Under Kendell's 41/2-year watch, research grants flooded the state's flagship university, a U. geneticist won the Nobel prize, new programs built partnerships to better integrate secondary and higher education so that incoming college students are better prepared for success, and the state launched an ambitious investment that seeks to leverage technologies developed on public campuses into economic drivers for Utah.
He also hired seven presidents in the 10-school system and its student-loan program nearly tripled the number of students it serves, dishing out $2.25 billion in loans and establishing savings accounts stocked with another $2.6 billion.
"I am really pleased . . . we have adopted the idea of student success. We rallied around that," said Kendell, who retired as Utah's commissioner of higher education at the end of 2007 after four decades of service to education that began at Ogden High, where he taught English. He taught as an adjunct in the U. College of Education for 13 years before moving on to head the Davis School District from 1987 to 1997.
"He's been quite a visionary and very adept at bringing the various constituencies together to understand that a good system of higher education benefits the whole state," said Randy Dryer, a Salt Lake City attorney who heads the U. board of trustees.
The system's Board of Regents is conducting a national search for a replacement and hopes to have a list of finalists by August. Meanwhile, Dave Buhler, the agency's associate commissioner for public affairs, will serve as interim commissioner.
"Rich has been a terrific commissioner," Regents Chairman Jed Pitcher said. "I am impressed with his ability to communicate and to lead."
But there is one thing Kendell would really have liked to change: enrollment numbers, which have remained somewhat flat for several years.
While the changing economy demands more skills from Utah's work force, smaller portions of young Utahns are going to college and obtaining advanced degrees, officials say. Utah is one of the fastest-growing states and possesses the youngest demographic. Yet education attainment is in steep decline, which does not bode well for the state's future.
"In the long run, the key to attracting new business to the state and keeping high-paying jobs is an educated work force," Dryer said. "You can't get by without a college degree these days."
In his public presentations, Kendell pulls out statistics he finds troubling.
For example, the portion of Utahns ages 18 to 24 enrolled in college dropped from 41 percent in 1992 to 34 percent in 2006. And the portion of Utahns ages 25 to 34 holding a bachelor's degree was 25.4 percent (32nd in the nation) versus 30.1 percent for the 45-to-64-year-old demographic (12th in the nation) in 2002.
"That's moving in the wrong direction," Kendell said.
Declining education-attainment rates are hardly unique to Utah, although the drop is more severe here. The United States is almost alone among developed nations where older citizens are better educated than their 25 to 34-year-olds.
But in some Utah counties, such as hot-growth Washington County, attainment rates as low as 17 percent suggest certain communities will be poorly prepared to compete for top employers.
Under Kendell's leadership, higher ed has taken steps to promote participation and anticipates annual enrollment increases of 0.5 percent above anticipated population growth. That translates into a 10 percent jump over the next 10 years.
"I get this all the time, 'There are tons of jobs out there for people with high school diplomas and you don't need to go on and get some higher degree,' " Kendell said. "The fact is, in today's economy every student needs to go on to college. The era of high wages, low skills is gone, never to return."
Kendell would like to see a system in which almost everyone goes to college, but he would settle for two-thirds of high school graduates. That would require ensuring students are prepared for academic success. To that end, higher ed has implemented programs such as Utah Scholars and the K-16 Alliance to ensure high-schoolers are taking the tough courses - four years of math, three years of science, four years of English, two years of foreign language and 3- years of social science.
"We need to make sure the learning high school students are getting is preparing them for college," Dryer said. "You can't get ready for college after you graduate from high school."
