USU students voice concerns
Casting their vote is the number one thing students at Utah State University can do to affect tuition changes.
To address the concern of the propesed 43 percent tuition increase over the next three years, ASUSU and Provost Stan Albrecht met with students Tuesday night to discuss the proposed increase and talk about other funding options.
“One of the challenges that all state institutions are facing is funding,” Albrecht said. “Over the past two years, the state has cut $13 million dollars worth of funding for higher education.”
Currently, USU gets 31 percent of its funding from the state. Last year, higher education was cut from a 17.3 percent share of the states budget down to 15.4 percent, Albrecht said.
“The state is not mandated to fund higher education,” he said. “They are mandated to fund public education, but they can choose not to fund us.”
This is where students find they have power, Albrecht said, students have the power to vote, but all too often they don’t.
“Has an incumbent ever not been re-elected because they cut higher education funding?” Albrecht asked. “Chances are slim. Students are affected, and yet they take so little action.”
The tuition increase and its surrounding issues are being brought to students for discussion now because it’s still a proposal, Albrecht said. Students are being given an opportunity to voice their opinion before anything is decided, he said.
Although there has been a lot of buzz on campus about the proposed tuition increase, few students are actually speaking out when given the opportunity. At the meeting Tuesday night scheduled specifically to address the tuition increase, fewer than a dozen students showed up to voice their concern.
Albrecht encourages students to get involved, especially in the political process and let the Legislature know how students feel.
“It works best when there is one on one interaction,” Albrecht said. “You are a voter. You will influence other voters.”
In the past, the state has funded the cost of fuel, power, operations and maintenance of the university. Two years ago they cut off the money, Albrecht said.
Money that in the past has gone to faculty and technology, is now going to cover costs the state is longer funding, Albrecht said.
“It isn’t a matter of being more efficient with our funds,” Albrecht said. “If you look at our performance relative to total funding, Utah is by far the most efficient state in the nation.”
It’s not about turning the lights off to save power – the university hasn’t suddenly started using more power, Albrecht said. The money to pay the bills has simply been taken away, he said.
Students on campus wonder why USU is focusing on all of the building projects on campus if there is no funding, ASUSU Science Senator Darin Humphreys said.
Albrecht said that is a common misunderstanding and concern not only with students, but also faculty and staff.
“Two sisters gave the largest single donation that the university has ever been given to build the recital hall,” Albrecht said, “$8.3 million were given to build a state-of-the-art recital hall. Some people may think that the money would be better used in other places. However, that gift was given for a specific reason and could only be used for that reason.”
Gifts to the university are tagged with a purpose, Albrecht said, and rarely is that purpose for utilities or maintenance.
The same problem goes for professor retention and compensation. USU employees received no salary increases from 2001-03, Albrecht said, and received a 1 percent increase in 2004. Professor salaries are 16 percent below those of their peers at comparable institutions, he said.
Last year, the university lost 35 faculty members; most of them citing salaries as a key reason, according to a press release from USU.
Great faculty bring in key funding, Albrecht said. In the 2003-04 academic year USU was awarded $162 million in contracts and grants. This money is awarded to faculty for research projects.
If the university loses these faculty members because they are offered higher salaries and equal research opportunities at other institutions, the university also loses the funding they bring, Albrecht said.
We cannot afford not to compensate the faculty, Albrecht said. The university doesn’t have the funding now, but needs to find it. So the question becomes, do students pay the difference or does the state?
“We’ve put this out now so that people can think about it before the election,” ASUSU President Les Essig said.
If students care about the tuition increase, Essig said, then students should make sure it’s also something the candidates being voted for care about it as well. That may mean looking across party lines, Essig said.
“If we talk about it in February and March, it’s too late,” Albrecht said. “We have to start taking action now.”
Heidi Evans, ASUSU Academic vice president, asked Albrecht what students could do to take action.
“Talk to key players,” Albrecht said. “Brad Johnson is the Chair of the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee for the [Utah House]. The Senate chair has yet to be selected, but will likely be Peter Knudson. Talk to them. Let them know you’re interested.”
Johnson can be contacted at bradjohnson@utah.gov and Knudson at pknudson@utahsenate.org.
“As soon as they recognize students are a voice,” Essig said, “they will listen to us.”
-apassey@cc.usu.edu