SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez says she agrees with Gov. Gary Herbert’s push that state colleges and universities develop a definition of “affordability.”
Herbert, in announcing his budget recommendations last week, called for a tuition freeze at the state’s eight public universities and colleges until the Utah State Board of Regents figures out what’s affordable for students attending state colleges and universities.
“We very much support the exercise of defining what affordability is,” said Tuminez, during a meeting Monday with the Deseret News and KSL editorial boards.
“The first exercise in defining affordability and having a uniform operational definition across the state, I think, would be extremely useful because then we can agree, ‘What is too expensive? What isn’t?’”
In Utah, the state funds 75% of compensation increases. The rest is funded by colleges and universities assessing tuition. Tuition also pays for costs associated with professors who achieve tenure.
Going into last year’s legislative session, UVU estimated it would need a 3% tuition increase. Ultimately, it asked the Board of Regents to raise it by 1.5%.
While the sticker price of tuition might be lower at a community college, other factors weigh into students’ decisions of where they might attend college. For students in UVU’s service area, staying close to home may mean they can stay at their parents’ home, or family can help them with child care, or they have access to employment while attending school.
“The mandates of the universities vary. Even the profiles of the students vary by lot,” she said.
UVU’s students include high schoolers who pay $5 per credit hour for concurrent enrollment courses, to Utahns who have some college but no degree and are returning to complete their credentials.
The university’s mantra is “Come as you are,” Tuminez said.
“We continue to be that place that really means it.”
In terms of affordability, the state needs a working definition and some differentiation according to the unique characteristics of each college and university, Tuminez said.
“At the end of the day, pragmatism requires we have a policy about tuition that is effective, that still allows the education to be affordable and accessible while allowing us to pay the bills and run good, solid institutions that deliver for the students,” she said.
According to UVU’s Vision 2030 document, the university is committed to several initiatives to make college affordable and accessible by demonstrating effective use of tax funds, maintaining low tuition and fees, which includes working with the Utah Legislature to implement a reduced tuition rate for students pursuing career and technical education certificates, diplomas and associate degrees.
The document also envisions expanded use of affordable e-books and digital texts, as well as the development and adoption of open educational resources, which are available for free or low price.
UVU also seeks to increase students’ access to need-based grants and scholarships.
“UVU serves a large percentage of first-generation, low socioeconomic and underrepresented populations of students who, without financial assistance, may be unable to pursue their education goals,” the Vision 2030 document states.
Associated goals include increasing the numbers and percentages of students who apply for federal financial aid and receive Pell grants; increasing private funding for student scholarships and need-based financial aid; and refining Pell gap scholarship programs, such as the Utah System of Higher Education’s Promise Scholarship.
The Promise Scholarship is the first statewide needs-based scholarship program, which is available to recent high school graduates and adult learners at Utah’s public colleges and universities, as well as Utah’s public technical colleges.
The Utah System of Higher of Education has been working on various aspects of college affordability and access for the past few years, with particular effort on defining affordability at each of the state’s eight colleges and universities the past six months.
The higher education system is also working with the Lumina Foundation to get a national perspective on the tuitions assessed by Utah’s public colleges and universities. The board of regents is on track to approve affordability definitions by the time it meets to approve tuition adjustments in the spring, said Utah’s interim Commissioner of Higher Education Dave Woolstenhulme in a previous interview.