Budget cuts and tuition increases are necessary evils in times of economic gloom, even the most money conscious student or faculty member will admit.

But with one particular piece of legislation, the state Legislature went too far?House Bill 331.

Unless Gov. Mike Leavitt vetoes it, HB331 will make it harder for out-of-state students to get Utah residency, which allows them to pay cheaper tuition, and helps Utah to attract students nationwide.

As it now stands, a person must live in Utah for one year in order to gain residency status and pay one-third the tuition that out-of-state tuition costs. Individuals don’t even need to study during that time, only live here.

As HB331 stands, students would need to take 60 credit hours before becoming eligible for in-state tuition. This iffy legislation, which aims to suck more money out of wealthy, out-of-state students, needs to change.

Today at noon, representatives from the Utah Student Association will go to the Capitol steps to ask the governor to do so.

Regent David Grant is concerned the bill might make Utah look bad. There’s one year’s worth of students who?for all intents and purposes?have been hornswoggled into coming to Utah, thinking they’d only have to pay out-of-state tuition for two semesters, and must now wait four semesters.

Grant thinks adding a so called “grandfather clause” to the bill would benefit the students currently in Utah who have attended classes for one year. This would make the dagger bite less deep, but the entire piece of legislation should be abolished.

The “grandfather clause” would help current non resident students.

Without this correction, many out-of-state students might leave Utah’s system of higher education, ultimately hurting the education of all students.

Part of the richness of the college experience is the coming-together of people of different backgrounds and different perspectives. Siphoning off the pipeline through which out-of-state students come to Utah could suffocate this as well.