Dive Brief:
- The University of Utah will shutter its satellite Sandy campus on Jan. 1 in response to a state directive to reallocate nearly $20 million in funding to programs designed to meet workforce needs.
- The decades-old Sandy Center, located 15 miles south of the university, primarily offers general education courses that are also available at the main campus and online, the university said in a Friday announcement. Closing it will allow the University of Utah to save on facility and administrative costs.
- Fall classes will continue as scheduled for the roughly 660 students who signed up for them, according to the university. Of that group, just 33 students registered exclusively for Sandy Center courses, with the rest taking a combination of classes at the university's main campus or online.
Dive Insight:
HB 265 directs Utah's eight degree-granting public colleges to collectively cut $60 million — about 10% of each institution's instructional budget — over the next three years. The funds are to be reinvested in academic fields that serve high-demand workforce needs, such as engineering, nursing and artificial intelligence.
The bill, enacted last year, bars colleges from raising tuition as a means of covering the difference. The Utah Board of Higher Education approved a below-inflation 2.2% increase in tuition and fees for the 2026-27 academic year.
The University of Utah's portion of the $60 million total comes to $19.6 million.
Under a reinvestment plan approved by state lawmakers and the board last year, the university cut 81 degree programs and closed its St. George Graduate Center in 2025. University officials said shuttering the center would save the institution nearly $1.2 million.
While the university maintains a Herriman campus with Salt Lake Community College, the Sandy Center is its last solo satellite campus in the state.
In addition to classes for degree-seeking students, the Sandy Center offers continuing education courses and youth programming. Those options will continue to be offered at other university locations following the center's closure, according to officials.
The Sandy Center moved to its current location in 2015. Sandi Pershing, then the university's dean of continuing education, said at the time that satellite education centers like Sandy “act as a gateway to the University of Utah for post-traditional students who may work full time, have families or be in other situations that make earning or finishing a degree more complicated,” Pershing said.
The University of Utah has since pulled away from the satellite campus model. Its Murray campus shuttered in 2016, as did its Bountiful location the following year.
