There weren’t any
romantic dinners or exotic vacations. An exchange of gifts with sentimental
value never happened, either.
The University of Utah and the Pac-12 Conference recently
celebrated their one-year anniversary, and although they weren’t serenaded on
an Italian gondola it’s safe to say this marriage is a perfect fit.
Utah football, specifically, is reaping the
benefits from the alliance. With excitement at all-time level, every game at
Rice-Eccles Stadium has sold out for the past two seasons with attendance
exceeding the 45,000 maximum capacity.
“Interest has just
boomed to the point where if new season ticket holders want tickets you had to
donate 15-hundred dollars,” said Chandler Wride, the annual fund director for
the University of Utah.”
The demand for Utah sports is through the roof. The Pac-12 announced that every football and men’s basketball game will be televised nationally
on six regional networks – Washington,
Oregon, Northern California, Southern
California, Arizona and for Utah and Colorado – the Mountain.
The 12-year
television contract with ESPN and Fox is estimated at $3 billion – the most
lucrative deal in history.
With seemingly
unlimited exposure, Utah ticket sales will reach a pinnacle on Oct. 4
when USC, an early national-championship contender and preseason No.1 team,
invades the hill. On Stubhub, tickets on the 59th row are priced at $589
apiece.
Utah and the Pac-12 is a case of love at first
sight. The two instantly clicked and this was just year-one.
The University of Utah:
why it’s a great place to get your graduate in communications
By Andy Page
Choosing where to get a graduate degree in communications is never easy
for college students especially if it is out of state. Stephanie Bor, a graduate
student in the University of Utah communication program shares why the University of Utah is a great place for grad
students both native to Utah and from out of state wanting to come study
communication.
“I had never been to Utah before I got accepted to the program,” says
Bor. “It was really weird coming here the first time and flying into Salt Lake
not knowing where anything was or what to expect but knowing that I was going
to spend the next four years of my life here.”
Bor, originally
from Chico, California, shares how she came to love living in Utah.
“I learned to love the snow,” she says. “ I really like Park City and getting away and going
snowboarding for the day to clear my mind from school.”
Explaining that although she has grown to love the snow, Bor says snow
is not all that makes studying at the U of U so great. She says that it’s how
well the communication department at the U sets itself apart by mixing the
disciplines of speech communication and mass communication.
“In all of our seminars
and classes there are people from all different kinds of back grounds and I
really have found it extremely useful to hear the perspective of speech comm.
and redirections to shine a new light on a subject and expand my knowledge,”
says Bor.
According to the U of U communication website,
the graduate program is known for its closely connected faculty and students
which give students the flexibility to design their individual programs of
study.
“It’s very independent," says Bor. “ There are a lot of options and you
can take courses outside the department and even have faculty outside of the
department on your committees.”
As advice to all incoming
communication grad students, Bor suggests that students remember that, “this
program is what you make of it.”
By Trevor Phibbs
