Aggies survive legislative scare

Aggies survive legislative scare

From the The Utah Statesman 02/18/04

Administrators have millions of reasons to smile after Utah State University survived a scare last week at the Utah Legislature.

Thursday afternoon the Higher Education Appropriations Committee met to discuss ways to fund enrollment growth, operation and maintenance costs and to relieve a fuel and power deficit.

The proposed solution would have yanked Tier II Tuition money from each school's control as well as reimbursed overhead - money received by schools to fund campus fuel and power needs. The proposal also called for graduate student tuition to be raised.

The bill did not pass through the Legislature, after passing through a subcommittee on Thursday.

"Luckily for us [the Legislature] did turn around the decision," Associated Students of USU President Duke Di Stefano said. "Higher education did lose money in the end, but we get to spend our Tier II money the way we want."

Tier II Tuition dollars are used by schools to fund many different programs. At USU, the money is used for library journal subscriptions, supplemental instruction and to pay for more faculty to relieve bottleneck courses, Di Stefano said.

About 20 students traveled to the Legislature Monday afternoon to show support for the defeat of the proposal.

"A lot of other schools only had their student body presidents show up," Di Stefano said. "I think that everybody that went got a pretty good educational experience about how to lobby and some other important things that happen in the Legislature."

Running for more money

ASUSU council members will be joining with students from other schools Wednesday to support pay increases for faculty and staff.

Wednesday morning, administrative assistant Nick Robbins, President Duke Di Stefano and other student leaders will start at the Idaho/Utah border and drive a letter to Logan. From there, students will run the letter onto campus and into a rally held in the Taggart Student Center International Lounge at noon.

"The idea behind [the letter] is to show the state legislators that students, not only faculty and staff, support faculty and staff pay increases," Robbins said. "We just want to kind of show that our funds are limited and we already pay a lot in fees.

"We feel this is something that should come from [the Legislature.]"

After leaving Logan, the letter will be taken to Weber State University and then to the Legislature in Salt Lake City.

The idea to run letters showing student support for faculty pay increases came from Southern Utah University Student Body President Kaydee Weaver, Robbins said. Another copy of the letter is being brought to Salt Lake City that started at Dixie State College in St. George.

"By having students implement this, going the extra mile for higher education, we're showing that this is something we support," Robbins said.

Original plans for the event called for students to physically run the letter a longer distance, but due to pollution levels and laws preventing people from running on the interstate, Robbins said, the letter will be taken by car most of the way.

"We don't want to be held liable for someone having emphysema or something like that," he said.