Everything we know about Utah’s massive higher education cut and ‘reinvestment’ bill, which passed its final hurdle

A major bill that directs how the state’s public colleges and universities can try to earn back $60 million in funding that lawmakers cut from their budgets passed late Tuesday — gaining approval from the Senate in the final days of the legislative session.

It’s the last major legislative hurdle for the big-ticket HB265 and the biggest cut to schools here in at least the last decade.

With a 21-5 vote in the Senate, the bill will go back to the House for a quick concurrence on minor changes before going next to the governor to be signed. It’s widely expected that Gov. Spencer Cox will approve of the measure.

The bill has been run in conjunction with HB1, the base budget bill for higher education, Cox already signed. Typically, base budget bills are a simple approval of the previous fiscal year’s budget for an area of the state’s operations. But this year, legislative leaders pushed for $60 million to be shifted away from Utah’s eight public colleges and universities.

HB265 then provides for how schools can get their share of the money back, only after showing that it will be reallocated for high-demand and high-wage majors as the state pushes for higher education to be more job-focused. University presidents have also been directed to cut “inefficient” programs with low enrollment and little impact on the state’s workforce.

The measure is sponsored by Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, and Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, former president of Weber State University. And it comes as state leaders have increasingly scrutinized higher education and how schools are serving students — if students are paying too much in tuition, graduating quickly enough and landing jobs when they’re finished.

The idea was first brought up before the session started by House Speaker Mike Schultz, who is a graduate of Roy High School and did not attend college. He called for cuts as a way to refocus the state’s schools on programs that he believes offer more value or return on investment.

As the bill now moves forward and will likely start to be implemented this summer, here’s everything you need to know.

How was the cut amount determined? How much will each school lose?

The $60 million cut slashes 10% of the “instruction” line item in the higher education budget that the state appropriates each year to be spent on teaching.

It does not include any of the money that schools collect through tuition, which can also be spent on instruction.

The size of the cut varies for each school, based on a formula that takes into account the size of the institution, the level of classes taught (undergraduate, graduate, etc.) and amount of research conducted. The University of Utah will see the biggest cut at $19.6 million. Snow College will see the smallest at $1.7 million.

Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, has called it “drastic” and has opposed it. She is the only lawmaker who voted against the base budget bill that moved the $60 million away from schools.

Overall, higher education in the state, including technical colleges, has a combined $12.8 billion budget, with money from donors and endowments counted in that. The state appropriates about $2.9 billion annually.

What part of a school’s budget will the cuts come from?

While the cut is taken out of instruction, schools are allowed under the legislation to make up the money from anywhere in their budgets. That means a school could cut from administration or athletics, if it wanted.

The U. has been running a “planning exercise” where all departments have been instructed to plan for cuts, including up to 25% in student support that includes student mental health counseling and disability services.

“I think it’s naive to think it’s going to be painless,” Geoff Landward, commissioner over higher education for the state, previously told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Will staff or faculty lose their jobs?

It’s possible. It’s up to each school to decide if that’s part of how they will reduce their overall budgets. HB265 says a school must establish a policy if their plan will include “reduction or elimination of positions and other personnel decisions.”

Generally, adjunct, or part-time, faculty are more at risk than tenured professors. But the Legislature also passed a measure last year that allows the president of a public university or college to fire tenured faculty if their program is being reduced.

Will programs be cut?

Likely yes. Schools have been instructed to assess their programs and cut any that are “inefficient” — having few graduates or resulting in lower-paying jobs.

University of Utah Provost Mitzi Montoya, though, has said there is no intention to cut any departments entirely. In a message to staff, she wrote: “We are committed to ensuring that all units, academic and non-academic alike, play an integral role in helping the university remain strong and resilient.”

That means while a specific major, such as French, could go away, the overarching humanities department is still expected to remain intact.

How can schools earn the money back?

Lawmakers have stressed that the legislation is a cut and reallocation — meaning schools can earn the money back. “It will not be cut from institutions if they have thoughtful reinvestment plans,” said Millner during a Senate floor debate.

To have the money returned, a college or university has to show where it made cuts and that it plans to reinvest the money in high-demand, high-return majors, such as business or engineering.

Schools will start working on those plans this summer. They will present them first to the Utah Board of Higher Education, then to the Legislature. That will wrap up in September with final presentations to the Executive Appropriations Committee for final approval. A third bill, SB51, codifies that process.

If a school doesn’t follow through with its approved plan, the state intends to withhold some future funding from the institution.

How do officials determine what programs are ‘high-yield’?

Rep. Peterson has repeatedly said the bill was purposefully crafted to give each college and university flexibility to determine what programs to invest in — based on the individual missions of their institutions.

The U., for instance, is a research school with a different mission than Salt Lake Community College, which is focused on awarding two-year associate degrees.

But generally, the bill says these data points should be considered:

• Enrollment in a program and how many students complete it through graduation

• The cost of a program

• Job placement and wages after graduation

• Current and future state workforce demands

Another bill from Millner, SB162, would create a statewide portal to track and establish which jobs are “high demand” for Utah. It provides some further details.

It defines those jobs as: having a higher than average projected growth rate in Utah; offering wages at or above the state median wage (which is about $60,000, according to U.S. Census data); following the star ranking criteria established by the Utah Department of Workforce Services; and fulfilling a high societal demand (such as teaching or social work).

“Good data drives good decisions,” House Speaker Schultz has previously said about the effort.

The Utah Board of Higher Education will be tasked with creating a more specific set of guidelines for schools to use. And it’s been instructed to work with the Department of Workforce Services in doing that.

Commissioner Landward has said the board will also consider the community impacts of programs and majors. Decisions will not be based on one number, such as wages, but on a holistic view of how a program adds to a college and community, he noted.

For him, that importantly includes jobs that the state needs, such as teachers and social workers and therapists. The process, he has said, “is not as simple as A + B = C.” He wants all decisions made to be transparent and justifiable.

An attempt to amend the bill to require faculty and student input when creating the guidelines was ultimately voted down.

What prompted the bill?

A state audit released in November recommended that the presidents of Utah’s public colleges and universities start cutting “inefficient” programs.

That audit was requested by lawmakers and evaluated so-called low-performing majors. “Taxpayers and students pay the price of inefficiency,” the audit states.

Engineering, nursing and business were held up as the gold stars. French and art history were the “low-performing” examples.

Peterson has said there are 750 programs offered in the state. And many of those, she said, are duplicative and wasting money. Others, she said, only graduate one student a year.

The audit also came after the passage last session of SB192, a bill that increases the power of university and college presidents — giving them unilateral authority to shutter programs that are not providing a reasonable return.

In addition to the audit, lawmakers have said they’re concerned about administrative bloat and spending in higher education. Peterson has said over the past decade, administrative costs at Utah’s schools have gone up 75% while student enrollment has gone up 24%.

“They’re a good system. They could be a better system,” she said during a committee hearing. “I want every dollar that we’re spending to count.”

Lawmakers are also concerned about the growing tuition costs for students and the increasing time it’s taking for students to finish a degree.

Are certain programs, like the liberal arts, at risk?

There have been fears that programs in the liberal arts will be first on the chopping block.

Many professors have said they feel like the arts, humanities and social sciences won’t be able to “measure up” — at least not with metrics that value money and instant careers. Philosophy doesn’t necessarily land the same kind of salaried gig as a business degree, if that’s how it’s being counted.

But they say those degrees offer benefits that are enriching and often less tangible — and that students should have the option to pursue those careers and passions.

Meanwhile, in the audit, most of the examples for low-performing majors were in the humanities. And faculty from out of the state have commented, too, on how Utah appears to be following a national conservative playbook that led to those kinds of cuts at their schools.

Several lawmakers, including Republicans, raised similar concerns during discussions on the bill. Sen. John Johnson, R-North Ogden, who is also an emeritus professor at Utah State University, said he wouldn’t vote for SB265 on the floor unless it included language protecting what he sees as essential studies for all college students.

The liberal arts teach students how to write, think and participate as citizens, he said. Most students encounter that instruction during their general education coursework that is required for every major — and teaches a broad range of subjects, from English to math to history.

Peterson acknowledged that she has a liberal arts degree and said she sees the value in the humanities. As a nod to that, she added language to HB265 saying it wouldn’t eliminate instruction on the liberal arts for general education. Schools must retain, the bill now says, “a core general education curricula that enables students to acquire critical thinking, problem solving, citizenship, communication and other durable skills.”

That’s also been a push from Landward. But the Board of Higher Education recently cut back on credit-hour requirements for general education. Now, no school can mandate that students take more than 30 general education credit hours.

The overarching HB265 doesn’t protect liberal arts outside of general education.

It remains to be seen what programs will be impacted the most by cuts.

Who opposes HB265?

The bill was largely opposed by Democrats, with most voting against it. Riebe, who works in K-12 education, was outspoken in protecting the liberal arts and the autonomy of universities. She said she was “disheartened” by the measure.

“It shouldn’t all be about the dollars and the cents,” she said. “There are a lot of jobs out there that are important to our community but don’t pay a lot.”

Johnson and Sen. Evan Vickers, both Republicans who joined Riebe briefly during committee hearings, also worried about the humanities and about a university education being more than just workforce training. But both ultimately voted for the measure on the Senate floor.

In the House, the measure passed 63-9. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, spoke in favor of worried employees. She said: “I know that there’s a lot of fear and heartburn among staff and faculty at our institutions of higher education.”

Faculty lined up during one committee hearing to voice their frustrations, too.

When do the changes take effect?

While the first reports from schools on their cuts and requests for reinvestments will come this fall, overall there will be a three-year time period for schools to make the budget adjustments.

That will allow schools to “teach out” any programs that could be cut, meaning students who are currently enrolled in them will be able to finish their degrees.

Isn’t higher education in Utah doing well right now?

The talk of cuts and efficiency comes as enrollment this fall was up across the board at every public college and university in the state — breaking records and surpassing any growth percentage in the last decade.

That has bucked trends happening at schools across the nation, which are seeing declines.

The University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute also just released a report on the “significant dividends” that higher education provides for the state — particularly for the economy. It founds that the state’s system provides for about 132,000 jobs and contributes $12.1 billion annually to the state’s gross domestic product.

But while the picture is rosy now, that enrollment growth isn’t expected to hold. Enrollment both here and at colleges across the nation is forecast to decline. Other states have already seen their numbers dip, and universities have had to shut down entirely or merge programs and lay off faculty to stay afloat.

Utah’s big enrollment drop is forecast for 2032 — with numbers continuing to dip for a full decade after that, according to population data analysis also from the Gardner Policy Institute. Growth is predicted to slow as soon as 2026. And fewer students enrolling means less money from tuition and fees.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to [see] there’s this cliff coming, and we’ve got to get ahead of it,” House Speaker Schultz has said.

What does the Utah Board of Higher Education say?

The board overseeing public higher education in the state has remained neutral on the bill. Chair Amanda Covington has previously told lawmakers that their vision for graduation rates and job placement matches the board’s goals.

Behind the scenes, board members and school presidents have worked with lawmakers to shape the legislation and make it a reallocation instead of a straight cut. “We recognize as a system that we don’t have unlimited resources for higher education,” said Commissioner Landward.

Have any university presidents taken a position on the cuts?

Not really. The Tribune asked each president to comment on the possible cuts. Most gave answers about how they would assess their programs under the new parameters. U. President Taylor Randall and outgoing President Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell at Utah State University declined to comment.

Since then, Randall has raised some concerns during public meetings about how the Legislature is defining administrative bloat. And he defended higher education in a message about the cuts to his staff.

He wrote: “We all hear the narratives regarding higher education from those who challenge its purpose and value, and are acutely aware of the heightened political interest in our own state.”

Weber State President Brad Mortensen has said he’d like to see humanities programs protected against the cuts, because they provide a community benefit.

Some of the programs that have been deemed “under-performing” by the state audit are also so small that eliminating them won’t make much of an impact in terms of funding, he said. One program at Weber that’s been looked at, for example, accounts for just 0.13% of the instructional budget there.

Also, under a new policy approved in December 2023, public university and college presidents were instructed not to comment on current or political events and to remain neutral. The requirements say a public university in the state “must refrain from taking public positions on political, social or unsettled issues that do not directly relate to the institution’s mission, role or pedagogical objectives.”

Are technical colleges affected?

No. The state’s eight technical colleges have been applauded by lawmakers this year for quickly and efficiently graduating students. They will not face budget cuts.

Wasn’t there already a cut to higher education funding last year?

The state Legislature has increased its scrutiny of higher education in recent years. Last year, that included eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, efforts at the state’s colleges and universities. The measure didn’t involve taking away money, but funding was not allowed to go toward any effort on campus that was directed at a specific student population, based on race or gender.

Separately, though, lawmakers also made an initial cut to the higher education budget last session.

They slashed 1.5% of funding for public colleges and universities. That amounted to about $20 million. The Utah System of Higher Education was given about the same $20 million figure in one-time funding as a stopgap.

But the message was clear: Learn how to operate with less.

What comes next? Will the Legislature continue looking at higher education?

If the governor signs the bill, it would take effect on May 7.

HB265 also includes a few smaller provisions for schools to limit degrees to 120 credit hours total, unless more are required for a major to be accredited (such as architecture). And it will require that programs be reviewed every five years, instead of every seven, as was previously the case. Schools will need to start making those changes immediately.

The bill also includes some provisions for the future, including a study into how universities and colleges currently get funding for performance and completion — and whether the state should consider a new system — during the interim.

The state also asks colleges to consider if they can offer bachelor’s degrees that take two or three years to complete, instead of four, to speed up college completion and graduate students with less debt.

It’s likely this year won’t be the end of the Legislature’s efforts to reform higher education. Peterson said in committee: “This bill is not going to solve the whole problem.”