OREM — Robert Muhlestein seems undaunted in his quest to see the words "Utah Valley University" on the sign outside Utah County's only state institution of higher education.
Muhlestein, a Republican senator from Benjamin, for the second consecutive year has filed a bill request that would turn Utah Valley State College into a university by legislative decree. Specific wording for the bill has not yet been filed.
Last year, while debate raged about a bill to turn Dixie College into a four-year school, which was a serious challenge to the authority of Utah's Board of Regents, Muhlestein filed a a bill request proposing to alter UVSC's name and mission.
Muhlestein's idea stumbled when support among the county delegation — and the school's administration — didn't materialize.
Still, Muhlestein felt the bill was worthy of study and pushed for its inclusion on the lengthy items the Legislature tagged for study during interim sessions.
But in a year when school safety and academic standards became hot-button issues, the name-change proposal for UVSC, which is looked at as the next school to petition for graduate degrees, was overlooked.
Muhlestein told the Deseret News this week that he's not optimistic the proposal will garner much support in this legislative session.
"What I wanted to do was say, 'It's going to happen in the future, so let's look at it,'" Muhlestein said. "I don't have a whole lot of support from the Utah County delegation."
Several Utah County legislators say the expansion of academic offerings and funding at UVSC are atop their priority lists for the upcoming session, however.
"I think UVSC will be the biggest issue — whether it progresses into a full-fledged college," said Sen. Howard Nielson, R-Provo, adding that he thinks Muhlestein's proposal regarding university status for UVSC is premature.
But Rep. Glenn Way, R-Spanish Fork, said UVSC's future is foremost on the minds of legislators.
"If you look at Utah County, that's one issue that is central," he said. "All the Utah County legislators have many constituents attending UVSC. That's where our children go and that's where our neighbors' children go."
A Deseret News poll by Dan Jones & Associates conducted last year showed that some 74 percent of Utah County residents want the college to become a university.
Under the educational model used by the Utah System of Higher Education, schools that carry university status have both graduate and undergraduate programs.
Besides a lack of graduate degrees, however, UVSC already is operating much like Weber State University, a school with university status but concentrates almost exclusively on bachelors' programs. Weber has three graduate programs.
Utah Valley now has 11 four-year programs and has plans to offer up to 18 more in the next four years. And Utah Valley administrators, including the trustee board, say the college's charge of offering both liberal-art degrees and vocational training is meeting the higher-education needs in Utah, Wasatch and Summit counties.
Brad Winn, the college's vice president for planning and student service, says Utah Valley likely will have a master's program — but not for several years.
First, UVSC must build strong four-year programs in high-demand business fields, he said. Then, as the workforce becomes more sophisticated and a demand is proven, it must convince Utah's Board of Regents to allow the master's-level courses at the Orem school.
For now, regents favor allowing only the state's four universities to offer graduate programs until 2005.
"Senator Muhlestein is identifying a need that we need to hop on to," Winn said. "Our focus right now is on four-year degrees. But we need to look carefully at the demands in the county in the future."
Val Peterson, a UVSC associate vice president who also is part of the school's legislative lobbying team, said the administration is not fully supporting the proposed legislation.
He was not surprised that Muhlestein again is floating the UVU idea. Romesburg recently told his advisers that Muhlestein planned to bring the issue to the table.
"We're on the academic road we want to be," Peterson said. "We want to manage growth in a controlled manner. We want to have quality academic programs."
Deseret News staff writer Edward L. Carter contributed to this report.