Higher ed feeling crunch

New state Commissioner of Higher Education Rich Kendell has been on the job for eight weeks and has been quietly in a learning mode — until now.

Just before the start of the 2004 Legislature, which began Monday, Kendell outlined the priorities for the State Board of Regents.

Kendell started with how to handle the projected addition of 30,000 students to Utah's system of higher education in the next 10 years.

The goal, he told regents recently, is to get higher education into an "absolute" funding category among legislators, who decide on how much state funding education gets each year. Right now, the state's nine public colleges and universities are collectively more than $40 million short on state funding just for student growth.

"We have to be in this category every year," Kendell said. There is an "obligation" of the state to fund student growth in public education, but "we're just not there yet" for higher education, he said.

"The major issue here is I have yet to find anybody at the legislative level who has an appetite for funding growth."

Kendell called for budgetary profiles about what the funding future looks like and how the system should respond.

University presidents have been vocal about how lack of state funding is negatively affecting quality of higher education. Kendell shares their grief but also wants more attention to how the quality of instruction and research is measured at schools.

Kendell touched on nine priorities in all, which include a reminder for regents to be driven by goals and commitments laid out in a master plan published in 2000. Another goal is the "critical task" to refine the plan that created the Utah College of Applied Technology in 2001.

Overall, Kendell said higher education needs to do a better job of selling itself, mainly to Gov. Olene Walker and the Legislature. Regents chairman Nolan Karras agrees, citing financial reasons.

Over the next five years, Karras doesn't see the state bailing out higher education budget shortfalls with new money.

"We've just got to do a better job of telling our case."

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E-MAIL: sspeckman@desnews.com