With the governor's final flourish, green, yellow and white balloons cascaded from the ceiling of the Sorenson Center and the crowd of students, faculty members and community leaders chanted "UVU! UVU!"

"No one is going to forget where they were on this day," Huntsman said.

He went on to laud UVSC President William Sederburg as the architect of change at the rapidly growing school, which on July 1, 2008, will become a "Tier II" institution of higher learning similar to Weber State University and Southern Utah University.

"As UVSC transitions to UVU, leadership matters. I want you all to know what a great president we all have here," he said.

Sederburg called Monday a significant day, not just for UVSC, but for the entire state. "With the population growing so drastically, the development of this university is important," Sederburg said.

He and other proponents of UVSC's transition to university status say the change will help accommodate population growth in Utah County as well as student requests for expanded programs.

Enrollment is growing by more than 4 percent annually, and UVSC administrators anticipate a student head count of more than 24,000 students 10 years from now.

Loretta Palmer remembers cheering when UVSC enrollment reached 5,000 students.

"Having watched the growth over the years has been very exciting," said the associate vice president of academic affairs and a math instructor at the college for the past 18 years. "[The change] is a recognition of what the faculty and students have been doing for a long time."

The bill Huntsman signed provides UVSC with $8 million to begin its transformation. The money primarily will be used to reduce the ratio of adjunct professors who teach at UVSC. Currently about half the faculty is made up of adjuncts who are not full-time faculty members.

Initially, Utah Valley University will offer three master's degree programs in business administration, education and nursing, pending approval by the state Board of Regents

Students in attendance Monday are ready for the change. Wearing brand-new UVU T-shirts, they cheered the bill's signing.

"It seems to open a lot more opportunities," first-year student Steve Tracy said. "It also makes it all more credible."

Other community leaders in attendance included Thomas S. Monson of the LDS Church First Presidency; Ira A. Fulton, donor and founder of the UVSC Fulton Challenge; Marlon Snow of Utah Board of Regents; Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert; Utah Higher Education Commissioner Richard Kendell, and Greg Curtis, speaker of the Utah House.

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* ROXANA ORELLANA can be contacted at rorellana@sltrib.com or 801-257-8693.