The Utah man: New president and U. are on a roll

By Doug Robinson
Deseret Morning News
Published: Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005 10:01 a.m. MDT
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If you haven't met Michael Young by now or seen him out and about, you must be in hiding. He's been as ubiquitous as Jessica Simpson.

Since taking over as president of the University of Utah a little more than a year ago, Young has turned up everywhere from Jackson Hole to China, maintaining a schedule so jampacked that some worry he's going to burn out.

"He's very high energy," said athletic director Chris Hill. "He's getting the lay of the land and trying to get people connected and getting to know as many people as he can to sell our story."

When Young agreed to sit long enough for this newspaper interview, he confessed, "I have an ulterior motive. I want people in the community to know me and feel comfortable with me."

If you're going to feel comfortable with this guy, you'd better wear your sneakers. He is on the move.

According to his secretary, Liz McCoy, Young's schedule in a recent month went something like this (take a deep breath): He did two TV interviews, one newspaper interview and a TV commercial, reviewed 160 tenure cases for the faculty, attended 16 off-campus meetings, delivered 10 speeches (two commencements), hosted or attended seven business dinners, had 75 on-campus meetings ranging from face time with the Mexican consul and the president of the Puerto Rico higher education system to a women's basketball recruit and members of his Cabinet, made a three-day trip to Washington to meet with congressional delegations, flew to China for a week, and a few days later, after attending conference meetings in Jackson Hole and regent meetings in Salt Lake City, he flew to Japan for more meetings to open the new month.

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"He's all of what we hoped he'd be," said Nolan Karras, chairman of the Utah Board of Regents. "He realizes he's got a honeymoon period. He has his best chance of getting things done while the Legislature is still fond of him. After he's been there 10 years and has had to make tough decisions, it changes. The only criticism I've heard so far is that he is spreading himself too thin, that he might burn out."

Young said he is still trying to get a feel for the university. (He waited about a year before he was officially inaugurated so he could, he said, get to know the university better.) "Things will slow down," he said, "but I'm pretty high energy when I do something I love and I think is important. If I'm going to really help move the university to the next level, it will be a function of knowing a lot about the university and engaging a lot of people who know the university even better than I do."

Once or twice a week he sits in classrooms or visits research laboratories, quizzing professors about their work, observing experiments and listening to lectures.

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University of Utah President Mike Young and his wife, Suzan, at their Salt Lake City home. (Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News)
Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News
University of Utah President Mike Young and his wife, Suzan, at their Salt Lake City home.
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