To the disappointment of students leaders state wide, Gov. Mike Leavitt signed a bill that makes residency harder to achieve Tuesday.
Since the state Legislature passed the bill early in March, advocates of higher education have worried about House Bill 331. The legislation requires out-of-state students to acquire 60 credit hours before becoming eligible for state residency. Previously residency could be achieved in as little as 12 months.
Legislators drafted the bill hoping to create additional funding in a year where lawmakers hacked nearly $20 million from higher education’s portion of the state budget. State fiscal analysts estimated the policy change would create $5 million for the state’s colleges and universities.
But skeptics fear the bill would not create the estimated amount of money. Leavitt signed the legislation, but is himself unsure when it will take affect.
Utah Student Association President Steve Palmer said, “I’m very disappointed the governor did not veto the bill.”
When Leavitt signed the bill he attached a letter stating that he recognizes the bill has problems and needs to be readdressed. He implied that the issue could resurrect in a special legislative session in May. Leavitt called for the special session to once again balance the budget altered by the ever-sliding tax-revenue shortfall in Utah.
“The good news is, the fight is not yet over,” Palmer said.
Student leaders intend to inform the students and get them to lobby the Legislature to vote against the legislation in May.
The state currently has 12,000 out-of-state students in higher education.
Seven or eight of those students contacted U Student body President Ben Lowe.
“This bill creates a financial burden for students that they were not expecting, and it is unfair to them,” Lowe said. This bill needs to be change in fairness to the out-of-state students.
Dozens of college students filled the halls of the state Capitol March 20, hoping to persuade the governor to veto the bill.
U administrators have spoken out against the bill calling it unfair to students who came to the U believing they would gain residency status within a year.
But now that the U’s budget for 2002-2003 has been drawn, the U is counting on those monies and without the projected funds would be short millions of dollars, said Dave Pershing, senior vice president for academic affairs.
Commissioner of Higher Education Cecelia Foxely said during the Regent meeting this month that the bill may discourage out-of-state students from attending Utah’s schools, leading to less money coming to institutions through tuition.
At the same meeting David Grant, who led a study on the bill at the Regents meeting, feels that the bill might make the state “look bad,” because students who began their studies last year with the intent of gaining residency this year will now be unable to do so. It breaks an “implied contract,” he said.
“Luckily there is still time to change the minds of lawmakers before the special session in May,” Lowe said. “That is what we intend to do.”