Pulling the plug — A perfect storm is brewing that could change higher education

PROVO — In front of hundreds of students, faculty and staff this month, Matthew Holland laid out the dire financial situation at Utah Valley University.

The university is set to become the largest one in Utah come fall. It plans on adding 350 faculty and staff over the next 10 years, but it also needs over $45 million more from the state in that time period to deal with the surging enrollment.

"We are to be commended for doing more with less, but we cannot continue on this trajectory and survive," Holland said. "We cannot continue to cut and do what we need to do. We cannot take on additional students without additional resources."

Over the last few years, this scene has played out in states across the country. Already cash-strapped colleges are encountering budget cuts at the same time they are seeing record-level enrollments. Tuition costs seem to be going out of control with no end in sight. Students are going into more debt than ever before, and colleges are having to choose what programs to cut and which professors to layoff.

Washington lawmakers are looking at cutting $780 million from their higher-ed budget over the next two years, which universities presidents there say would force them to dramatically raise tuition, cut hundreds of faculty and staff, increase the amount of time it takes for students to graduate and increase the acceptance rates of higher-paying, out-of-state students while decreasing the acceptance rate of in-state students.

Nevada is considering closing down five of its nine higher education institutions because of budget shortfalls this legislative term. And in California, at least three universities are considering going private because of the state's lack of funding. In Connecticut, Montana and South Dakota, college students have already staged or are planning on staging protests over proposed higher education cuts.

And while Utah isn't in quite the ominous situation as other states, Bill Sederburg, commissioner of higher education, says the state seems to be moving in that direction.

Stephen Urquhart, the senate chair for the Higher Educations Appropriations Committee, said he remembers Utah paying 75 percent of public college expenses several years ago; now he said that number is closer to 50.

"We are in different financial times," Urquhart said. "States can not pour as much into higher ed as they once could, which puts more of a financial burden on students. That means students need to come into college with a little more focus and idea of what they want to do than what people my age did."

Some like Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, say there is no choice but to cut back on higher ed. He said the state is having to cut across the board and that means higher ed, too. According to a study released last summer, states nationwide were subsidizing public research and four-year colleges near or below 50 percent. But these numbers were from 2008, and researchers believe the amount of money states have invested in higher ed over the last three years has gone down.

Last year, the state subsidized UVU's expenditures by just 45 percent, which makes it technically a state-assisted school instead of a state-funded one. All other public universities in the state were subsidized between 54 and 79 percent. But even schools like Weber State University, with a 55-percent subsidy, say they have reached a breaking point. The college has seen a 14 percent cut in tax funds over the last two years, said Norm Tarbox, vice president of administrative services at the school. In that time, the college has cut 140 positions, raised class sizes and relied more on adjunct faculty.

"There are very few places, if any, we can go to reduce our expenditures more without dramatically affecting the quality of our institutions and our degrees," he said.