USU President Brad Mortensen Recaps Recent Town Hall

Editor's note: The following message was sent to all USU employees on March 9, 2026.

Dear Utah State Family,

Thank you to everyone who joined me for a town hall on Friday, either in person or online. The town hall recording and the slide deck I used for the presentation are available on my website. I appreciate the questions and engagement from faculty and staff across our campuses. I know this is a busy time of year, with the town hall falling right before spring break, and I’m grateful for the work each of you continues to do to support our students and our institution.

I’ll briefly recap a few of the topics we discussed.

Employee and Student Surveys

We recently conducted a short check-in survey with employees and students. I appreciate the time many of you took to share your perspectives. If you haven’t had a chance to complete the survey yet, please take a few minutes to share your feedback.

Among employees who have completed the survey so far, 71% reported feeling positive about the university’s direction, a meaningful improvement from the previous survey. At the same time, many of you shared continued concerns about workload, staffing pressures, and compensation. Those concerns remain an important part of our ongoing conversations and planning.

Student responses were also encouraging: 83% reported feeling that someone at the university cares about them, and nearly nine out of 10 said they feel respected at USU. At the same time, many students described experiencing stress or pressure, which reinforces the importance of the work we are doing to support student success and wellbeing.

Legislative Session and University Funding

The legislative session concluded on Friday, March 6. Several items from the session will support work already underway at Utah State. You’ll see a complete breakdown of funding and impacts from the legislative session in the next issue of Utah State Today. Here are the funding highlights:

Performance funding awarded for performance in timely completion and high-yield degrees and some recovery of our access dollars.
New and ongoing funding for the Center for Civic Excellence.
Ongoing funding for the Analytics Solutions Center to create a public dashboard visualizing the risk of federal fund reductions.
One-time and ongoing funds to establish an odometry lab and proof-of-concept for communications-based train control on a light rail vehicle line.
O&M funding for our new hazardous waste facility that supports research.
One-time and ongoing funds for the new Forest Restoration Institute.
Ongoing funds for the Rural Business & Agricultural E-Commerce Accelerator.
Ongoing funds for the Utah Marriage Commission, operated by USU Extension.
Ongoing funds for the Future Farmers of America Association, operated by Quinney College of Agriculture & Natural Resources.
One-time funds for a study on impacts of geothermal energy development.
One-time funds for the Bear River Agricultural Education & Resource Center.
One-time funds to address the rise in extreme behavioral issues in Utah elementary schools (to Department of Social Work).
One-time funds to study the teacher academy model in the USU Center for the School of the Future.
Approval of dedicated funds for a re-scoped renovation and expansion of the historic Animal Science Building and O&M funding for building operations.

In the town hall, we also discussed broader system-wide investments in research and innovation that will benefit Utah’s universities and strengthen our ability to contribute to the state’s economic future. Visit the town hall webpage on my website for more details.

The state approved a 2.5% discretionary salary increase for employees; however, this does not mean everyone will get a 2.5% increase. We are still determining the breakdown between cost-of-living increases and flex funding and will share that information after conversations with faculty senate, staff employee association leadership, and university administrators. As is typical in Utah, the state funds 75% of that increase, and universities must cover the remaining 25%. At USU, that match is typically supported through tuition increases.

Audit Response and Institutional Processes

The legislative audit identified areas where our purchasing procedures and financial oversight processes could be strengthened. Over the past several months we have already begun addressing those recommendations by revising policies, improving training, strengthening governance processes, and clarifying roles and accountability. These efforts will continue as we work to ensure strong stewardship of university resources.

Strategic Planning and Institutional Direction

We also discussed the early stages of our strategic planning work with our four guiding priority areas:

Utah statewide impact.
Student success and value.
Discovery with purpose.
Civic-mindedness.

We have identified executive leads for each of our implementation teams and will pull together the teams for initial meetings prior to the end of the semester. These teams will include representation from across the university system and will begin shaping how these priorities translate into concrete strategies and actions.

Looking Ahead

In the coming weeks and months we will continue work on several areas discussed during the town hall, including:

Finalizing compensation and benefit adjustments for the coming year. I will send you more information once our plan is finalized.
Moving forward with and finalizing several key leadership searches.
Refining our budget model.
Advancing our strategic priorities through implementation teams.
Maintaining our focus on students and our land-grant research mission.

Thank you again for your dedication to Utah State University and for the work you do every day to support our students and communities. I look forward to continuing our conversations and seeing you at our commencement activities next month.

Best,

brad