Higher Education, USTAR Funding in Jeopardy

Utah State University President Stan Albrecht joined Utah Commissioner of Higher Education Rich Kendell and other state university and college presidents February 22 at the State Capitol for an impromptu meeting with invited media to express concern over higher education funding.

Albrecht said the current budget allocation being proposed falls far short of the much-needed $26.4 million funding recommendation by the higher education subcommittee.

 

He said higher education is a vital investment in the state of Utah’s economy, singling out the partnership of USU and the University of Utah, the state’s two research universities, with state industry. This unparalleled economic opportunity is currently under consideration for funding by the legislature under a proposal called USTAR, Utah Science, Technology and Research Economic Development Initiative.

 

The initiative will build, recruit and fund carefully-targeted, world-class science and technology research teams in areas such as genomics, where Utah already has competitive advantages and where new business can be spun off in multi-billion dollar markets, according to initiative’s summary.

 

The funding requested at the 2006 legislative session will be used to recruit and fund the research teams and to construct research facilities between USU and the U of U.

 

“There is capacity for both funding higher education and funding USTAR,” Albrecht said. “This isn’t an either or situation. It would be an absolute travesty to bring in new USTAR faculty while losing our current faculty due to lack of sufficient funding.”

 

He urges all those concerned to contact their legislators and request that they more adequately support much-needed funding for higher education.