Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts

Southern Utah University announced March 21, that it has received a $6 million gift from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation to create a multi-million dollar arts center encompassing new facilities, as well as ongoing support for ArtsFUSION, which provides professional development and pre-service training for elementary educators as well as outreach and workshops for students and teachers in rural Utah.

Working in partnership with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the new center will further establish SUU as a regional arts mecca.

Named for the long-time arts and education champion, the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts will incorporate visual arts, live theater and dynamic arts education on the SUU campus and will dramatically magnify the cultural life of Cedar City and its surrounding region. It will also serve as home to the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA) and the new Shakespeare Theatre of the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and will include an artistic/production building for the Festival. Sculpture gardens and other outdoor features will also be included on the grounds.

In addition to Sorenson’s contribution, the $30 million center is being made possible thanks to the generosity of hundreds of insightful and invested benefactors. A gift of $5 million for the New Shakespeare Theatre and Festival outreach programs was received from the Ralph and Betty Engelstad Family Foundation of Las Vegas, Nev. The George S. and Dolores Dorè Eccles Foundation has committed $3 million toward the project.

Additionally, the State of Utah, Iron County and Cedar City have all energetically supported this effort to create a center for the arts in southern Utah.

The Festival had been engaged in a fundraising campaign for several years to replace the deteriorating and less-than-suitable Adams Memorial Shakespeare Theatre, while the funding process for the University’s SUMA kicked off in late 2009 when the renowned painter Jim Jones bequeathed his home and final collection of paintings to ignite the work. It was not until mid-2012 that combining the facilities on one site was explored and later approved by campus and state officials.

“Although both SUMA and the New Shakespeare Theatre project had been previously proposed and approved, we felt there were economies and efficiencies that could be realized in combining some of the functions of both the museum and the theatre,” said SUU President Michael T. Benson. “Further, the opportunity to create a cultural nexus in the heart of our community, one that would be a year-round draw for tens of thousands of visitors, was another enormous benefit in twinning these facilities.”

The decision to name the center for Sorenson was an easy and natural one, as she has formidably supported the arts at SUU and across the state throughout her life, particularly as a tool to enrich the lives and futures of children.

“We are privileged to name our Center for the Arts in honor of Beverley and her vision of the power of art in improving quality of life, particularly when it touches the lives of children,” said Dean of Performing and Visual Arts Shauna Mendini. “It is essential that her legacy of love for the arts be echoed throughout the entire state of Utah through the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts.”

This long-held vision, coupled with Sorenson’s generous financial support, has set her apart as a tireless advocate for arts education. Sorenson and the Sorenson Legacy Foundation have committed tens of millions of dollars to establishing a strong and lasting foundation of arts education in Utah. She has been repeatedly lauded for her commitment by several of Utah’s institutions of higher learning, and at SUU alone has been recognized with an honorary doctorate, a place in the University’s Hall of Honor, and with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 Founders’ Day celebration.

“As home to the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Southern Utah University is known throughout Utah and the world for its dedication to the absolute best in arts education and performance,” said Ann Crocker, president of the Sorenson Legacy Foundation and daughter of Beverley. “It is an honor to be able assist the University and further our mother’s dream of making high-quality arts a reality for everyone.”

The Sorenson Legacy Foundation previously donated more than $3 million to Southern Utah University to fund the Emma Eccles Jones Teacher Education Building, an endowed chair position for elementary arts education, and scholarships and arts education programs. In 2006 the College of Education and Human Development was named the Beverley Taylor Sorenson College of Education in honor of her generous support. The J.L. Sorenson Physical Education Building is also housed on SUU’s campus, named after Beverley’s late husband, James LeVoy Sorenson, a renowned medical device inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Founders Celebration 2013

Campus enjoyed a wonderful Founders Celebration March 19-23 with a variety of events that celebrated the visionary men and women who sacrificed greatly to establish Southern Utah University, as well as honor those who have devoted comparable service to building SUU over many decades.

Enjoy a glimpse of the festivities and the people who made it special.

The new Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts was
announced during the Founder Dinner & Awards. Thanks to a
generous $6 million gift from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation, the
Center for the Arts will be home to a new outdoor theatre for the
Utah Shakespeare Festival and the Southern Utah Museum of Art.
Pictured at the podium is Ann Crocker, president of the Sorenson 
Legacy Foundation and daughter of Beverley Taylor Sorenson.

Beverly Taylor Sorenson was honored during the Founders
Dinner & Awards for her beliefs and philosophies, and willingness
to share all that she has to make success a reality for all children
of this state. SUU is home to the Beverly Taylor Sorenson College
of Education & Human Development, as well as an
Elementary Arts Education Endowed Chair.

Southern Utah University's first-ever
Presidential Medallion of Service was
presented to Beverley Taylor Sorenson
during the Founders Dinner & Awards. 

Doug Knell was posthumously honored during the Founders Dinner
& Awards for his lifetime of industriousness and of fellowship,
and for his exceptional contributions to the southern Utah region
and SUU. At the podium are his daughters Nancy Osborn,
Joanne Pennock and Leilani Wilson.

Pam Redington was honored during the Founders Dinner & Awards
for a lifetime of good works and nearly 40 years of services to
SUU and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

A capacity crowd filled the Gilbert Great Hall of the R. Haze Hunter
Conference Center for the Founders Dinner & Awards,
which was held Thursday, March 21.

Emeritus staff member Marlynn Smith and her husband Con
were among the guests at the Founders Dinner & Awards.

Robert Wasden, Sharon Wasden and Anna Wasden
at the Founders Dinner & Awards.

Jacque Marchant visits with SUUSA officers Jeff Hertig, Heidi Powell
and Lance Lowry, as well as Director Student Involvement and
Leadership Keri Mecham during the Founders Dinner & Awards.

Marueen Robb, Richard Dotson and Al Tait, all members of the
SUU Emeriti Association, tell the story of "Old Sorrel" during
Lunch on the Main - an educational history walk for students
that took place Wednesday, March 20. 

Emeritus faculty member Kent Myers explains to students the effort to
build Old Main and the significance of  SUU's oldest building.

The 2013 Founders Celebration also included the Howard R. Driggs Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, March 19, presented by Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley; the first-ever A Gathering of Leading Psychologists at SUU - Perspectives from Psychology, Neuroscience & Kinesiology Friday, March 22; and the WAC Gymnastics Championships on Saturday, March 23.

Juniper Hall Memories

Juniper Hall welcomed 200 of the College of Southern Utah's 1,256 students when it opened in 1965. In the five decades since, nearly 15,000 students have called it home.

It was the longest standing of the University's housing facilities, but after a failed heating system rendered in uninhabitable half way through the Fall 2011 semester, Juniper Hall became just a shell of the home it once was. And though it was ushered out due to facility insufficiencies and failures, Juniper Hall successfully kept Thunderbird students safe and warm for 46 years. So while its cinderblock walls and contemporary modernist architecture became a bit worse for the wear, the merits of this outdated building warrant reflection as its doors forever closed.

Just a few years after the college had gained independence from its original standing as a branch of Utah State University, CSU was thriving, with increased academic offerings, student enrollment and more campus construction projects than ever before.

Nearly 800—63 percent—of CSU's student body were freshman when the college opened its 1965 fall quarter, and as the school drew students from further across southern Utah, more and more needed a place to live while attending college. Juniper's communal living design fast established the "boys dormitory," as it was most often referenced in the early years, as the most exciting and fun of the dorms on campus.

This reputation remained the same over the years, and as students packed their belongings in preparation for Juniper's sudden closure in the middle of the fall 2011 semester, many expressed dismay that the makeshift families they formed as residents of Juniper's A, B or C wings would now be disbanded.

Even in its early years, many wondered why a student would intentionally choose to share a bathroom with 16 other people, but the sense of community that comes with close quarters trumped convenience, and Juniper residents fondly recall countless friendships formed and memories made. From weekly cleaning inspections and RA-sponsored movie nights to sneakily roasting marshmallows in the downstairs gas fireplace and so often intentionally setting off the fire alarms that, for a time, the alarm system was disconnected, Juniper’s residents proved that the more hands in the pot, the more interesting the soup.

As Gary Turek (’75 and Juniper B-hall resident) put it, "I am sure SUU will replace Juniper with another amazing facility just as they did with Manzanita Court. But like many, Juniper was my first ‘home away from home,’ and I feel a certain nostalgic sadness that it is gone.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, and while we look forward to the future, we hold on to the memories of Juniper’s five decades as “home.”

View pictures from the Juniper Hall demolition on the SUU Alumni Association's flickr photostream

Athletic Hall of Fame

Congratulations to the newest members of the 

Southern Utah University Athletic Hall of Fame!

Rick Robins, Stuart Adams, Cherri Shurtliff Frandsen,
Myndee Kay Larsen and SUU Athletic Director Ken Beazer

Rick Robins ('96) was a four-year starter at quarterback for the Thunderbirds who left the school as its career total offense, total plays, passing attempts, pass completions, passing yards and passing touchdowns leader and he still ranks among the top three in all of those categories. When the native of Scipio, Utah, graduated from SUU in 1997 he also held two of the top four single-season marks for pass attempts, including the record; two of the top-three season completion marks, including the record; and two of the top-four single-season passing yards marks, including the record; as well as two of the top-three single-seasons for total yards and plays. All but one of the single-season marks are still among the school’s top ten. Robins is currently the principal at Utah’s Juab High School.

Stuart Adams ('85) was a two-time all-American in golf who led the Thunderbirds when they finished seventh at the 1985 NAIA national championships with a fifth-place individual finish. The native of Vacaville, Calif., still holds SUU’s single-round scoring record with a 61 he shot at Boise State during the 1984-85 season, a year in which he led the Thunderbirds in scoring at all but one tournament. A four-time all-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference selection and three time RMAC individual champion, he was also the RMAC’s scholar-athlete for golf his junior and senior years as well as SUU’s male athlete of the year in 1984-85. Adams, who is one of just six golfers in the RMAC Hall of Fame, currently practices optometry in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

Cherri Frandsen ('97) was a four-year letter winner in women’s basketball who helped lead Southern Utah to three straight American West Conference championships, from 1994-1996. A graduate of Enterprise High School, she was a three-time all-AWC selection and is still the school’s career scoring leader with 1,762 points, while ranking second all-time in field goal percentage, third in rebounding and blocks and fifth in steals. She was named the AWC’s player of the year following her senior season and was a two-time conference tournament MVP as well as Southern Utah’s Athlete of the Year in 1994 and its’ Female Athlete of the Year in 1995. She currently resides in Panguitch, Utah, where she coaches at the youth and high school levels.

Myndee Kay Larsen ('98), who was also a four-year letter winner in women’s basketball at SUU, teamed with Frandsen on three of those AWC championship teams and also was a member of the school’s inaugural Mid-Continent Conference squad. During her time at SUU the Twin Falls, Idaho, native earned first-team CoSIDA GTE Academic All-American honors, was a two-time all-AWC honoree and earned first-team all-Mid-Continent Conference recognition. She set two NCAA records which still stand, for converting 28 consecutive field goal attempts in a row, which helped her to set the NCAA season mark when she connected on 249-of-344 shots, 72.4 percent, as a senior in 1997-98. She is the school’s career field goal percentage and blocks leader and ranks second in rebounds and fourth in free throw percentage. Larsen, who went on to serve as an assistant coach and administrator at SUU, is currently an assistant commissioner in The Summit League.

Campus Tradition Puts Face to Each Scholarship's Impact

Scholarship Luncheon, Gilbert Great hall

The weather outside was frigid, but inside the Hunter Conference Center, hearts were warmed during the fourth annual Scholarship Appreciation Luncheon on January 16, which brought SUU scholarship recipients together with the donors who have paid for their education, revealing the impact a single person can have on another’s success.

Though the event was intended for students to give thanks to their benefactors, the givers were, in turn, just as openly grateful for the students they were able to support.

According to donor Dan Jones ('70) of Cedar City, whose parents created the Homer and Belle Jones Scholarship Endowment, “It was great to talk to the student who is benefiting from my parents’ legacy. To know that their sacrifice wasn’t in vain brings me great joy.”

SUU President Michael T. Benson echoed that sentiment saying, “It is one thing to construct buildings or build football fields, but without students, none of us would be here. These donors truly emulate the spirit shown by the original founders.”

During the luncheon, three scholarship recipients addressed the group and shared their stories of hardship, strife and even tragedy. Though their experiences were different, each imparted an inspiring account of how the generous support of others has changed their lives forever. 

Jourdyn Cleveland

One student speaker, Jourdyn Cleveland of Cedar City, a senior studying elementary education who has been fighting cancer since the age of 15, said, “I know that whatever time I have left, I want to do something with it and pursue my dreams. Giving is an ongoing process and is more than writing a check, it’s changing a life.”

In addition to thanking donors, the luncheon was also intended to recognize student success in academics. Through the generosity of Edward and Carolyn Rondthaler, two $3,000 prizes were awarded to SUU’s top psychology and music students.

This year’s music recipient went to Alex Byers, a senior music education major. The award for psychology went to Shalisha Jessup, a senior from Adamsville, Utah. Both students have 4.0 GPAs.

During his closing remarks, Benson asked the students in attendance for two commitments: “I ask you, first, to complete your education and then, later in life, give back to the place that gave you your start. To give a student just like you a chance at an education.”

For the 2012-13 school year, 3,372 students received institutional scholarships, totaling $10,818,218 to help SUU’s students.

Jeffrey Ure, student speaker
at the Scholarship Luncheon

Garrett McCullough, student speaker
at the Scholarship Luncheon

Shalisha Jessup, recipient of the
Rondthaler Prize in Psychology

Alex Byers, recipient of the Rondthaler Prize in Music

Danielle Erickson performs Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Alex Byers and Christina Meikle perform a scene from
Madima The Catalog Aria from Don Giovanni
Accompanied by Dr.  Willem Van Schalkwyk

Alumni Spotlight: Bob Grove

Bob Grove (’87, Communication) is the owner of DriveAway Vacations and Wild West PR.  As it turned out, his major and work experience as a student at SUU was the perfect combination.   

In 1993 Bob founded DriveAway Vacations, a business that promotes places to go, things to do, and sights to see that are within a day’s drive of Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.  Seven years later he created Wild West Public Relations & Marketing and integrated both this past year to form a new marketing alliance for tourism businesses.   He “got hooked” in the travel and tourism industry while a student and working at hotels, travel agencies, Brian Head Ski Resort, SkyWest Airlines and rental car companies.   

He’s been featured on KSL TV’s Utah Business, KSL Radio’s Speaking on Business with Fred Ball, and was on the cover of Travel Agent Magazine as an entrepreneur of diversity in travel.  Bob is a frequent media expert source in discussing travel trends in the Intermountain region and is a member of the executive board for the Utah Society of Association Executives.

Graduation day was the highlight of Bob’s college career.  Not because he didn’t have a great SUU experience but because he was the first in his family to receive a college degree.  “While sitting with my graduating class listening to a bag pipe band play, the realization set in that I did it!  It was one of the proudest moments of my life,” he explains.

Bob and his wife Susan have five children and four grandchildren.

President's Gala & Old Main Society

Friday, December 9, President Michael T. Benson hosted the 2012 Holiday Gala to pay tribute to the many generous donors - individuals, businesses and foundations - who have qualified for membership in both the President's Giving Society and the Old Main Society.

The President’s Giving Society represents alumni and friends who play an ongoing and vital role in the institution and its success by annually contributing cash or in-kind gifts of $1,000 or more to the University.

Old Main Society members symbolize the spirit of devotion and sacrifice that our early founders demonstrated in constructing our first building – Old Main.  These donors are, in a very real sense, this University’s modern-day founders.  This prestigious gift club at SUU recognizes cumulative lifetime giving to the university in excess of $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for organizations. 

The newest members of the Old Main Society during 2012, inducted and welcomed into the society that evening were Walter ('51) & Alice Gibson, Maud Trismen Mason, Jerry Grover, Scott Snow, Anthony Stocks, Betty McDonald and June Sewing. 

Special tribute was paid to Maud Trismen Mason and Cedar City Corporation for their extraordinary generosity and commitment to SUU.

Maud Trismen Mason has spent her life in search of beauty and has, indeed, lived a life of grace and elegance while, at the same time, remaining unafraid of dirtying her hands in the earth.

Maud Trismen Mason, Keith Mason and President Benson
Old Main Society Centurium Circle

Born in New York City in 1931, she grew in Forest Hills, New York, and in Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania. Her parents, Frederick and Gladys, steeped her in the cultural arts with love and guidance, teaching by example. Galleries and museums were a large part of Maud’s life. When she was six, the family moved to Winter Park, Florida, her father having purchased an historic 40-acre estate and its 21-room mansion known to all as The Palms.

As a girl of central Florida, Maud became accomplished at the piano, and learned from her mother the lessons of nurturing botanicals in the rich landscape of the family grounds on Lake Osceola. As a student at the hometown Rollins College, Maud excelled in all subjects and was honored as the outstanding history student at her 1951 graduation. She would later attend Oberlin College in Ohio and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.

For a time, she studied music and managed her husband’s worldwide career as a concert organist, even unto tuning the mammoth instruments. In 1954, she became curator of living arts at Rollins College and further broadened her interests in the arts and in sports. She found her life’s greatest calling when studying at central Florida’s Maitland Art Research Studio, creating assemblage art. The Center’s Attilio Banca was the champion of her work, which was at the forefront of the new movement that used found objects to compose three-dimensional expressions.

In 1964, her work earned a Gold Medal at the New York World’s Fair, and in the years that followed, her assemblages were shown in many venues and were in great demand.

Along the way, she maintained her love of music and accompanied a number of string quartets, and she built her lifelong love of animals into an additional career training horses in both English and Western style.

In 2009, Maud and her manager Keith Mason relocated to nearby Kanarraville and began to immerse themselves in the life of Iron County and of the University while enjoying their greenhouse filled with Maud’s tropical gardens, including her well-tended crepe myrtle. Maud and Keith, who wed in 2011, were pleased to greatly aid in the funding of the Southern Utah Museum of Art, as they intend to enjoy the work of myriad artists in the new Rocki Alice Gallery in memory of Frederick D. Trismen. The gallery is named for the German Shepherds that brought them together.

Michal Adams, Nina Barnes, Mayor Joe Burgess and President Benson
Old Main Society Gold Medallion

Some 46 years after Cedar City was founded in 1851, its citizens labored famously to establish what is now Southern Utah University. Today, that pioneering spirit continues to succor and to inspire as the rewardingly symbiotic relationship of this town and its school has continued with unabated success for 115 years. The history of each is steeped in sacrifice and resolve in a common goal of building for the future.

From its earliest beginnings when 35 men trekked from Parowan to settle the area, the town has revered education. Today, with some 30,000 residents within its 20 square miles, that level of reverence has only deepened.

Cedar City Mayor Joe Burgess has wisely said that without Southern Utah University, Cedar City would not be Cedar City. Conversely, all would agree, SUU would not be SUU without Cedar City. That truth is at the heart of what has cemented a marriage benefitting untold numbers of citizens and students in a variety of ways.

SUU is honored to be a member of the Cedar City community and be served by the Cedar City Corporation, which has maintained its enduring commitment to SUU over many decades and in diverse and momentous instances. Community leaders have always provided support across a broad range of needs and have steered public monies to the University and its programs on many mutually-beneficial fronts, including in support of such important University components as the Utah Summer Games and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

The Utah Summer Games, founded in 1986 as a program designed to bring people to the City and to the University, required great cooperation between the two, and City representatives were generous in providing not only numerous playing fields and other venues, but personnel as well. Over the past 26 years, mayors, council members and City managers have done much to put the Games on sound financial footing.

The world-renowned Utah Shakespeare Festival, too, is among the most grateful recipients of the generosity and dedication of the City. Through its 51 years of progressive success, the Festival has ever been able to count upon the City for support, and Cedar leaders have been unstinting in their sustenance, including aiding in the construction of the Randall L. Jones Theatre in the late 1980s and today, in providing Redevelopment Agency monies toward the new Shakespeare Theatre complex, currently in the funding phase.

In countless and varied ways, Cedar City Corporation continues to aid the University in its mission of serving the populace through a variety of service and educational programs. 

Following dinner, guests moved to the Randall L. Jones Theatre for Brad Carroll and Peter Sham's A Christmas Carol On the Air, a hilarious behind-the-scenes story of radio actors and their conflicts as they tell Dickens' tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. The role of Scrooge was played by Utah Shakespeare Festival founder Fred C. Adams.

Betty McDonald
Old Main Society Level

June Sewing
Old Main Society Level

Stuart Jones
Vice President for University Advancement

Yuletide Singers
Recent SUU Graduates