LOGAN – During her Wednesday morning State of the University address, Utah State University President Noelle Cockett described how USU has not only survived the pandemic, but has flourished over the last year.

She cited an NYU study of America’s top schools — the ones in the U.S. News and World Report rankings — which analyzed value versus vulnerability.

The study predicated how each of the 436 schools would either perish, struggle, survive or thrive through the COVID pandemic.

“USU is in the thrive category,” Pres. Cockett explained. “Only 88 schools were given that designation. Utah State was one of those, the only one in Utah considered to be able to thrive during the pandemic and to come out of it stronger than ever.”

She said over the last 12 months USU was focused on helping students when they may have had hours cut back on their jobs or faced medical expenses due to COVID.

“Using the federal COVID Cares Act, we were able to distribute $10 million to over 11,000 students with small grants to help when they were facing an emergency, such as rent or food, or needing help with technology as we moved to a more remote basis.”

She emphasized student successes, research breakthroughs and how USU was able to award more than $102 million in private and institutional scholarships in 2019-20.

Several times she praised the efforts of faculty and staff and their part in the University’s COVID response.

You can see Cockett’s entire remarks here: