A rendering of the Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center, which will be built on the southwest corner of the Quad at USU. The Utah Legislature approved funding for the new building, which will bring together in one location all language-focused programs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Photo courtesy of Utah State University.
LOGAN – A new learning center is coming to the Utah State University Quad: a two-story, 38,000 square-foot building to house programs in the Department of World Languages and Cultures in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The building will be named for Mehdi Heravi who, at 16, traveled alone from Tehran to Logan to attend high school and later USU.
He said within a few months of arriving in Logan in the 1950s, he made friendships that continue today, including couples who claimed him as their own son.
“I could qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records,” Heravi exclaimed, “having four fathers and four mothers. Mr. and Mrs. Sears were one of them, Dr. and Mrs. Boston another, and Mr. Utah State himself, God rest his soul in peace, Milton Merrill and his wife.”
Heravi, whose father A.A. Heravi became the father of scientific farming in Iran, later became Vice President of the National University Iran and has maintained his friendships in northern Utah and visits Logan often.
In 2021, the Utah legislature approved $14.5 million in state funds for the building which will house all language-focused programs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. An additional $2.5 million for the building came from private donors, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Capital Development Project Request was presented to the Legislature by USU President Noelle E. Cockett in 2020.
What does Heravi want this building to become?
“My vision is, I hope, I dream, I pray that anyone that goes through that building — in any capacity — would become a promoter of peace, believer in freedom, believer in brotherhood, in equality, inclusiveness,” Heravi answered.
The new building will be located between the Ray B. West building and Old Main in what is now the purple parking area. Construction will begin following graduation this spring.