Legislative Update January 19, 2011

The Higher Education Appropropriations Subcommittee met on January 19, 2011 to discuss the impact of looming budget cuts.  Commissioner William Sederburg outlined the "serious negative impacts" of the proposed 7% cut, especially on top of the recent 12% cut.  Enrollment is up 7% this year and is up 22% over the past few years, illustrating that even holding higher education harmless would still have the impact of a budget cut.  President Stan Albrecht of Utah State University, President Matthew Holland of Utah Valley University and President Stephen Nadauld of Dixie State College discussed the impact of budget cuts on research universities, regional universities and community colleges. 

A 7% reduction in ongoing state funds for UALC would equal $186,300 out of the $2,660,900 budgeted.  Fiscal analyst Spencer Pratt put forward a list of other options for eliminating the structural deficit in higher education, not as a solution, but as a place to start discussions.  Ten Board of Regents line items were mentioned as possible cuts for saving state funds, but UALC was not among them.  All budget documents and committee discussions can be viewed at:
 http://le.utah.gov/ASP/Interim/Commit.asp?Year=2011&Com=APPHED

2011 Legislative Update for UALC

Legislative fiscal analyst Spencer Pratt presented the year's state budget to the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday, January 11, 2011.  Pratt announced that all budgets would be reduced seven percent before the first day of the legislative session.  The Higher Education Subcommittee will then have ten days to change, substitute or amend, then pass a base budget, after which the remainder of the session can be used to tweak or alter the base budget as needed.  The across-the-board cuts come in response to a $650 million statewide deficit created by many factors, including the general fund decreasing by approximately $1 billion since 2008, ongoing commitments that exceed revenues, and increasing costs of programs such as Medicaid and state employee retirement funding. The session runs from January 24 to March 10, 2011.

Members of this year's committee include Rep. Michael T. Morley, Chair; Sen. Stephen H. Urquhart, Co Chair; Rep. Jack R. Draxler, Vice Chair; Rep. Patrice M. Arent; Rep. Bradley M. Daw; Rep. Rebecca P. Edwards; Rep. Don L. Ipson; Sen. Scott K. Jenkins; Rep. Kay L. McIff; Sen. Stuart C. Reid; Sen. Ross I. Romero; Rep. Douglas Sagers; Rep. Dean Sanpei; Sen. Jerry W. Stevenson; Sen. John L. Valentine; Rep. R. Curt Webb; and Rep. Mark A. Wheatley. 

For questions or comments, contact Kim Rollins at kim.rollins@utah.edu

Despite Cuts, UALC Database Use Increases in 2010

The number of searches performed in databases purchased by the Utah Academic Library Consortium increased 9% in 2010.  Even during a time of statewide budget cuts and subsequently, a decrease in the number of databases available, this increase underlines the importance of online research for today's higher education students.  A total of 17,571,348 searches were completed in UALC databases in 2010 by higher education students, as opposed to 16,140,255 searches in 2009.

BYU Lee Library Scans Millionth Page

The Harold B. Lee Library began scanning books for the Internet Archive on June 22nd, 2009, and recently reached the mark of one million pages scanned.  The millionth page was from Volume 2 of Traite pratique d’artillerie navale et tactique des combats de mer, by Lewal, M. L; Bertrand, Arthus, published in 1863 in Paris by the Librairie Maritime et Scientifique.  This work is the 3,014th book scanned for the Internet Archive program.

You can see all of BYU’s books in the Internet Archive at:
http://www.archive.org/details/brigham_young_university

For more details about the Internet Archive book scanning project see:
http://www.archive.org/details/texts

State Library Joins Utah Futures

The Utah State Library is making an investment in Utah’s workforce future by partnering with other state agencies to support UtahFutures.org, a free website that helps Utahns chose career paths. It is geared to students from grades 6-12 and adults entering the workforce. The site can help you chart your future and determine a number of variables: how much money you want to earn, careers that best suit you, where to go to college, scholarships and résume writing.

UtahFutures is provided free to Utah residents through a statewide collaboration that includes: the State Office of Education, Adult Education, the Utah Department of Workforce Services, the Utah System of Higher Education, the Utah Office of Rehabilitation, the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority (UHEAA) and the federal GEAR UP program. All partners used money from existing budget sources and not from new state money. The web site has already received over one-million hits since October 2009.

“This web site is a valuable tool and greatly improves the chances of finding and following a career path for students and adults alike,” says State Librarian Donna Jones Morris. “UtahFutures is about a year old and is already seeing a large number of users and the State Library is proud to be a part of Utah’s future workforce.”

You can create a free account and use the features offered by clicking on “Browse UtahFutures.org.” Utah students must access their accounts using their school SSID number.