Legislation affects Utah State budget
Utah State University will need to become a leaner organization in the face of recent legislation which cut funding provided to the school and all higher education facilities in the state.
Steve Palmer, president of the Associated Students of USU, said three major things happened at the legislation session which will directly impact the university.
The first was the obvious budget cuts and tuition increases. The second suspends the replacement of the Merrill Library until further work and planning can be done and the last changes the rules for gaining residency in Utah and paying in-state tuition.
President Kermit L. Hall said the legislation would require the university to cut $2.2 million in the next year. Combined with recent years, USU has lost $6.6 million total.
This represents a 3.79 percent cut, President Hall said. The University of Utah took a 4 percent cut.
“We need to come up with a million more dollars,” he said. “We’re going to take some cuts but most will be on the noninstitutional-side of the university campus.”
He said the presence of the compact planning process will help the university with these issues. The process provides a mechanism for identifying and resolving critical issues that affect the quality of the university.
“This will really help us I think,” President Hall said.
He said he has been through major budget cuts while working at two other universities, and feels like USU will come out on a positive note.
“We’re going to do everything we can to protect Utah State and keep it moving forward,” President Hall said. “When times get rough, you have to protect your team.”
Executive Vice President of ASUSU Celestial Starr Bybee said the budget cuts will impact everyone at the university.
“It impacts the departments, the teachers, the staff benefits and then the students,” she said. “It’s going to make us cut out everything we don’t need and make us better.”
President Hall said he has set down a commandment to hold the academic side as harmless as possible. The services on campus will feel the brunt of the cuts. These services include janitorial and class-scheduling times so that rooms can be used more wisely, he said.
“In meeting with President Hall, he is very optimistic,” Bybee said.
When looking at the effects on the university, President Hall said he is looking for slower and more thoughtful answers to the questions. He does not want to rush into the solutions blindly.
“Our president is very politically-minded. He knows the Legislature is the best place to look to get our funding,” Bybee said.
In the face of the cuts, the legislation also calls for tuition increases.
“We’re going to be required by the legislation to increase graduate student tuition,” President Hall said. “We have no choice. We’ve been told by the legislation to do this.”
The actual amount of the increase will be 11 to 12 percent he said.
Graduate student tuition is not the only fees affected.
Bybee said tuition around the state would increase a minimum of 3.5 percent because of the Tier I increase.
“Tuition would increase no matter what,” she said.
Palmer said, “I think it will be below double digits, but it will depend on the outcome of the legislative session.”
USU will also see an increase in the Tier II tuition. However, all money raised in this increase will stay at the university.
“That [Tier II tuition] would have increased anyway,” Bybee said.
Each of the college senators brought a list of the financial needs for their college into ASUSU and it was determined tuition costs would need to be raised in order to meet the needs of the departments, she said.
In addition to the tuition increases, fees have been raised as well.
“Fees increased because of things the state couldn’t help with,” she said. “Computer fees, bus fees and library fees all needed to go up.”
Palmer said, ‘We tried to write into the language to cap tuition at 8 percent – we had heard it might go as high as 20 percent.”
He had found a legislator who was willing to write the bill, but when it was realized the bill would fail it was abandoned, he said.
“Tuition is going to have to go up,” Palmer said. “When the legislators cut that much out of our budget it can’t help but hurt student services.”
President Hall said, “I don’t want students to panic. We’re looking at several ways to handle tuition issues.”
Bybee pointed out that the USU tuition increase was not as high as many in the state. Utah Valley State College will likely see an increase of more than 24 percent.
“Students need to be careful with their money so they will have it when they need it,” she said. “Though it seems bad for us here at USU, all universities have their problems.”
One of the new laws that will affect all of the universities in the state is the new bill about residency.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jeff Alexander. Under the new bill, the standard time a student must wait before they can get in-state tuition will be determined by the number of credits taken.
The new law requires 60 semester credit hours before residency can be established. The language of the bill also requires additional evidence of being in the state which include Utah voter registration, a Utah driver’s license, Utah vehicle registration, employment in Utah, payment of Utah resident income taxes and a Utah banking account.
Palmer said USU may be impacted more by the new law than other schools in the state.
“Utah State has one-third of all out-of-state students in the state,” he said.
Palmer said the university has drawn a very diverse student body, but that may change with the new laws.
“I think it will have a huge impact on our diversity,” he said. “It’s going to hurt Utah State more than people realize.”
While lobbying at the session, Palmer and others fought the bill but were unable to stop it from passing.
“We have been banging our heads against bricks trying to figure out how to defeat it,” he said. “Our pleas fell on deaf ears.”
That same feeling also came from the decision to take the Merrill Library out of the building fund.
The library was included in a bill that would have bonded for several buildings around the state. A new library at the University of Utah was also on the bill, Palmer said.
Bybee said the need for the new library was structural in nature.
“Our library is unsafe and we really do need a new one,” she said. “Our presentation was amazing. It showed exactly what was wrong with the Merrill and what our plans for it were.”
During the session, Gov. Mike Leavitt threatened to veto the entire bill if the library was left on bond, Palmer said.
“We had launched quite an effort as students,” he said. “It is disheartening that we lost.”
Bybee said, “Really the legislators were on our side. It really was the governor. But he has his reasons, and he is working for the best of the state.”
President Hall said though the school did not receive the funds to build the new library, the Legislature did give the school $800,000 to continue the planning phase and to draw up plans.
President Hall said students need to realize although the library funds did not come through, the school was given the money to plan and that was more than what the university had before.
“I would like to express my deep thanks to the great Legislator Loraine Pace. She fought tooth and nail for the library and was the most valuable resource we had,” he said. “Next year we can expect her support again.”
Despite the seemingly negative outcome of the session, President Hall said several positive things also happened.
“Things will get better. We will be very well-positioned to use the dollars when we get them from legislature, and yes [eventually] we will,” President Hall said.
When the bonding
bill passes, three buildings at the Innovations campus were approved. This campus is located where the research park was located. Also, the legislation approved a plan that would use the new heating plant to generate a portion of the electricity for the university. President Hall said this would help lower the utilities’ bills paid by the university.
Both Bybee and Palmer spoke highly of the efforts of President Hall.
“When our president leaves here, our diplomas will be credible,” Bybee said. “That is the type of leader he is.”
Palmer said, “I have to commend the administration because they have worked very hard to find ways to cut that won’t hurt our education.”