OREM -- Paul Sybrowsky refuses to stay silent, not now, not when Utah's public colleges don't receive enough state funding to retain top teachers, buy new equipment and build enough classrooms for students who want to enroll.
Sybrowsky, a trustee at Utah Valley State College and a member of a state planning committee for Utah public and higher education, on Thursday denounced this year's allocation from legislators to Utah's System of Higher Education at a UVSC board meeting."I'm appalled at the government, if you will," said Sybrowsky, who also serves on a national college accreditation team. "It does us no good to raise the level in public education and have substandard higher education."
Strong comments about funding levels at UVSC -- which, unlike seven of Utah's nine public institutions of higher education, received money for growth this year -- came after the trustees were asked to approve a 4.2 percent employee compensation package.
In all, the four-year community college receives about $58 million from the state to run the Orem campus and the Mountainland Applied Technology Center.
From that allocation, the school must pay rent for the satellite campuses in Heber and University Mall, said UVSC President Kerry Romesburg. Combined, some 1,200 students take classes at the locations.
The compensation increase covers both salary and benefits, which the Legislature funds as one item.
A 23 percent increase in health insurance premiums sucked away a good portion of the money that could have boosted salaries. As a result, professors and support staff will see about a 2.8 increase on paychecks.
Romesburg said he has started lobbying other college presidents and Utah higher education commissioners to prepare a "crisis mode" approach for the 2001 Legislature.
"There's been an erosion of equipment, faculty and staff that's happened for nine years now," Romesburg said. "We cannot continue as we have."
Romesburg said the Legislature has not funded requests for new equipment for vocational programs for several years. That means students aren't being trained on equipment they need to know to find work in industry.
"The equipment is woefully outdated," he said.
Baron Rohbock, president of UVSC's student association, said students lose when funding levels remain low.
"Often, we will lose faculty by force to other states" because professors can find higher pay, he said.
"We hear how students are distraught when they find out their favorite faculty is leaving," he said.
Romesburg said that despite outstanding support from Utah County lawmakers to gain funding the school loses top computer technicians and staff members to industry on a consistent basis.
"We simply do not pay competitively with industry," he said. "We are losing our best people to industry."