Utah Tech University
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Utah Tech University

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Utah Tech University

Utah Tech University (UT), formerly named Dixie State University (DSU), is a polytechnic four-year public university in St. George, Utah, United States. UT offers doctoral degrees, master's degrees, bachelor's degrees, associate degrees, and certifications. As of fall 2022, there were 12,556 students enrolled at UT.

Located in "Utah's Dixie", the institution began as the St. George Stake Academy, founded in 1911 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and sponsored by its local stake. In 1935, it became a state school of the Utah System of Higher Education. From 1923 until 1970 it was a two-year junior college named Dixie Junior College, and from 1970 until 2000 it was four-year Dixie College. From 2000 until 2013 it was named Dixie State College, and from 2013 until 2022 it was Dixie State University. In 2021, after continued controversy over the use of the term "Dixie" in the school's name, the Utah State Legislature and the Governor of Utah approved the bill that allowed the school to be renamed as Utah Tech (UT).

UT's 16 athletic teams compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and have been known since 2016 as the Trailblazers. UT was reclassified from Division II to Division I in 2019 and joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in the 2020–2021 season. When the Trailblazers were in NCAA Division II, the football team had been part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference since 2014, while the Women's Swimming team competed in the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference, and the school's 14 other athletic teams competed in the PacWest Conference.

Originally a secondary school institution, it was founded by the LDS Church and its local stake on September 19, 1911, as the St. George Stake Academy. The academy, located in a region long referred to as "Utah's Dixie" by LDS Church president and governor of the Utah Territory Brigham Young, and local settlers in the southern portion of Utah. was renamed to the Dixie Academy in 1913, Beginning in 1916, it was known as Dixie Normal College, and then became Dixie Junior College in 1923. In 1933, the LDS Church discontinued its financial support of the institution, and rather than give up on it, the local citizenry came together and maintained its operation through donations and labor for the following two years during the Great Depression.

In 1935, the Utah State Board of Education took over the funding for the school, but wanted to split the college students from the high school students, with the high school moving away and relocated with a separate building under the direction of Washington County local government and its public school system. The community resisted, feeling that the approximate 200 college students and similar number of high school students needed to be combined to provide a good-sized student body for the many social and higher quality of the academic curriculum programs. Another concern was that the county did not simply yet have the tax revenue and available funds to build a new high school building during the Great Depression era.

In the three decades between 1935 and 1963, there were close calls when various state leaders proposed closing the college, but local citizens were willing to donate and support it to keep it alive. These local citizens, particularly the Dixie Education Association, raised the funds to purchase four city blocks of land on the 700 East and 100 South streets for a new school campus. They presented that land to the state which, in turn, agreed to fund a few buildings for a new campus there. In 1957, the Old Gymnasium was finished and by 1963, four other newly-constructed buildings were ready for college students with the high school students still remaining on the previous older downtown campus. In 1970, the college name was changed again from the Dixie Junior College of the previous 47 years and shortened to Dixie College, signifying its expansion of the number to four years of a collegiate education and empowered to award bachelor's degrees like a full senior college.

On September 7, 2007, the Dixie State College Board of Trustees members announced that Dixie State College of Utah would petition the University of Utah to become a branch campus known as the University of Utah–St. George. The proposal was approved by the Dixie State College Board of Trustees on October 7, 2007, and by the University of Utah Board of Trustees on October 14, 2007; however, this did not officially come to fruition.

In 2011, a bill was drafted for review by the Utah State Legislature and the Governor of Utah to support Dixie State College's transition to university status.

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