Senate panel OKs $3 million for UVSC

Utah Valley State College's transformation into a university received its first hearing Tuesday as the Senate Education Committee advanced legislation approving the first $3 million of an estimated $10 million to turn UVSC into Utah Valley University.

That first bite of the price tag was included in a laundry list of school-specific improvements totaling $10.5 million statewide. SB90, sponsored by Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, would get additional funding for school programs and needs outside of higher education's budget requests.

The bill now heads to the full Senate for debate.

An official bill by Senate President John L. Valentine, R-Orem, that would make UVSC a university with some graduate-degree offerings has not been distributed. The $3 million is a "down payment" on the funds needed to increase student advising, new undergraduate degree programs and faculty for the transformation.

"This is to say let's not move to university status on tuition. Let's move to university status on state appropriations," state commissioner of higher education Rich Kendell said. "A major role change of this kind really ought to be a legislative issue."

All nine state universities and colleges would receive money for school programs through Hickman's bill, including $1.5 million for Dixie State College, the second highest allotment after UVSC.

"This is kind of a compact on the part of the college and university presidents that acknowledges that institutions have needs from time to time that require a disproportionate allocation of money," Kendell said.

In particular, Kendell noted the rapid growth in areas such as St. George have left Dixie State College in a financial crunch and needing a quick infusion of state funds. Dixie's $1.5 million request would help seven different programs get up to speed with faculty and resources, he said.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, questioned the authenticity of the requests, all of which are made in round increments of $500,000.

"The round amounts seem to be more of a deal made rather than weighing the value of the needs of each institution," he said. "If we were really looking at it in an impartial way, it seems the numbers wouldn't be so round."

Stephenson also questioned why the Utah System of Higher Education and Hickman were skirting the usual budget process and going straight to legislation.

"It has not been placed in the governor's budget or under our own budget, so we're running legislation to accomplish it," Hickman said.

Included in the laundry list of school needs is a $1 million request from Utah State University to increase the number of degrees offered in business, education and natural resources. At Weber State University, part of its $1 million request would go toward expansion of online degrees.

Snow College's $500,000 request would help relive bottleneck courses in some majors, and a $1 million request by Salt Lake Community College would help with student retention and to beef up health science offerings.

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com