A university president meets the people behind the U.
U Rising puts University of Utah president Ruth Watkins in conversation with the people doing the U's work, from law students and students working on campus safety to the chair of the Board of Trustees. The talk keeps returning to Utah itself, from mental health in the state to the ID barriers vulnerable people face in Salt Lake County.
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U Rising is a podcast about the University of Utah, told through conversations with the people who run it, teach there and study there. Ruth Watkins, president of the University of Utah, conducts the interviews. The guest list reads like a cross-section of the institution. Christian Gardner, chair of the Board of Trustees, describes trustees as a conduit between the university and the community, a voice for people with questions or concerns about a public institution. Watkins sets up that talk with a brief history of the U's governing bodies, from the founding in 1850 through the first board of trustees in 1991. Dr. Michael Good, who joined the U in 2018 from the University of Florida to lead its health sciences, appears in a conversation tied to his new role as interim president. Watkins points to a survey by Intermountain Health Care that named him among the most trusted people for information on navigating the pandemic, right behind Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Angela Dunn. The pandemic comes up elsewhere too. With the new CEO of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, the discussion covers suicide and mental health concerns in Utah, widespread anxiety and depression, opioid deaths and a projected decline in the number of psychiatrists in the United States. Students speak for themselves. Saba Seyal and Alvin Zhang join Annalisa Purser to talk about the SafeU Ambassador program, a campus safety initiative Watkins describes as shaped by students, and Zhang describes helping with accreditation policy and co-chairing a public safety advisory committee. From the S.J. Quinney College of Law, Professor Anna Carpenter and law students Scott McMurtry and Diana Thurgood recount more than 600 hours of team research into how going without a government ID affects vulnerable people in Salt Lake County. That work included interviews with shelter caseworkers, service providers and government officials, plus an afternoon at a local homeless shelter. Sustainability gets its turn through the U's first gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, described as the result of more than a decade of work. That conversation closes with Dan Reed, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. One line from Watkins ties these threads together: the U is proud to be the university for Utah as well as the University of Utah. The register is gracious and ceremonial. Guests get warm introductions, questions work as open invitations rather than challenges, and conversations tend to end with thanks delivered by name. What a listener gets is an inside view of how one public research university governs itself, handles leadership change and puts its schools to work on local problems. The Justice Lab conversation is a good place to start for campus work meeting a county problem, and the Christian Gardner conversation is the one to pick for how the university is overseen.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants an inside view of how a public research university runs, from its trustees and leadership changes to programs shaped by students, and who is curious how campus work connects to problems in Utah.
What sets it apart: Instead of commenting on higher education from outside, U Rising comes from inside one institution, with the university's president interviewing its own trustees, health sciences leaders, faculty, staff and students. Watkins's idea of the U as the university for Utah takes several conversations to local problems, such as ID barriers in Salt Lake County and mental health in the state.
In "U Rising," University of Utah President Ruth V. Watkins engages in insightful conversations with students, staff, faculty, alumni and community stakeholders who are at the center of the state's flagship research university. President Watkins also connects with other thought leaders to give listeners a fresh take on top issues and innovations in higher education in Utah and across the country.
Ruth Watkins asks the trustee chair who hears you when the U chooses its next president.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A leadership handoff becomes a measured conversation about trust, momentum, and the pandemic lessons Dr. Good wants the U to carry forward.
U Rising centers on a leadership handoff as Dr. Michael Good prepares to serve as interim president of the University of Utah after his work as Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, CEO of University of Utah Health, and Executive Dean of the U School of Medicine.
A clear case for linking mental-health care, research, access, and provider capacity through a university-backed institute.
U Rising looks at what the Huntsman Mental Health Institute may mean for Utahns dealing with anxiety, stress, loneliness, mental health concerns, suicide concerns, opioid and substance use disorders, and a shortage of mental health providers.
A STARS gold rating anchors a measured look at sustainability as campus-wide institutional work.
U Rising frames the University of Utah's sustainability work as a practical story of institutional change. A STARS gold rating gives the episode its public marker, but the deeper thread is the longer effort behind it: how the university builds and runs new buildings, manages…
A grounded look at who governs the University of Utah and how trustees help frame its next presidential search
The University of Utah's board of trustees comes into focus through Christian Gardner, its chair, in a conversation that keeps institutional process readable.
A campus safety program gains shape through the students invited to help build it.
U Rising frames campus safety as work students can help build, not just a set of policies handed down to them. Ruth Watkins introduces Annalisa Purser, Saba Seyal, and Alvin Zhang, with Purser outlining Safe U Ambassador as a paid, year-long internship tied to programming and…
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In U Rising, Ruth Watkins introduces Dr.
Ruth Watkins frames this U Rising episode around Utah's mental-health burden and introduces Dr.
U Rising's The U gets a gold star for its sustainability efforts centers on the University of Utah's STARS gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Christian Gardner, chair of the University of Utah Board of Trustees, explains how the 10-member board became the university’s governing body in 1991 after earlier structures like the Utah Board of Regents and a 1969 institutional council.
Ruth Watkins, Annalisa Purser, Saba Seyal, and Alvin Zhang discuss the University of Utah’s Safe U Ambassador program and the office behind it.
The University of Utah's Osher Institute serves about 1,500 members with lifelong-learning courses for adults 50 and older.
Sarah Projansky, associate vice president for faculty, tells President Ruth Watkins that the Faculty Dialogues series surfaced "flexibility" and "we're all in this together" as recurring themes.
University of Utah President Ruth V.
University of Utah President Ruth Watkins interviews MacArthur Fellow and evolutionary geneticist Nels Elde about his research and the surprise of receiving the genius grant.
University of Utah President Ruth Watkins interviews happiness researcher Ed Diener and others about the science of well-being.