Leaders at the University of Utah are predicting a bruising legislative session — with expected budget cuts for higher education likely only the beginning.
Jason Perry, the vice president for government relations at the flagship school, told faculty Monday that it’s going to be a “tough year” on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers, he said, have already opened 160 bill files. Many of those, he said, are pointed at the state’s public colleges and universities.
“There will be a lot of precarious pieces of legislation,” he said.
Higher education has been a focal point for Utah legislators the last few years. During the most recent session, they took aim at diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, efforts at the eight traditional public colleges and university here.
And there has been increasing scrutiny about progressive politics on college campuses — and open criticism by the state’s Republican-majority Legislature of the pro-Palestine protests at the University of Utah in April.
Before the coming session starts in January, Utah’s House Speaker Mike Schultz has already teed up budget cuts for higher education. He has proposed a 10% cut or reallocation within the roughly $30 billion budget the state’s schools currently have.
Schultz has previously said he wants higher education to operate more effectively — graduating more students and with degrees that land them in higher-paying jobs. He also has expressed concern about growing administrative costs, while the price for a student to attend has ballooned.
A state audit last week commissioned by lawmakers suggested that schools cut programs that don’t have a lot of students, don’t pay well or don’t contribute to the state’s economy.
“They’re starting with budget cuts already, through all of higher ed in particular,” Perry said.
He said that he and U. President Taylor Randall have had constructive conversations with lawmakers ahead of the session, but “there will still be some difficult ones to come.”
Randall, he added, has had almost daily calls with the leaders of the House and Senate, including a chat earlier Monday morning with Senate President Stuart Adams.
The president also weighed in on the conversation with faculty, saying he knows lawmakers have an eye on how all colleges and universities in the state are run — but particularly the U.
“We’re under extensive scrutiny right now by lawmakers, both locally and nationally, around the return that education is providing,” Randall said.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah President Taylor Randall during an event on the value of higher education at the Thomas S. Monson Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024.
The school is trying to be proactive, he said, including an effort to share services across four colleges: the College of Humanities, College of Science, College of Social and Behavioral Science, and School for Cultural and Social Transformation.
That includes sharing human resources, marketing, finances and IT staff, according to the information put out by the school in an online page explaining the project. Several employees have said they fear it will mean cuts to jobs, but the U. has said that is not the goal.
The idea, Randall said, is to centralize services and operate more efficiently.
“We realize change is not easy,” he added. But he said the school is trying to be “as thorough and as transparent as I think we can make this.”
The U. has previously centralized its advising for students, Randall noted, and that has worked well.
The model is based off of other schools that the U. considers its peer institutions, which have “letters and sciences” departments.
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
