USU Moab Adding New Faculty to Upgrade and Expand Academic Programming

Utah State University Moab looks to address local and regional need with its hiring of faculty and its expansion and upgrading of academic programs. With a recent hire in the Department of Environment and Society and another in progress, the Moab campus is excited to see growth as faculty help students meet some of the current and future challenges that will affect Moab and the surrounding area.

One of the additions to the faculty is Wayne Freimund, an ENVS professor that is addressing the challenges and solutions for the tourism industry that thrives in Moab.

“One of the amazing things about USU Statewide Campuses is the benefits of research are brought directly to local communities through local faculty,” said Lianna Etchberger, associate vice president for USU Moab. “Dr. Freimund is an excellent example of this in our Moab community. His research provides data that helps managers make informed decisions to address big challenges.”

In his position, Freimund teaches courses in recreation policy and planning and advanced visitor management as well as conducts research on visitor use on public lands.

“This was an opportunity for me to develop a place-based research and teaching program in an area that I’ve had a long association with and in a time when there are nationally relevant dynamics happening here,” Freimund said. “Moab is a great place to look at to understand things that are happening in outdoor recreation and tourism and protected area management throughout the United States.”

With all his research, Freimund looks for ways to benefit the local community and to teach his students. He is bringing new ideas to the college and is seeing benefits in the community already.

“We are in the early days, but there is a great deal of potential for students and tangible benefits,” Freimund said. “We have been able to bring some of the local land managers into my courses that I teach virtually. We are also developing a field course that we hope to launch next year and that will bring more students here to work side-by-side with some of these managers to collect the data that help make decisions.”

USU Moab’s College of Natural Resource faculty are also working with colleagues at other neighboring statewide campuses and regional universities to create a database of experts that all parts of the state can utilize.

“In this day and age with communicating with the Internet, geography is no longer a barrier for getting people to engage,” Freimund said. “It also gives the folks the opportunity to see what is going on in other parts of the state and country. I’m stationed here, but I’m part of the Environment and Society department in the Quinney College of Natural Resources. I have a broad bench of expertise that I work with daily and can bring them into the conversation with all their different skillsets too.”

USU Moab is also in the process of hiring another faculty member in the ENVS department. This person will focus on the human dimension of environmental change. The hope is to find a candidate that has a research focus on social, cultural, historical, or ecological issues impacting public and/or tribal lands in the Southwest United States.

USU Moab will open its newly completed campus on April 1, 2022, with a ribbon cutting scheduled for 3:30 p.m.