Federal education plan concerns Utah regents

College students in Utah can look for higher tuition costs for the 2004-05 year, but rising prices here may still not show up on the radar screen of proposed legislation in Congress that would halt tuition hikes in other states.

That was actually considered to be some of the good news the Utah Board of Regents received during a presentation last week by Terry Hartle, vice president of the American Council on Education, based in Washington, D.C.

A federal government that now doles out $100 billion a year to higher education was the source of more worrisome issues.

Looking at the proposals in the Higher Education Reauthorization Act, Hartle said the feds could soon start looking into things like how universities review student transcripts, how schools make admission decisions and how colleges and universities handle ideological diversity on campus and issues of bias in the classroom.

The act's three hot-button issues are access for low-income and minority students, accountability of schools and affordability, Hartle said.

Utah Commissioner of Higher Education Cecelia Foxley asked what parts of the proposal might actually end up as practical applications.

Hartle said that on the issue of affordability, the government may start paying closer attention to how colleges report revenues and expenditures. Part of that issue stems from tuition increases.

Despite the 4.5 percent jump here in tuition just requested by regents and a "second-tier" increase expected in the coming months, the combined increases still make Utah's nine public colleges and universities a cheaper deal than peer institutions.

Hartle talked about how a bill sponsored by Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., could actually spell out penalties for colleges where tuition rises too much, too quickly.

"The good news is, you would probably be exempt," Hartle told regents.

As for the ideological diversity issue, Hartle said, Congress might go so far as to create advisory boards or committees to meet with higher education leaders. Censorship, in this case, is the concern among some already.

The whole subject of government nosing around in higher education affairs comes up every five or six years, Hartle said. It's based on a need, he added, for some in Congress to "torque" the system. He urged Utah's college and university presidents to speak up, in particular, about McKeon's proposal.

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