Weber State University

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Weber State University

university, Ogden, Utah, United States

Also known as: Weber College, Weber Stake Academy

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Date:: 1889 - present

Areas Of Involvement:: public education

Notable Alumni:: Damian Lillard

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Weber State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Ogden, Utah, U.S. It is part of the Utah System of Higher Education. Its 400-acre (162-hectare) campus overlooks Ogden and the Great Salt Lake from a foothill of the Wasatch Range. The university comprises the John B. Goddard School of Business and Economics and colleges of Arts and Humanities, Applied Science and Technology, Education, Health Professions, Science, and Social and Behavioral Sciences. In addition to its primary focus on undergraduate studies, Weber State offers master’s degree programs in accounting, business administration, criminal justice, and education. Research facilities include the Center for Aerospace Technology and the Center for Chemical Technology. Total enrollment is approximately 16,000.

The university was established in Utah Territory in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It was then operated by members of the Mormon church. In 1916 it became a normal (teacher-training) college. When the college came under state control in 1933, it was a two-year institution known as Weber College. In 1964 it awarded its first bachelor’s degrees. Weber State became a university in 1991.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

Ogden

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Ogden

Utah, United States

Also known as: Brownsville

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Ogden, city, seat (1852) of Weber county, northern Utah, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Weber and Ogden rivers, just west of the Wasatch Range and east of the Great Salt Lake. The community began as a settlement developed around Fort Buenaventura, a log stockade with an irrigated garden built in 1845 by Miles M. Goodyear and purchased by the Mormons in 1847; Goodyear’s cabin is preserved. First known as Brown’s Fort, it was laid out in 1850 by the Mormon leader Brigham Young and renamed for Peter Skene Ogden, a trapper and fur trader who worked in the area in the 1820s and who organized several rendezvous on the site. After the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad (1869), Ogden became a distribution point for the agricultural produce of the intermountain region.

Transportation, income-tax processing, light manufacturing (pharmaceuticals, clothing, and transportation equipment), and aircraft industries (located at nearby Hill Air Force Base) are the city’s economic mainstays. Weber State University was founded in 1889 as a Mormon academy. John Moses Browning, the designer of the Browning automatic rifle, was born in Ogden, and the city’s John M. Browning Firearms Museum has a collection of the inventor’s firearms. The Snowbasin winter sports area, on the east slope of Mount Ogden, is 18 miles (29 km) east. Nearby Ben Lomond Peak (9,712 feet [2,960 metres]) provided the model for the famed Paramount Pictures logo. Inc. 1851. Pop. (2000) 77,226; Ogden-Clearfield Metro Area, 442,656; (2010) 82,825; Ogden-Clearfield Metro Area, 547,184.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.