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Pushing University as Utah economy booster – " "We need to expose the entrepreneurship we have in Utah"

Utah’s colleges and universities, he said, should be considered places that can generate more and higher-paying jobs for Utahns.

Young touts U.’s assets — in Provo

He’s pushing school as Utah economy booster

PROVO — The Provo-grown president of the University of Utah returned home Friday to ask businessmen and businesswomen in Brigham Young University territory to alter the way they look at the U.

President Michael Young wasn’t recruiting BYU fans to change colors to red, although he wore a dark blue tie to speak at the Provo/Orem Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday Forum luncheon. Instead, he attempted to convince the business community to view the U. as an engine for economic growth throughout the state.

Utah’s colleges and universities, he said, should be considered places that can generate more and higher-paying jobs for Utahns.

"I want you to shift your perception of what you think about when you think about a university, and particularly the University of Utah," he said.

Young believes the world is on the cusp of an important cultural shift to an economy based increasingly on genetics, bioengineering and medicine. Utah, he said, is poised to be at the epicenter of this change because of its unique resources, including its people, the LDS Church’s genealogical databases and, in many ways, the U., a research institution that gets $300 million a year in federal grants.

"This gives us the capacity to be at the forefront of what is almost certain to be the next great economic revolution," Young said.

By Tad Walch
Deseret Morning News

Full Story: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635165935,00.html

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