing the GI Bill and baby boomers began reaching college age.

Olpin led major efforts to expand the university — and the campus quadrupled in size during his time in office, according to the university.

Nearly 200 buildings and 450 acres of land were acquired from Fort Douglas. Olpin started a 10-year building program in which 30 buildings were completed — including the Merrill Engineering Building, several dorm buildings and student family housing and the Union Building, which was named after him.

Fletcher, meanwhile, would go on to become the administrator of NASA.

A world-renowned medical school

During World War II, the university developed a four-year medical program that today is the multidisciplinary Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.

One of the medical school's first leaders was Dr. Maxwell Wintrobe, a Jewish physician.

"At that time, there was a lot of discrimination against Jewish faculty members at some of the better schools back East," said Esplin. "Wintrobe, very successfully, hired a number of brilliant Jewish professors physicians to come out to Utah. ... We developed a really, really good faculty in the School of Medicine because the University of Utah was open to hiring Jewish faculty members, quite frankly."

The school's research chops would blossom into what it is today — fueled by academics and visionaries such as the chemist Henry Eyring and the molecular geneticist Mario Capecchi, who would claim the 2007 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

The university's medical school enjoys acclaim in its leading-edge research in fields such as the genetics of disease, cancer, biomedical informatics and infectious diseases. Meanwhile, the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah is recognized as a worldwide leader for its broad efforts to understand cancer, discover breakthroughs, and improve lives.

Championing the arts

Beyond its deepening scientific and academic footprint, the 175-year-old University of Utah has played an elemental role in the region's cultural landscape.

Many of the state's performing arts institutions enjoy connections to the University of Utah — including the Utah Symphony, Ballet West, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and Pioneer Theatre Company.

"And, of course, you still have the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Fine Arts — and you have public broadcasting, which began under Olpin in the 1950s at the University of Utah," said Esplin.

For many Utahns, their multigenerational tie to the University of Utah is linked to Ute athletics.

"Chris Hill, the former athletic director, called athletics the 'Front door of the university'," said Esplin. "The main connection at the University of Utah, for most people in the state, is either athletics or the health sciences."

Despite being relatively hidden in the Mountain West, Ute athletes have often punched above their institutional weight — claiming national titles and now competing in the Big 12 Conference, a so-called Power Four conference.

Navigating a turbulent future

Of course, no institution can advance for 175 years without encountering a few bumps, roadblocks and detours.

One of the "huge challenges" for higher education institutions today, said Esplin, "Is that the relative share of state funding, nationwide, has decreased — and the cost of tuition has gone up. It's made it increasingly difficult for students to find their way through."

It's impossible to operate a massive, research-anchored institution on the cheap — and securing cash will continue to be one of the school's primary challenges moving forward.

Utah's Legislature is considering a bill to withhold a sizable amount of state funds from the University of Utah — along with the other public colleges — until it formulates a detailed reallocation plan in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health recently announced plans to modify its federal grant procedures at medical research institutions such as the University of Utah. The new policy could draw millions away from campus research.

But like many of his predecessors, Randall is determined to take an innovative lead in higher education and research — and emerge from the challenges of the day.

For example, the university recently hired Manish Parashar to be its first-ever "AI czar" to direct the school's various artificial intelligence initiatives.

The school, added Randall, also intends to further invest in the school's nuclear engineering program and enhance campus opportunities in the field of genetics.

Much of the school's future reallocation efforts directed by the Legislature, he added, will go to increasing the university's pool of STEM graduates.

Speaking recently to Utah lawmakers, the university's 17th president echoed the visionary words uttered 175 years ago by founding regent Appleby.

"We hope that our vision today," said Randall, "is one that takes those initial thoughts from those initial founders and actually accelerates them."

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