The Utah Higher Education Appropriation (UHEA) subcommittee met on Jan. 25 to hear from Applied Technical Colleges (ATCs) as they state their cases for why their budgets shouldn’t be cut.
A representative from Utah Education Network (UEN), Michael Peterson, started the meeting by telling the committee how beneficial the UEN is and about the costs of maintaining the UEN. He was asked by a member of the committee about the cost of maintaining twenty five board members.
“Zero,” said Peterson.
Richard Maughan, campus President of Bridgerland ATC, told the committee that they have thirty-six programs and eighteen of them have a student waiting list.
“The waiting list for the Machine Shop program is eight to twelve months long,” said Maughan. He then told four success stories from the college.
Mike Bouwhuis, from the Davis ATC, talked about operating costs and brought a graduate to share his success story. Rich VanAusdal from the Dixie ATC had a similar presentation.
The committee has been proposed to offer a seven percent budget cut to the legislature, which would drastically affect the ATCs.
“The Appropriations Committee says that’s where we should start is seven percent,” said representative Jack Draxler, the House Vice Chair.
“It went very well,” said Robert Brems, president of the Utah College of Applied Technology. “The Legislature is very supportive of what UCAT does, and in what SLCC does.”
The subcommittee sends its recommendations to the Executive Appropriations Committee, who in turn sends them to the legislature for a decision on the budget cuts for the schools. The legislature is the one who actually controls the money.
Governor Gary Herbert wants a zero-percent budget cut, but the UHEA subcommittee is who has to come up with the money to have a zero-percent budget cut.
There is no way at this time to know how budget cuts will affect SLCC until the legislature makes a decision.
“One of our major responsibilities is to the students,” said Joy Tlou, Public Relations Director for SLCC. “One mission of the college is to teach applied technology classes. The college will advocate for the students.”
The Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee reviews, approves and makes budgetary recommendations to the Executive Appropriations Committee and the whole Legislature in the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), the UEN, and the Utah Medical Education Program.
The USHE is comprised of nine institutions of higher learning. These credit-granting institutions are governed by the State Board of Regents with the assistance of the local Board of Trustees.
In this group SLCC is listed as a community college; it is a multi campus, open door, comprehensive community college serving a diverse urban population. The college, with 13 campus locations, is committed to providing a full range of educational experiences, with an emphasis on applied technology education, academic, developmental, and community education and training to meet the social and economic needs of business and industry as well as the community.