Gov. Mike Leavitt urged higher education officials Friday to cinch the cost-efficiency belt a little tighter to squeeze more students into Utah's bulging public colleges and universities.
Appearing before the state Board of Regents - the governing board of higher-education - the new chief executive told the regents that he wants to forge a partnership with them and lawmakers to admit 4,000 new students annually while phasing in dollars to close the enrollment-funding gap by fiscal year 1997.Last year, lawmakers funded only 28 percent of higher education's enrollment request, and the colleges and universities were forced to turn away about 3,100 students this school year.
The governor, a former regent, said any "prepared" student should have access to post-secondary education in Utah, and he repeated his opposition to arbitrary enrollment caps. "My first priority as governor is to fund those new students," Leavitt said.
Leavitt's first access step is to tack $1.5 million onto Bangerter's enrollment recommendation, which would pay for an additional 1,000 new students.
He asked the regents to adjust their budget expectations by accepting 1,000 unfunded students plus adding 500 more students to the enrollment "flex." The flex is students whom higher education accepts beyond the legislative-funded level in hopes of securing tax dollars in the next fiscal year.
The phase-in plan is a "way to wire ourselves together for the next four years," Leavitt said.
Barbara Gittins, higher education budget director, said Leavitt's budget boost would mean that tax dollars would cover about 6,500 full-time students - or 56 percent of higher-education's enrollment request. The colleges and universities would still have to find a way to admit 5,100 full-time students, or 44 percent, who are unfunded by tax dollars.
Besides phasing in enrollment dollars over time, Leavitt's enrollment proposal muddies the budgetary waters in a different way.
Last month, the regents said they wouldn't approve the four-year trial of Utah Valley Community College - an issue of great concern to the Utah County contingent of lawmakers - without a "clearly identifiable expansion" of the higher education budget. That expansion was defined with certain criteria that would have added $10 million to Gov. Norm Bangerter's budget recommendation.
Dale Hatch, associate commissioner of higher education for finance, said the governor clearly found new money for enrollment, but the regents will have to decide if the new funds, plus the phasing in of enrollment money, constitute a "clearly identifiable expansion" of the higher education budget.
Leavitt also proposed educators develop a strategic plan that uses technological and other innovations to broaden the traditional view of higher education. But that will take "a change of our minds and hearts," he said.