Issue date: 1/14/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Maegan Burr The U will lobby the Utah State Legislature for funding that will increase student support, such as advising and LEAP.

Editor's Note: The following is the first part in a three-part series about the U's priorities during the upcoming state legislative session. On Tuesday, part two will look at the U's priorities in the math and science fields.


As the Utah State Legislature prepares to begin its session next Tuesday, the U is also preparing its own legislative agenda, focusing largely on one goal: getting funding.

"We have to impress upon the Legislature that it is as important to invest in higher education as public education because we can do critical things," said Kimberly Wirthlin, vice president for government relations. "We won't get them done if we don't have the funds."

With government funding, the U could move students toward graduation at higher rates, offer more programs and provide a strong workforce for the state, Wirthlin said.

Although the U's main goal is to increase compensation for faculty and staff, some of the U's funding objectives fall under institutional priorities set forth by the Utah System of Higher Education.

The USHE has budgeted $17.5 million for state universities to address needs in five areas: improving student retention and graduation, advancing math and science fields, improving faculty quality, widening regional economic development and growing institutional partnerships.

In each of these categories, the U will need to effectively express to the Legislature its needs and how the school would use the funding, Wirthlin said.

Aside from those priorities, the U will request funding for other special projects, such as remodeling the David Eccles School of Business, expanding the School of Medicine, increasing engineering and nursing programs and starting a center for urban planning in the College of Architecture and Planning.


Compensation

"Faculty pay is our highest priority," said David Pershing, the U's senior vice president for academic affairs.

Pershing said the U will try to raise the pay of all faculty members and seek retention funds to ensure that they are able to keep faculty members at the U. The Legislature does not always allocate for retention funds.

Every semester other schools offer faculty members larger salaries than the U can offer, Pershing said, causing them to leave the U for better pay. As the U becomes more renowned and faculty work attracts more national attention, Pershing said other schools are more frequently trying to recruit U faculty members.

"We need to be able to compete," Pershing said.

Wirthlin said the U also wants to improve faculty quality by attracting junior colleagues that can assist senior faculty.

"This allows current faculty to be more productive, and we can retain them because they have the support they need," she said.


Student Retention and Graduation

When the U decided to create a mandatory advising policy, which started this year for freshman and would eventually be phased in for all students, they ran into a problem -- there weren't enough advisers.

To solve this problem, the U wants to use some of the money allotted for retention and graduation to hire more advisers.

Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski, associate dean of the University College, said the advising program would help students graduate faster and be aware of programs that would benefit them individually.

"Our academic policies have a lot of ability to produce an excellent degree," she said.

The U would also use money to expand high-engagement programs such as Honors, LEAP, and undergraduate research opportunity programs.

Pershing said funding would be used to add more online courses, which fill the fastest. He said 15 percent of students are taking online courses.

"It's a pure demand issue," he said.

Other funding would be used to improve minority student counseling and mentoring through the Center for Ethnic Student Affairs. Additional counselors would be hired in CESA, expanding numbers from the one counselor per major minority group that now exists in the center.

"The demographics in the state of Utah are changing fairly profoundly so that more Hispanic students are graduating from high school," Pershing said. "Once they get into college, we want to be sure that they actually graduate."


Internationalization

Part of the U's retention and graduation efforts would include international initiatives, Wirthlin said, which enhance student experiences and prepare them to work in a global economy.

"We need to offer programs to students that engage them in many ways and give them a broader perspective of the world," she said.

The U would use funding to increase the number of students who study or complete internships abroad. This would include offering more programs and increasing staff in the Hinckley Institute of Politics and the International Center. State funds would help offset costs for international experiences.

The U would also add faculty to the Institute of Public and International Affairs in the College of Social and Behavioral Science and in foreign language programs.


r.mcconkie@chronicle.utah.edu

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