President Albrecht Meets with Entrepreneurship Students

Ten students gathered for an early morning class with a variety of guests, including Utah State University President Stan Albrecht. The class, business 4510 — senior seminar in entrepreneurship — is charged with developing a business plan for a strong entrepreneurship program at a university.

The course is taught by Henry P. Nowak, an executive-in-residence in the College of Business and technology manager for the Technology Commercialization office. Nowak invited President Albrecht to reinforce the university’s goals of economic outreach and entrepreneurship.

President Albrecht welcomed the class that met in the Champ Hall conference room. He opened by providing an overview of the university’s beginnings and land-grant pedigree.

“Utah State University began as Utah’s agricultural college, a member of the great armada known as the land-grant system,” he said. “The intent was to build great colleges with access to the children of the working agricultural classes. Today, access to education is still an integral part of our mission.”

A dramatic cultural shift has taken place since the establishment of the land-grant system. Utah State University has always had entrepreneurial faculty, Albrecht said, but a shift in the university culture will create a climate where there are many entrepreneurial faculty and projects.

Albrecht used the example of the University of Florida and Gatorade.

“The university not only encouraged entrepreneurial research and activity, it had the commercialization structures in place as well,” he said. “The university created a culture that allowed this to develop. Universities must create offices that encourage creativity.”

Utah State University is well on its way to doing just that. He introduced Ned. M. Weinshenker, the university’s vice president for strategic ventures and economic development. At USU he leads four units, including technology commercialization, the USU arm of the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative (USTAR), USU Innovation Campus and the Business Accelerator.

“Ned’s appointment and his work is an example of the cultural shift and changes in the curriculum,” Albrecht said. “Global competition in increasingly important — the world around us is changing so quickly — if we don’t adapt and change we will be left behind.”