Boyd Garriott of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Office suggested that if higher education and the Legislature could agree on some measures by next January's session, legislative leaders might be willing to push for funding bonuses, subject to availability of funds, for institutions that meet the standards. In other words, "we would get some amount of money to help drive this," he said.

Meanwhile, Richard Kendell, commissioner of higher education, presented an updated draft of dozens of systemwide and institutional measures and results. One of the most significant, he said, was a national measure prepared by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

The organization took a number of measures of higher education performance and compressed them into a single state score. The measures included undergraduate degrees awarded per 100 students in the state system and research dollars per faculty member. Utah got the highest index score in the nation relative to funding per full-time-equivalent student.

Based on that measure, Kendell said, "Utah is the highest-performing system in the country."

Most participants in the Richfield meeting seemed to want additional meetings and more discussion before making decisions about where to take the accountability process.

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