Legislature disappoints and rewards students
Things could have been much worse for Utah students this legislative session.
Thanks to a surplus in the state budget, increases in tuition weren’t as high as previously projected, said Utah Student Association Executive Director Carrie Flamm, and several university buildings received funding.
“We came with a unified front and a unified voice and that made a big impact,” she said.
Lee Burke, Utah State University assistant to the president for government relation, said just exposing the needs of the university to the Legislature can be productive and “extremely important,” even if the requested money isn’t there to back it up.
For example, Burke said, requests for on-going support of USU’s climate center were not able to be met last year, but when the request was revisted this year, its importance was understood and the money was provided.
USU had a good year in the Legislature, Burke said, despite some disappointments.
“We were very grateful to get what we got, especially under the circumstances,” Burke said.
A request for $10 million was made to relocate many of USU’s agricultural facilities and $5 million was secured, he said. Burke expects the rest to be given next year.
USU students will also benefit from decisions that affect Utah colleges as a whole, including money for salary increases and payment of utilities.
Unfortunately, a bill that would have provided 200 tuition waivers for non-resident students was not able to be reach the floor of the Senate before the end of the session. The bill had passed through the House of Representatives.
“I think it would’ve passed,” Burke said, concerning the Senate reading that never happened.
The bill was created in response to House Bill 138, which changed residency requirements for Utah universities. The bill will make acheiving residency easier for some students, but Burke said he wishes it had gone further.
Currently, students will now automatically receive residency after living in the state for three years, regardless of how many credits they have taken. Before HB 138, Burke said, students living in the state for more than two years were denied residency unless they had completed 60 credits.
The bill is an improvement, but Burke said USU was hoping residency requirements would be reduced to two years. The tuition waivers that failed to receive approval in time would have been offered as incentives, primarily to students from surrounding states to attend USU.
Flamm said while not all of USA’s goals were met this session, USA represents all 12 of Utah’s insitutions of higher learning, she still considers the session a success.
“We gained a lot of support and learned to work with colleagues,” Flamm said.
USA combined in energy with the Board of Regents this year, Flamm said. Top priorities were improving advising through more funding, strengthening the library consortium, improving student voting rates and providing more need-based financial aid.
“Financial aid, that was our number two goal, but we feel that one was neglected,” Flamm said. Small amounts were provided toward financial aid though, she said. Statewide, a one-time allocation $265,000 was put toward fincancial aid. The issue will most likely be readressed next year.
Legislators were especially impressed with students’ interest in improving advising because usually they see students only considered with the cost of tuition, Flamm said.
“To us, it was creating an awareness of how state funding directly affects students, and one area is academic advising,” she said.
It affects the economy “to have students graduating not prepared to enter the workforce or graduating in degrees that are not really usable in Utah’s economy,” she said.
Flamm said much of the success of the session is owed to the students aligning their priorities with those of the Board of Regents and other higher education groups. The group is also more organized this year, thanks to the creation of the position of an executive director.
“I was very impressed with student lobbying and impressed particularly with the fact they worked very well with other aspects of high education,” Burke said. “There was a unified effort. We worked with to represent each other’s issues. It was a team effort.”
Burke said he received many compliments throughout the session as to how well USU students were representing themselves and the university.
Next year, Burke said, students should watch for requests to the Legislature for a cooperative effort between the University of Utah and USU. The campaign to improve economic development through technology and provide more research jobs to both students and other Utah citizens will require about $400 million between the two schools, he said.
-bnelson@cc.usu.edu