ASUSU encourages legislators to approve funding for USU
The fight for higher-education funding continued last night at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City, where student representatives from every Utah campus but Brigham Young University hosted what is becoming an annual pre-rally dinner for legislators.
As legislators trickled into the rotunda from committee meetings, students offered them pizza and snacks – a student’s cuisine – and one-on-one discussion of higher-education needs.
“We’re basically just trying before the rally tomorrow to talk to the legislators and make them aware of our concerns,” said Ben Riley, Associated Students of Utah State University president.
Students realize the Legislature is doing what it can with the money it has, Riley said, but it’s important for higher education to make itself known.
Though the executive appropriations committee will have the final say next month, as things stand now, Utah’s higher education system will probably receive enough funding for six building projects – including USU’s new heating plant and Business building renovation, said Norm Tarbox, associate commissioner for finance and facilities for the Utah Board of Regents.
The state has $310 million extra this year, and so far about $220 million of that surplus has been allocated to higher education facilities, Tarbox said.
“To get six or seven buildings is really huge,” he said.
But those lobbying for higher-education funding know it’s not enough, he said. Because the $310 million is a one-time surplus, it’s all being allocated to one-time expenses – like building projects. A lot of what Utah’s universities and colleges need funded would require long-term funding, which it looks like they won’t get, Tarbox said.
If nothing changes when the Executive Appropriations Committee meets in March, the Legislature will allocate about 27 cents per dollar of the amount requested to fund enrollment growth. Library systems – a major concern for USU, Riley said – have been allocated $2 million in ongoing funds. That’s half of what was requested and includes no one-time funding to get libraries into desired condition, Tarbox said.
A $4 million one-time allocation for technological development will be helpful, but is again inadequate, Tarbox said.
“You cannot run a technologically sophisticated campus without ongoing funding for technology,” he said.
The student governments of Utah’s nine universities and colleges, plus private Westminster College, hope to help turn the Legislature’s eye to higher education by rallying today at noon on the steps of the Capitol. A bus will leave at 10 a.m. from the Taggart Student Center for students who want to go to the rally.