Touring Tooele

Utah State University President Albrecht and several deans and vice presidents toured USU's Tooele Branch Campus facilities and Dugway Proving Grounds Aug. 12-13.

Representing Utah State University were President Albrecht, First Lady Joyce Albrecht, Vice President and Dean for Extension Jack Payne, interim Provost Noelle Cockett, College of Business Dean Caryn Beck-Dudley and College of Education Dean Carol Strong.

Tooele — the county and city — is probably best known for being the most mispronounced name in the state. For the record, the origin of the name is in dispute. The most accepted explanation is that it originated from the Goshute Indian chief's name Tuilla, which accounts for the pronunciation. The spelling was officially changed to Tooele in March of 1852. No one is sure why.

Today, Tooele is the fastest growing county in Utah and the 33^rd fastest growing county in the United States. The growth is primarily due to lower housing costs than in the Salt Lake Valley, drawing commuters to the area. Nearly 48 percent of Tooele City's residents leave each morning to work in Salt Lake City.

The growth in the area has also caused an increased demand for education.

The tour visited Dugway Proving Grounds, DPG, which opened in 1942 as a response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The 13,000 square mile facility is the center for biological and chemical weapons testing and detection. It also serves as the training site for first responders to suspected chemical and biological terrorist attacks. The airstrip at the facility also serves as an alternate landing site for the space shuttle.

President Albrecht and USU representatives toured the maximum security facilities where chemical and biological weapons detection research is ongoing. One of the recent additions to DPG is Mustang Village, used for first responder training. The village includes a full-scale motel, single family home, post office, convenience store, café, bar and warehouse. These are used to train firefighters, paramedics, police and other first responders to recognize chemical and biological hazards in real-life situations — for instance, how to tell a crystal methamphetamine lab from one designed to produce anthrax, botulism or mustard gas.

At the conclusion of the tour, President Albrecht and DPG Commander Greg D. Olsen signed a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines a long list of cooperative projects between USU and DPG. Chief among them is Homeland Security training and preparedness and counterterrorism.

In an evening event, the president met with 200 community leaders and Aggie alums at Buddy's, a local restaurant and entertainment center in the Tooele area.

During the two-day visit, the group toured facilities and learned more about programs at the Tooele Branch Campus, where 30 degrees are offered and more than 300 classes are taught. During a forum with the USU group, it became clear that the rapidly growing community needs even more programs.

"The future of this community is higher education," President Albrecht emphasized. “We want to bring more degrees and classes to Tooele and we want to make sure they are the best quality degrees.”

The following morning the president met with the superintendents of both Tooele and Grantsville school districts, as well as with Grantsville mayor Byron Anderson.

The tour concluded at the Firefighters' Museum and lunch with USU-Tooele students. Representing the Tooele Branch Campus students was Julie Workman, who first started college in 1983 but dropped out to start a family. Now, with older children in school and wanting to contribute more to the family income, she started looking for ways to go back to school.

"I really thought there was no way I could afford it or manage the time, but I went to the USU-Tooele Center and talked to the people there anyway," Workman said. "After a few hours and some handholding, they convinced me it was possible, and now I'm a freshman in elementary education. There is just no way I could have done this if I had to go to a campus in Logan."