LOGAN, Utah — Officials at Utah State University are waiting for lawmakers to release about $8 million in funds from programs and administrative roles that were cut earlier this year.
According to new state legislation, lawmakers withheld 10 percent of their statewide budget — or $60 million — from all Utah public universities until they presented a strategic reinvestment plan by cutting programs or administrative roles. At Utah State University, that was $12 million.
"They merged my school and another school, so that was kind of, like, 'Are they going to cut our program? Whose program are they going to cut?'” said USU student Nellie Mauga
That was part of USU’s plan, in alignment with state law.
To decide where that amount saved would go, higher education leaders — including USU's new president Brad Mortensen, who took office in November — presented the plan to lawmakers. But they only granted the school 30 percent of those funds so far. The rest of it still hangs in the balance — based on a legislative audit into the spending by the previous president.
"I was told to treat it like it’s a yellow light,” explained Mortensen. “Like we're proceeding with caution, but we are proceeding, and students should have confidence that we're going to do the work to get the rest of that money restored."
He said they are working to prioritize the funds they received so far and figure out the best utilization for them until they hear back about the rest of the money.
"We'll start to move those programs forward and continue in good faith that the rest of the funding will flow eventually,” said Mortensen. “We're committed to meeting the objectives of the legislature and to address any problems coming forward in the legislative audit."
FOX 13 News reached out to the legislature for comment and received the following statement from House Speaker Mike Schultz:
“We have full confidence in President Mortensen and believe the changes he made to Utah State University’s strategic reinvestment plan build on the institution’s unique strengths and mission. At the same time, we felt strongly it was important to give USU additional time to review and make any additional changes to its plan in response to the forthcoming audit before making a final determination about its compliance with HB 265. We appreciate the university’s leadership and partnership as we work together to make higher education affordable, high-impact, and aligned with today’s workforce needs.”
"I think that this whole effort that the legislature launched for higher education last year, honestly, it’s been painful for all of the colleges and universities, but we'll be stronger at the end of the day if we do this right,” added Mortensen.
He said they are looking to put the money toward programs that might encourage more people to go to college and get a job afterward.
"Investments in artificial intelligence and helping the programs to grow there, we're putting about $1.4 million to help student success initiatives to help our students be able to navigate the college process more easily, $600,000 to help prepare students to go into engineering fields, which we know are in high demand now,” explained Mortensen about where they plan for the money to go. It’s also allotted to helping with state land grant initiatives and programs in health care.
"I think there’s, like, kind of a big gap, like a bridge between college and your career, and so just having something to help kind of close that gap, and be able to help the students in having more information and knowing more, what they're going to do,” added Mauga.
Mortensen said the legislative audit subcommittee meets on Jan. 30, and that’s when he expects the USU audit to be made public, so they can respond to that, and then hopefully get the rest of the funding soon after.
