USU Eastern Associate Vice President Doug Miller begin his new position in August and Castle Country Radio was thrilled to be able to get him into the studio to see how the transition from faculty member to administration has been.

“It has been, yea you hear the concept, drinking from a firehose, its has been a lot of that. I will say that I am grateful for the team that I have, we have some exceptional leaders who have made it as easy as a transition as possible. But moving from faculty to a full-time administrative role has been a distinct change,” state Miller. He had the backing from his predecessor Greg Dart who left in August and it was Dart that really rallied for Miller to apply for the position.

Economic development is very important to Miller and now in an administration position he will be able to make an impact on our community.  “I recognize that in the administrative role is one that I could probably advance the things that I care about the most in a more effective way. I’m incredibly dedicated to economic development in our region, that’s what brought me here in the first place, and being an administrator at USU Eastern means that I have a bit more levers to pull in supporting economic development in our region,” said Miller. He is looking forward to working with city, county and state officials when he comes to economic development issues.

Miller has been working with superintendents in Carbon and Emery County to make changes to the concurrent enrollment courses. “So we’ve had a few things that have happened, one is that the Right of First Refusal has been lifted. So if students are going to have concurrent enrollment options at a competing institution, I say competing loosely, but at an institution that better serves their needs they can get it now. That has never happened before but USU signed agreements to allow those students to do concurrent enrollment some where else. I will tell you that the data shows they are still coming to USU,” explained Miller. He hopes that now USU Eastern can better serve the needs of high school students seeking concurrent enrollment courses.

Miller is looking forward to being a big part of the community through his new position at USU Eastern. “So I hope that folks will consider engaging with us on any of the fronts that we have, whether that be through theatre, whether that be through our academics or especially through our athletic offerings,” said Miller.

To hear this interview in its entirety please click the link below.