As the Utah Board of Higher Education begins to review public universities’ first drafts on their plans to cut 10% of their budgets for courses, Democratic lawmakers worry about the unintended consequences the state-imposed tight deadline to achieve such a feat may carry.

After HB265 passed this year, schools started scrambling to make the most efficient plan to reallocate their resources, with many exploring program consolidations, cutting courses and layoffs.

The process seems abrupt, Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, told the Executive Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, especially since many faculty members have inundated her inbox, worried about the potential elimination of curriculums and jobs.

“There’s a lot of frantic behavior and in government we never want to be frantic,” Riebe said. “We want to be methodical. We want to be research driven and data driven. And I understand where this bill is going, but it’s been a very hard, abrupt turn, and there’s a lot of pain points in our universities.”

That, she added, may scar the reputation of Utah universities, frightening off staff and prospective professors wanting to apply for jobs in the state.

HB265 passed comfortably in Utah’s Republican supermajority Legislature while being opposed by most of the Democratic Caucus. The bill’s goal, its supporters said, is to cut “underperforming programs” and direct those funds to highly-sought degrees.

That’s a premise that House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, defended during the Tuesday discussion, arguing that some of the cuts were overdue, and may even keep tuition costs low.

“Liberal arts, for some reason, keeps being the topic of discussion,” Schultz said. “Yes, maybe every one of those programs might not be available at four or five universities across the state. You may not be able to take a program at the University of Utah, you might have to go to Weber State to take the program, or vice versa, but I think that’s a wise use of the way that our dollars are spent.”

The cost of attending college “is a huge concern,” putting higher education increasingly out of reach for many, Minority Whip Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, said. As many Republican lawmakers emphasized the intent of making college more efficient, affordable and accessible, she asked whether tuition will decrease as a result of HB265.

Those numbers were not available during the committee discussion. But Schultz, who recently spoke with Weber State University leaders about their reallocation plans, highlighted that the school’s overall tuition increase this year was 2% for bachelor’s degrees and it kept the same costs for its associate degree programs.

“They were very proud that they found ways to take the savings and find savings and not increase for their associate’s degrees,” Schultz said. “So if the universities are not doing that, then I think that they are being a little bit derelict in their duties.”

While he understands faculty and staff members’ concerns, Schultz said he hopes that schools find the right balance in their process, and that the Legislature continues these types of initiatives more often.

“We do it on a regular basis with our state agencies,” he said. “And with as much money as the state spends on higher education, and with the cost of higher education growing more and more out of control, I really think that this ought to become a little bit more of the norm.”

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.