Superintendent of Public Instruction, Assistant Superintendent of Ogden City Schools, Superintendent of Weber County Schools, and Principal of Ogden High School. Miller would serve for nineteen years as president of Weber College, the longest term of any of its presidents. The first official act of the new president was the dedication of the new stadium which occurred on September 18, 1953. The ceremony included the cutting of a purple and white streamer that was attached to a wire which was stretched between the goal posts. Student body president John Elzey and Miller cut the streamer to officially open the stadium, and Henry Aldous Dixon offered the dedicatory prayer which was followed by a football game between Weber and San Diego Junior College. Construction moved ahead on the new campus during the Fall of 1953 with the State Road Commission grading and graveling the campus roads before winter, and suggesting that the final surfacing of the roads should be left until the summer of 1954. A statue of the first principal of Weber Academy, Louis F. Moench, was given to the College at this time by Moenchs son Wilford. The Moench statue which was accepted for later placement on the campus was sculptured in Italy from white Carrara marble. Plans for a new technical education building for the new campus were prepared by W. Rowe Smith who had been retained as an architect, and the plans were approved by the State Board of Education during November. Although some excitement was dampened because the construction on the campus was moving slowly, most looked to the future with anticipation. On December 8, 1953, Governor J.Bracken Lee recommended to a special session of the Utah Legislature that Weber College, Dixie College, and Snow College be discontinued as state institutions and be transferred back to the L.D.S. Church on June 30, 1954, and that Carbon College be discontinued on June 30, 1954. Lees proposal fell like a bombshell on the Weber campus and on Ogden. For the next ten days, attention was turned to the legislature and the possible passage of the recommendation. The Ogden and Weber College community strongly felt that Weber College could better serve the community as a public state-supported institution than a church-supported institution. Miller as the freshman president of Weber College turned his attention to rallying support against the Governors plans. In meetings with Elders Harold B. Lee and Adam S. Bennion of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church, Miller learned that the proposal was not sponsored in any way by the Church. Governor Lee refused to let the issue continue until the regular session of the legislature, and when he was approached by a delegation of Weber supporters he said that he had promised to relieve the tax burden on the public when he ran for governor and that he intended to do just that. At the same time he suggested to the legislature that the school lunch program be cancelled in the public schools of Utah. Weber County legislators and officials called Lees actions the greatest give away in the history of the State. A special public hearing was held before the Utah State Senate on December 16 where twenty-one people from the Ogden and the College spoke in support of retaining Weber as a state college, but the controversial bill officially known as Sen-ate Bill 39 passed both houses of the legislature and was signed into law by the governor on December 18, 1953. The legislative measure transferring, Weber, Snow, and Dixie had passed as well as the bill to discontinue Carbon College, but the legislature refused to withdraw state aid from the Salt Lake and Central Utah (Provo) Vocational Schools. Frank M. Browning, an ardent supporter of Weber College, responded by saying, The friends of the school have just begun to fight. Anger was expressed by many in Ogden who expressed their feelings in terms of treason, sold down the river, and a stacked deck. Although the L.D.S. Church pledged itself to keep up the quality of education at the junior colleges, many people were discouraged and others pledged to fight the legislation. Several members of the Weber faculty used the Christmas vacation period investigating job opportunities in other states. After studying the possibilities of fighting the return of Weber College to the Mormon Church in the courts, supporters of the College decided to throw their support behind a referendum which could overturn the recently passed measure during the November 1954 election. The Ogden Chamber of Commerce spearheaded the drive for signatures for a referendum, and it was learned that support would come from the people of Carbon County to save their junior college. Under the direction of Bernard Diamond, the executive secretary of the Chamber, two committees were appointed. The Committee on Finances was chaired by Harmon Barton and the chair of the Education Committee was Brigham H. Robinson. Through the Education Committee the story of Weber College was presented throughout the state in public forums, question and answer sessions, public debates, newspapers, and radio and television broadcasts. Many from the Weber County community became involved in the Save Weber campaign. Ogden Mayor Rulon White, Ira Huggins, David J. Wilson, A.L. Glasmann, Leroy B. Young, and John S. Hinckley were particularly involved. Faculty and students at Weber College were an important part of the effort to keep Weber a state institution. Application to the Secretary of State for the necessary referendum petition forms was made and the signing of petitions began on January 8, 1954. It was necessary to obtain approximately 33,000 notarized signatures from registered voters to authorize a referendum vote. Voluntary contributions from the community helped finance the costs of 35 notary seals, printing, and travel expenses of those who volunteered to actively obtain the signatures throughout the state. Finances for this effort were raised under the direction of Brigham H. Robinson the president of Lakeshore Motor Coach Lines. Individuals from the Ogden area traveled the state, meeting voters in their homes, on the streets, in their offices, and even in pool halls to gain the requisite number of signatures. On February 19, Secretary of State Lamont F. Toronto announced that petitions had been received in his office containing more than 57,000 signatures, and that the names included more than 10 of the registered voters in 28 of the 29 counties of Utah. Toronto announced that a referendum vote would take place at the general election on November 2, 1954 on the action of the legislature to withdraw state support from Weber College, Dixie College, and Snow