Hall asks state to help cover costs of faculty health benefits
Just two weeks after receiving resolution from the Utah State University Faculty Senate requesting an alternative to paying surcharges for health insurance, President Kermit L. Hall spoke to members of the Utah State Legislature during an appropriations meeting in Salt Lake City to ask the state to invest more in USU.
Hall asked the Legislature to invest $1.2 million to cover the rising cost of health benefits for USU faculty and staff.
“It was terrific,” said Kathryn Turner, a professor in the Mathematics and Statistics department who was heavily involved in the resolution. “I was delighted to see that he had made funding of benefits a priority.”
Hall also asked for $900,000 to increase faculty salaries, stating that USU salaries were 26 percent below major U.S. research institutions, 18 percent below USU peer institutions and 17 percent below U.S. land grant institutions.
This is part of an “ongoing effort to bring USU salary dollars to a more competitive level,” according to a report presented to the Legislature.
Hall addressed the high cost of power and natural gas, asking for more than $1 million to cover the shortfall for the current year and for needs in the future so “core educational ideas” won’t be used to pay for rate hikes.
Finally, Hall asked the state to invest $435,000 to help pay for seven new buildings that have been built on the USU campus in the past few years. According to the report, “construction has increased but operation and maintenance dollars have not kept pace.”
Hall wanted to stress to the Legislature that USU is more than just the university in Logan, but an international institution.
“I told them that the sun never sets on USU,” Hall said. “I managed to get them to perk up.”
The report, titled “Raising the Benchmark at Utah State University,” alluded to the levels of Logan formed by an ancient Lake Bonneville.
Hall concluded the report, “I see a new modern-day technological flood beginning in Cache Valley and spilling over into the rest of the state and nation with rising levels of engineering, science and technology, education, agriculture, and natural resources, and electronic business acumen. With [the Legislature’s] help, it will be a flood of Lake Bonneville proportions.”