The announcement was made Saturday by SUU president Steven Bennion during the annual homecoming lunch at the school in Cedar City.

A native of this southwestern Utah city, Leavitt, who served as governor from 1993 to 2003, was unable to attend the announcement, but was represented by his mother, Anne, and father, former state legislator Dixie Leavitt.

In a written statement read by Bennion, Leavitt said that SUU and Cedar City were the places that made the most sense for the collection to reside.

"It is where my roots are," he said. "It is where my former professors, classmates, family members and neighbors are. I'm so pleased and genuinely excited about this project."

Leavitt, who stepped down as governor to become administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2003 before his appointment earlier this year to Bush's Cabinet, attended the school when it was called Southern Utah State College, graduating in 1978 with a degree in business technology.

Bennion said the Sherratt Library will house the collection that will be associated with the school's Michael O. Leavitt Center for Politics and Public Service, which was named after Leavitt last year.

The center is a nonpartisan, interdisciplinary organization dedicated to preparing students to serve as responsible and educated leaders in a democratic society, according to its mission statement.

Bennion said the collection will be of great importance to scholars and students far into the future. The collection will contain items related to many historical events in the state, including the reconstruction of Interstate 15, the 2002 Winter Olympics, nuclear waste, creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and other land issues in the ongoing debate between the state and federal government.

"His legacy is remarkable and is still a work in progress," said Bennion.

The collection, which is in the process of being assembled, will open by spring semester 2006 on the Garden Level of the library. It will be under the direction of Diana Graff, dean of Library Services.

In addition to public and private documents, the collection will showcase gifts received by Leavitt while governor, including myriad items presented him by countries that came to Salt Lake City to compete in the Olympics.

Graff, who learned of Leavitt's decision in July, expects to eventually see items related to the Department of Health and Human Services and its role in the aftermath of the catastrophic hurricanes that have pummeled the Gulf Coast recently.

At Leavitt's request, she said most of the pictures and documents will be digitized and available to the public over the Internet through the school's Web site, with the originals stored at the library.

The collection will join a growing list of special collections housed in the library, said Graff, including the Crawford Family Collection, received in May, featuring rare and historical documents and pictures related to Zion National Park.

Also in May, the library received the Howard R. Driggs Collection, named after an SUU graduate who in the early 1900s became an English professor at New York University and eventually started the National Trails Association, dedicated to the study of the Oregon, Mormon, Santa Fe and other famous routes used in settling the West.

"My reaction when I heard we were getting the [Leavitt] collection was one of excitement and intimidation because of its size," said Graff. "But we're ready. It's a tremendous addition to our special collections."

mhavnes@sltrib.com