Southern Utah University
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Former names
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Branch Normal School (1897–1913) Branch Agricultural College (1913–1953) College of Southern Utah (1953–1969) Southern Utah State College (1969–1990) |
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| Motto | Learning Lives Forever |
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1897 |
| President | Scott L. Wyatt |
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Academic staff
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223 |
| Students | 7,656 (Fall 2014) |
| Undergraduates | 6,953 (Fall 2014) |
| Postgraduates | 703 (Fall 2014) |
| Location |
Cedar City, Utah, U.S. 37°40′32″N 113°04′18″W / 37.675448°N 113.071632°WCoordinates: 37°40′32″N 113°04′18″W / 37.675448°N 113.071632°W |
| Campus | College town, 129 acres (0.52 km²) |
| Nickname | Thunderbirds |
| Colors |
Red & White |
| Website | www |
Southern Utah University (or SUU) is a public university located in Cedar City, Utah, United States, founded in 1898. Originally a normal school, Southern Utah University now graduates over 1,700 students each year with baccalaureate and graduate degrees from its six colleges. SUU offers more than 85 undergraduate degrees and eight graduate programs. There are more than 8,000 students that attend SUU.
SUU’s 17 athletic teams compete in Division 1 of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Thunderbirds. SUU joined the Big Sky Conference in September 2012.
In the spring of 1897, Cedar City was notified it had been chosen as the site for the Branch Normal School, the region’s first teaching training school in southern Utah. For the next three months, citizens labored to complete Ward Hall on Main Street for the first school year. In September, the school opened its doors.
School had been in session for two months when officials informed the school administrators that Ward Hall did not comply with state law and that a new building needed to be built on land deeded solely to the state by the next September or the school would be lost.
Cedar City residents came together and in January 5, 1898, a group of residents trudged into the Cedar Mountain through shoulder deep snow. It took them four days to reach the sawmills, located near present-day Brian Head Ski Resort. Upon arrival, they realized the wagons they brought with them could not carry logs through the heavy snow. Sleighs were needed.
The way back was just as hard as the trip up. The snow continued to fall destroying the trail they originally took. It was this phase of their march that an old sorrel horse proved valuable. Placed at the front of the party, the horse would walk into the drifts, pushing against the snow until it gave way. Then he would pause for a rest and then get up and start over again. “Old Sorrel” was credited with being the savior of the expedition.
From January through July they kept up their labors and when September 1898 arrived, Old Main was almost completed. It had a large chapel for religious assemblies, a library and reading room, a natural history museum, biological and physical laboratories, classrooms and offices.
Milton Bennion was first principal for the Branch Normal School (BNS). Courageous and young, Bennion brought a code of integrity to the students of BNS. He established a self-governing student body. Bennion directed 161 students during his time as principal.
The BNS started classes with four teachers, now known as the Founding Four. Bennion, who acted as principal, taught history, geography and physiology classes during his three-year tenure before he left in 1900 to teach at the University of Utah. Howard R. Driggs acted as the first English professor at BNS until 1905. During his career, Dr. Driggs was both a professor of English education and historian of the American West. SUU still honors his name with the Howard R. Driggs Collection located in the Gerald R. Sherratt Library and plays host to a semi-annual lectures by national scholars. The third, George W. Decker was a southern Utah native and was adamant about teaching from the student’s point of view rather from a book. Students loved him so much that a request by the student body to proper authorities was the turning point to his appointment as the fourth principal of BNS. Annie Elizabeth Spencer Milne was also on the original BNS staff and she taught physical education and started the school’s first basketball team.
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