Zac Whitlock, Student Body President of the Utah Valley University Student Association (UVUSA), warned the Student Council of possible university wide budget cuts due to a smaller planed increase to tuition.
Meeting in the student council chambers on Sept. 7, the Student Council convened for their weekly meeting. One of the items on the agenda was to push members to make sure that students were signing into events so that the government could have that data. Whitlock would then relate this to a meeting he attended about university finances and possible future budget cuts.
“It’s not really looking like there is going to be a very big, if at all, any tuition increase[s] for Utah,” Whitlock recounted as he spoke to the council. He said that this was a good thing, however, it would be a difficult thing for the university. “When there’s not a tuition increase, then the university has to start making cuts, and has to start re-evaluating where they are putting their money.”
Whitlock would say that data was what UVU was basing a lot of those decisions on. He stressed to the council to make sure that they were gathering this data in order to help UVUSA when these cuts would possibly come.
“As a department of the university,” Whitlock began. “With cuts and different allocation of funds, data is so important for us to have here.”
It was unclear within the meeting when these budget cuts would begin. As a student council, members once a year begin hearings on student fees and tuition as a part of the council’s enumerated power on oversight of student costs. However, as tuition was frozen last year on the account of Governor Cox’s order, cost of living increases in employee pay will have put the university a year behind in their costs.
In other news, several upcoming events were mentioned by the council as they begin to prepare for student activities. Academic Senate is preparing for a student form on FAFSA on Sept. 26 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. The Activities Branch is gearing up for their first dance, The Emerald Ball, on Oct. 6, and their Halloween party, Insomnia, on Oct. 31. Tickets will go on sale for Insomnia on Oct. 1.
Student Council meetings are held every Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and are open to students. For more information, visit UVUSA’s website.
