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Show THE UNIVEllSITY JOURNAL• SOUTHERN UT~ ONlVl?1lSlTY • WEDNESDAY, 06:r<>BER 16, 1?96 THE CAMPUS Presidential selection committee to be named Commissioner of Higher Education to make announcement within the next few weeks The Utah State System of Higher Education is currently in the midst of selecting company. The Utah Shakespearean Festival has also grown from a total of 38,695 members of the committee which will aid in the selection of the 14th president of tickets sold to the 1996 season's 121,459. The number of degrees granted each year at SUU has increased, from 313 in 1982 Southern Utah University, who would be scheduled to begin his or her tenure here to 852 in 1996. The nature of the SUU student body has also changed with new on July 1. academic standards put into effect in 1992. As result, entering freshman students The June 30 retirement of Gerald R. Sherratt prompts the need for a new leader now score substantially above the national average on ACT tests, and the of the university. university was recently selected among 100 colleges and universities designated as The members of the committee, who were to have been announced last week, "college buys" because of its above average student body and below average costs. are not yet committed because some have not responded to the offer from the During Sherratt's administration the size of the university faculty and staff has Commissioner of Higher Education, Cecelia Foxley, and the State Board of increased from 268 to 533, the St. George Center was established on the campus of Regents, said Patricia Crane, news officer for the commissioner. Dixie College, and the institution was reclassified by the Carnegie Foundation as a The committee, to be chaired by a regent, will contain members of that board, Master's II University. the SUU Board of Trustees, faculty members, staff members, a student and To accommodate student members of the community growth, the number of or alumni. The committee parking stalls has increased will sift through the list of from 781 in 1982 to 2120 applicants following the Jan. today. Enrollment growth 5 closing date, and has sparked the recommend five for final construction in community consideration by the housing with 76 major Regents, who are due to housing buildings having make their selection and been constructed in Cedar announcement in the City since 1982 providing spring. 603 apartments with 2,217 Crane said the naming of and other new duplex beds the committee should come and fourplex buildings in the first week in adding another 1,500 to November or perhaps as late 2,000 beds. Married housing as the Regents' Nov. 12 constitutes nearly half of meeting. the total of new housing. Sherratt, the 13th A goal to make SUU a president of SUU, last regional service center month officially announced included the organization of his impending retirement, the Utah Center for Rural after a tenure of 15 1/2 years Life and the designation of here. SUU as headquarters for the While the announcement Utah Rural Development generally came as little Council surprise to the campus Sherratt's administration commu nity, as the has coincided with president had been speaking advances in academic of it for many months, there technology. With but two had been rumors circulating computers on campus in tha t Sherratt might seek to 1982, SUU today has more stay on longer or that the than 1,500 computers in its regents might ask him to do academic and so. At least one petition had administrative programs. been circulating urging the Prior to his appointment regents to extend such an as president of SUU, invitation to Sherratt. Sherratt served for 23 years Policies of the regents in the administration of provide for the retirement of Utah State University as college and university assistant to the president presidents in the system at and later as vice president the end of the academic year for university rel~ions. in which the president Sherratt was born in Los reaches age 65. Sherratt will Angeles and attended be 65 next month. public schools in Los Sherratt came to SUU in SUU's 1997 graduates will be the last class to hear from and have their hand shaken by President Gerald Angeles, Las Vegas, and 1982 when the institution _R_._S_h_e_rr_a_t_t_a_t_C_o_rn~m_e_n_c_e_m~e_n_t.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- Cedar City. was known as Southern He received an Utah State College and had associate's degree from SUU in 1951, a bachelor's degree in education from USU an enrollment of 1,800. Enrollment at SUU this fall is expected to exceed 5,500. in 1953, a master's degree in educational administration from USU in 1954, and During Sherratt's tenure as president the institution achieved university status a Ph.D. in administration of higher education from Michigan State University in (1991), graduate programs were added in accounting and teacher education, and 1975. At MSU he was elected to Phi Kappa Phi, scholastic honorary. the university has experienced a major expansion of its physical plant. Included in He served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force at Lackand Air Force Base, Texas, that expansion were the construction of a new library, the R. Haze Hunter where he was a training officer and later commander of a basic training Conference Center, the Science Center, the Centrum, the student center, the squadron. Harris Center, the heat plant, the Coliseum of Southern Utah, and the Randall L. In 1957 he returned to USU as adviser to student activities, and in 1959 he Jones Theatre. began a three-year assignment as assistant executive director and magazine The Sharwan Smith Center and a new president's residence are both under construction. Remodeled or donated properties include the SUU Mountain Center editor of Sigma Nu Fraternity in Lexington, Va. He was later to serve as international president of Sigma Nu from 1976 to 1978. and an alumni house. In 1962, he was named staff associate at the University of Utah and was During the Sherratt era at SUU, the university has moved from an NAIA athletic honored that same year by the Associated Students with its "Our Best" award. In program to membership in the NCAA Division I Mid-Continent Conference. 1963, he began his extended administrative career at USU. While there, he Sherratt founded the Utah Summer Games, the state's largest amateur sports conceived and developed USU's Festival of the American West and wrote and festival, held at SUU each summer. He was also responsible for bringing the produced the festival'sl centerpiece pageant, "The West: America's Odyssey." American Folk Ballet to Cedar City as SUU's resident professional dance a I |