Student lobbying had impact on Legislative session
Students who spent time at the Capitol lobbying for higher education during the Legislative session this year may have made an impact, said Rep. Loraine Pace of District 4, which includes part of Cache Valley – the Legislature paid more attention to higher education than they have in years.
“Students did a good job this year lobbying,” Pace said. “Their efforts really paid off. I was proud of them and what they were trying to do.”
She said she was particularly proud of their efforts with the Truth in Tuition bill.
When it became clear each individual college and university was going to be able to raise tuition above the amount approved across the board by the Board of Regents, the Utah Council of Student Body Presidents proposed a bill requiring public forums be held any time tuition is increased.
Pace was among several legislators who supported the bill, though she said she believes it was little needed at Utah State University because the administration here is already open with students.
Ben Riley, president of the Associated Students of USU, and USU President Kermit L. Hall discussed the necessity of being open about tuition raises before Truth in Tuition was proposed. The bill is more important to other universities with less open administrations.
“We’re fortunate in our case that the president wants to know what the students think,” Riley said.
Hall will meet with ASUSU March 20 to discuss the amount tuition will be raised at USU above the across-the-board 5.5 percent expected from the Board of Regents.
Each institution will likely raise tuition because the Legislature can’t possibly fund the many needs of higher education, said Lee Burke, assistant to the president for government relations.
As a whole, higher education came away from this Legislative session with a good amount of funding this year, he said.
All together, Utah’s nine institutions were allocated more than $607 million – 12.6 percent more than the base operating budget. Nearly one-third of the state budget surplus was allocated to one-time funding for higher education needs – including more than $160 million for new buildings.
“I felt better this year,” Pace said. “Last year they said it would be higher ed.’s year, and at the end of the session we were all kind of depressed. I think this year was really more of a higher ed. year.”
USU was allocated $29 million to finish the new heating plant and $23 million for the Engineering building project, which will include both renovations and the complete replacement of part of the current building. USU will also be able to purchase the continuing education building in Brigham City, which is currently rented.
Staff and faculty will receive a 6 percent increase in compensation packages – 4 percent will go to a raise in salary, the rest to dental and health benefits and salary equity.
The surplus allowed some sizeable one-time chunks of funding from the surplus for library improvement – $310,000 in addition to $760,000 on-going.
This will be stretched thin over nine institutions, Burke said. He said the governor’s technology initiative was also underfunded – a $3 million one-time and $1 million on-going investment won’t be enough to hire new faculty and will go mostly toward new equipment.