Dixie State College is located in
St. George,
Utah, and is one of the states premier junior colleges. It gets its name from
Brigham Young, who ordered the
Mormon settlers to grow cotton and wine grapes, comparing the heat of the area to that of the Southern United States. It was founded in 1908 when
LDS church leaders from both the St. George and Salt Lake areas raised funds to open an Church Academy, similar to those in
Salt Lake City and
Provo. The College opened in 1911, calling itself the St. George Stake Academy. Five years later, it was renamed Dixie Normal College, in 1923 Dixie Junior College, and in 1970 Dixie College. In 2000, the school offered two four year programs, which gave them state permission to rename the school Dixie State College of Utah.
DSC is widely known in the state as being Utah's premier party school, and, for the most part, the reputation is deserved... mainly because there is little else to do in St. George. The school's close proximity to Lake Powell and Las Vegas makes it a natural party spot. Weekend trips to Vegas are common, for shopping, catching a show, or other, slightly less savory, activities. During Spring Break, Dixie and St. George see an influx of highschoolers looking for recreation in a wide variety of forms. Depending on your party bent, you may either stay inside for as much of Spring Break as possible, leave for greener pastures, or party until they take you away.
Dixie has many places to live available... many reasonably-priced apartments surround the campus, numerous rental properties within the town, as well as Dixie's two different residence halls- Shiloh, an older set of dorms that are men-only, and Nisson Towers (formerly known as Shenandoah), a group of hexagonally-shaped buildings that have both male and female accommodations. One constant in all places saving the dorms is the massive amount of retirees in St. George, who come down for the sun and the disproportionately large number of golf courses in St. George and the surrounding areas. Of the dorms, the Towers are the newer of the two, and have the nicest rooms... but Shiloh has a more friendly atmosphere and more forgiving RA's.
The sports teams at Dixie are consistently within the top 20 in the
NJCAA, especially the basketball and football programs. The mascot of the school is the
Rebel, although recently there has been a push to change it because of the ever-looming specter of
political correctness. The school’s colors were originally red and grey, and blue was added in 2000 when the school became a State College. In 2001, the colors were changed from red, grey, and blue to red, white, and blue due again to increased pressure from certain students that the colors were not PC. This move brought great criticism from the students who felt that it was not only a kick to the face of tradition, but a foolish move because
Southern Utah University in
Cedar City, a traditional rival, used the same colors. The enrollment of the school in the fall quarter of 2000 was 6945, and continues to grow rapidly. It is also a fairly inexpensive school, running you around $1000 per semester, including books.
Much information gleaned from the history section of DSC's website, www.dixie.edu, and from personal experience.