UVU's record growth tests funding ability

OREM — Space is coveted on Utah Valley University's campus.

Halls have been converted to classrooms with temporary walls built on three sides. What used to be storage closets are now offices for faculty, and hallways are becoming so crowded during passing periods that one student described it as trying to get through an intersection with no stop signs.

"We are trying to implement every efficiency possible and are utilizing every nook and cranny of this campus," said UVU's spokesman Chris Taylor, who added that the college has the least amount of space per student in the state.

With a total head count of more than double what it used to be just 13 years ago, UVU is on its way to becoming the state's biggest university with 32,670 students taking classes from the university this fall, just one pupil shy of the University of Utah's total head count.

UVU's enrollment growth accounted for nearly half of the surge in Utah this year at 3,905 new students, according to statistics released by the state this month. Taylor said the university has been growing for the last 12 consecutive semesters. But administrators at the school said they can't keep this up for long.

"If we are going to continue to grow at this rate, we have no other option then to look to the state for a better investment," Taylor said.

Currently UVU is operating with the lowest per-pupil funding from the state at around 42 percent, Taylor said. Commissioner of Higher Education William Sederburg said most other state universities are funded at about 60 percent per pupil.

Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, who is co-chairman of the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said the state will have to engage in a "fairly intense discussion" on the issue of funding UVU soon. Valentine has been pushing for the university to grow to meet demands of Utah Valley, now the second largest county in the state, for more than two decades. He said after Brigham Young University became more of an international university for the LDS Church, Utah County students needed a place to go. Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said 70 percent of Utah Valley college students now attend UVU.

Valentine is happy with the strides UVU has made, but he said if the college does not receive more money from the state in the future, there will have to be either an increase in tuition or new regulations on enrollment. Already the school had to enforce application deadline dates for the first time this fall, and it had many students decide not to attend the university after the classes they tried to get into did not have space for them.