Utah Student Association presents four initiatives
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story dealing with initiatives the Utah Student Association presented to Board of Regents.
Fighting for the rights of every higher education student, the Utah Student Association (USA) presented to the Board of Regents on Friday at Southern Utah University four initiatives they felt would be most beneficial to students state-wide.
A partnership of Utah’s students of higher education, the USA is composed of the Utah Council of Student body Presidents (UCSP), and the Utah Intercollegiate Assembly (UIA).
The first item USA addressed was the idea of a student health insurance pool. This idea originated and was passed by Utah Intercollegiate Assembly last fall semester and was sponsored by Utah State University student Jeremy Kidd.
“Basically we are asking the Regents to provide a feasibility study to determine whether a statewide student health insurance plan would be cost beneficial for students. With insurance premiums constantly rising, it would make sense to form a consortium with the other state institutions of higher education,” said Steve Palmer, president of USA and Associated Students of USU. “We simply must find a way to make health insurance more affordable to students.”
USA next touched on funding issues of priority to USA. USA requested that funds held back from the fiscal year 2002 appropriated budget be restored to higher education. Palmer said 2.5 percent was cut by the governor earlier this month.
“Every college and university has been affected by the loss of those funds which equates to just over $3 million at Utah State University,” he said.
Palmer said each higher education institution will be forced to make up that difference which will require important academic programs’ funding be cut.
Another budget concern to USA was enrollment growth. Associate Commissioner of Higher Education and non-voting member of the Regents Dave Buhler said there has been “record growth this year.”
President Kermit L. Hall said the state has grown by approximately 8,500 new students. This equates to about 940 new students at USU, Buhler said.
President Hall said the “legislature is funding about 75 percent of growth. We don’t have all the dollars required to fund new students.”
President Hall said there is also “not enough funding to take account for the students who stay in the system.”
USA requested legislature fund 100 percent new student growth as well as provide funding for continuing students.
USA also requested salary equity be brought up to par with wages made by university faculty members in peer institutions across the nation.
“It’s hard to learn that some of our best professors are leaving to take jobs with other institutions – institutions that can afford to pay them what they are worth,” Palmer said.
Palmer said USU lost professors at a rate of “one every two weeks” last year.
“We are experiencing faculty turnover as a result of [institutions] that are giving better offers. Last year I believe we lost 35 or 36 faculty members,” President Hall said.
President Hall said this is a problem universities are having state wide.
Palmer felt the funding initiative brought before the Regents went very well.
“The Regents are sympathetic towards these funding priorities, and it was good for them to see that we are also worried about these types of issues,” Palmer said.
Buhler agreed.
“The budget priorities that [USA] have is very much in-line with what the Regents have. I think [The Regents and USA] are very much in harmony,” he said.