In a low-key but high-powered "pep rally," higher education embraced a new lobbying campaign Thursday.
There were no rah-rah speeches at the University of Utah meeting, called the Utah Higher Education Assembly. Instead, key higher-education leaders were pressed into service as lobbyists who will articulate higher education's benefits and budget needs to the 1992 Legislature and to the public.The Board of Regents, the presidents of the state's nine public colleges and universities, members of the schools' Boards of Trustees, key administrators and faculty senate presidents received lobbying ammo - a new, slick, 26-page publication called "Utah's Higher Education: An Investment in People."
Commissioner of Higher Education Wm. Rolfe Kerr urged the higher-education leaders to present the publication to civic groups and legislators in their areas. Sign-up sheets were passed out so the leaders would personally commit to lobby specific lawmakers.
This fall's public-relations campaign is a departure from past lobbying efforts of higher education.
"This is something that we all felt needed to be done for a long time," said Vicki Varela, assistant to the commissioner for media and government relations.
Kerr added, "Call it lobbying if you want, but we simply wanted to find a way to tell our story better."
In the spring, higher-education officials interviewed 25 top legislators, asking them for a critique of higher education's performance at the 1991 session.
"They said we weren't exactly bowling them over with our stories. That influenced us," Varela said.
The result was the $10,000 color publication, which was financed by private donations, mainly from regents and other higher-education leaders. Varela said there are plans to distribute 6,000 copies.
After the regents adopt their budget recommendation Nov. 8, a sheet listing the top budget priorities will be inserted into the copies given to legislators, Varela said.
The publication concentrates on personal stories of individuals who have changed their lives through education and training at Utah's post-secondary institutions or with innovations created in university research labs.
The cover picture features tiny Jaxon Bylund, a Lindon, Utah County, infant who breathes with a ventilator designed by a College of Eastern Utah and University of Utah graduate, J. Bert Bunnell, who worked on the infant ventilator as an MIT doctoral student and then later developed his own ventilator business.
The publication wasn't the only lobbying tool that the higher-education leaders received Thursday. More information came in the form of panel discussions that focused on such topics as libraries, finances, the regents' influence on Capitol Hill and tuition.
The assembly opened with a luncheon where eight potential gubernatorial candidates debated critical higher-education issues, particularly concentrating on whether Utah should maintain open access to its institutions in the face of rapidly increasing enrollments.
The debate was more than a platform for the candidates. Kerr said it was designed to force the candidates "to not only talk about but think about higher-education issues."
Before the debate, each candidate received a four-page summary of higher-education issues, Varela said.