UVU will eliminate jobs due to 4% budget cuts

Utah Valley University is cutting positions in order to make up for the 4 percent budget cuts delivered to Utah's higher education institutions in September.

Officials say that at least eight salaried positions will be eliminated, including five staff, two faculty and one executive. Fifteen more jobs will be cut the following year despite enrollment increases of more than 3,000 students.

"UVU is committed to its goals of access, quality, student success and community engagement, but these goals are harder to achieve when experiencing the 'perfect storm' of significant enrollment growth coupled with state budget cuts," said Liz Hitch, interim president of UVU.

In order to come up with the $2.7 million shortfall, Hitch and others considered the university's strategic directions while pledging to keep a commitment to academic quality and student access. Extensive internal reviews were performed to identify areas where funds could be found without compromising goals of the school.

In addition to job cuts, UVU plans to reduce carry-forward balances by 30 percent, use lecturer faculty in tenure-track faculty positions temporarily, fund some positions with nonappropriated monies, reduce hourly staff and services at some facilities, as well as reduce current travel and capital budgets.

Additional cuts will be made for the following fiscal year, including the loss of five staff and 10 faculty positions. Two programs will be transferred to the Mountainland Applied Technology Center, and current budget cutting efforts will continue as outlined, including cuts to fuel and power budgets.

The Orem school is one of the state's 10 public colleges and universities asked to cut budgets following a special legislative session which addressed a $272 million gap in the state's $13 billion budget.

Hitch said UVU is willing to shoulder a fair share of the responsibility in addressing the state's budget concerns, brought on by weak revenue collection on items such as income and sales tax due to the soft economy. However, school officials have also said it would be imprudent to place unnecessary burden on higher education since Utah's economic vitality relies on the system to produce workers.

Projections provided by the college's marketing department state that UVU contributes approximately $300 million to Utah County's economy, returning $6.22 for every state dollar given to the university.

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