Before the entire campus community, including students, faculty, staff, and university stakeholders, Utah Valley University (UVU) President Astrid S. Tuminez delivered her seventh State of the University address on Jan. 29, 2025, in the Vallejo Auditorium.

Over the course of her remarks, President Tuminez recapitulated the university’s achievements in 2024, including record-breaking enrollment, retention, and completion rates, increases in the school’s endowment, the securing of historic donations, and a myriad of university awards.

President Tuminez began her remarks by quoting Carnegie Mellon University Professor Michael D. Smith, who argues in his book “The Abundant University” that scarcity: scarcity in enrollment, scarcity in instruction, and scarcity in credentials fails students professionally and exacerbates social injustice around the world.

“[Professor Smith] concludes that our system of higher education is broken, in fact, there is something immoral about it: financially wrong,” Tuminez said. “As I read this book, I thought, ‘Professor, we should talk! I have the answer!’”

“There’s actually an alternative model called Utah Valley University,” Tuminez continued. “We are open admission. We offer hands-on learning. We don’t ask students for SAT or ACT, but our role is to say, ‘Come as you are, and when you’re here, we are not going to leave you to fail or flounder.’”

The university president, now entering her seventh year with UVU, demonstrated the school’s growth in enrollment, retention completion, student employment, university rankings, and university endowment since her tenure began in 2018.

“Today we are here to celebrate an enrollment in fall 2024 semester 46,809 students,” Tuminez reported. “41 of every 100 students at UVU is the first person in their family to attend college. 20% are students of color, 78% work, and about 25% are working full time. These are individuals and families of grit. We graduated from 6,000 students in 2018 to 10,187 students last spring. What a wild ride!”

President Tuminez spent the remainder of her address highlighting student, faculty, staff, and university achievements, including scholarships, industry certifications, university rankings, updates on the campus’s new engineering building premiering by the end of the year, and the securing of the Alan C. and Karen Ashton Center for Leadership and Inspiration lodge in Sundance.

“UVU is the abundant university,” Tuminez concluded. “We are here to serve. Whoever you are, your seats, and whatever role you play, you and I are here to serve. I want to thank all of you for sharing the privilege of serving with UVU.”