New Utah State University building brings education closer to Monument Valley

A flood-prone former hospital in Monument Valley has been replaced by Utah State University’s first campus building on tribal lands, a new education center meant to keep students from having to travel far for classes, training and services.

The building opened April 22 just northwest of Monument Valley High School in Oljato-Monument Valley, on the Navajo Nation near the Arizona border. USU says the facility, called Ólta´ Bá Hooghan, or home of learning, is designed to serve students and community members from Monument Valley, Oljato, Kayenta and surrounding areas with classrooms, computer labs, a nursing and CNA lab, a Career & Technical Education lab, a small business development space, a welding lab, adult education space, USU Extension space, offices and rooms for community gatherings.

USU put the project’s cost at about $14 million, and the building has been described in project materials as roughly 10,000 square feet, while other descriptions put it at 10,671 square feet. Either way, the scale marks a major step up from the old site, which occupied a former Seventh-day Adventist hospital and had flooding and safety problems that made it hard to use well.

The idea took shape about seven years ago after a student raised concerns that the old facility was not good enough. Since then, USU and Navajo Nation leaders have framed the project as a long collaboration that brought in support from the Noorda Foundation, the Navajo Nation, the State of Utah and other donors. In January 2024, the Navajo Nation Council unanimously approved a $500,000 donation from the tribe’s Síhasin Fund to help finance the building.

At the opening ceremony, USU President Brad L. Mortensen joined Kristian Olsen, Don Mose III, Herman Daniels and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson to mark the ribbon-cutting. USU officials said the building will continue to operate through the Blanding campus while expanding what can be offered locally, including programs that once required extra travel.

That local access matters in one of Utah’s most isolated corners, where distance can shape everything from degree completion to job training. USU says the new facility should reduce the need for students to leave home for nursing, welding, adult education and other coursework, while also strengthening community connections and economic opportunity in a region where education and workforce pipelines help feed tourism, guiding and land stewardship jobs across the Four Corners. Classes are expected to begin in the new building this summer.