The state legislative session finished during Spring Break, and while students were enjoying a vacation from classes, legislators were busy changing the future of higher education in Utah.
SB51, a bill Sen. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, proposed, will allow presidents of state colleges and universities to offer an unlimited number of tuition waivers to outstanding out-of-state students. Under former law, each institution had a limited number of waivers they could grant to nonresident students — the U could offer 190 per year.
The bill has passed both houses and the Senate has handed off the finished and passed version to Gov. Gary Herbert for signature.
Urquhart said he had been considering a bill like this that would allow university and college presidents to recruit top students from throughout the country, but the bill is especially timely in light of all the change that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has recently made regarding the age that its members can go on missions.
“Instead of a certain number of students going out of a period of three years or so, they’re all going out right now, and so that leaves a significant hole in the finances of these institutions,” Urquhart said.
That hole was looking deep for some state institutions, such as Utah State University. James Morales, vice president of USU student services, said the university was expecting to lose $19 million because of an overall temporary loss of 1,900 students.
Legislators hope that SB51 will help fill that gap, and fill it with good students.
Urquhart said the point of the bill is to repair the financial hole by giving institutions the opportunity to recruit excelling students who will succeed, instead of scraping the bottom of the barrel within the borders of Utah, inviting students who don’t qualify for admission just because they can pay tuition.
There was some concern within the Legislature that the bill might close the door for some students in Utah with poor grades looking to get into college.
Urquhart said that a little competition for spots at Utah schools wouldn’t be a bad thing.
“I wish we were closing the door to some of our local students,” he said. “I wish they had the threat that they might not get into some of our institutions, and maybe they would work harder.”
Although the bill gives university and college presidents the tools to attract nonresident students with lower tuition, they are not required to offer tuition waivers and can ignore the bill if they choose.
Urquhart said that he would have wanted to pass the bill regardless of the missionary age change. Nonresidents currently pay about three times as much in tuition as residents do, a number that no longer makes sense, since students are now footing a lot more of their tuition. When those numbers were set, taxpayers were paying 90 percent of the cost of higher education.
Today, taxpayers pay 50 percent or less of higher education costs, so even university presidents will be able to offer these scholarships to additional nonresidents without putting much strain on Utah taxpayers.