USU-Brigham City’s classroom building opens

BRIGHAM CITY – The $16 million classroom and student services building at the Utah State University Brigham City campus was presented to the public Tuesday afternoon during a ribbon cutting ceremony. USU President Stan Albrecht said the building will be “the heart of USU-Brigham City for many generations into the future.”

Many of the classrooms in the 50,000-square-foot facility will be taught via video conferencing from other locations, while other classes will be taught from the facility and broadcast to other campuses throughout the state.

The building will aid in USU-Brigham City’s purpose of providing an education to those in the area who aren’t able to receive it traditionally. Students who have families to take care of or who have other circumstances that prevent a move to Logan will be able to take many of the same courses close to home. According to USU-Brigham City, the average age of students on its campus is around 30 years old with 61 percent of the students being 25 or older.

“This new building shows that the opportunity to get a USU education is firmly in place for the students now and in the future,” USU Brigham City Dean Thomas Lee said.

In the new building students will find three large classrooms with capacity for 40 students, five medium-sized classrooms, 11 small classrooms, seven study rooms, a computer lab, a testing center, a multi-purpose room and auditorium with seating for 130.

The center of the building features a two-story tree that Lee called “symbolic.”

“Like many of our students it’s rooted firmly in place, right here. It’s not going anywhere,” he said. “Bringing the university to them, our students have an opportunity to grow and put forth new green leaves like you see this tree doing.”

In addition to bringing the USU education to students in Brigham City, Aggie traditions will come with it. A special peach cobbler Aggie Ice Cream flavor was created for the event, and a replica of Logan campus’ Block A was set up outside the building to continue USU’s longtime full-moon kissing tradition.

“Out here, on a full moon, you can become a True Aggie,” Lee said.

The building was funded by a $7.5 million bond from Brigham City, $7.5 million from the state legislature, $500 thousand from USU and the remaining $500 thousand from private donations.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!