Legislature May Ax HB 331 This Year

After a year of worrying about meeting inflated residency requirements, nonresident students in Utah's higher-education system can finally breathe easily.

Opposition to last year's House Bill 331 is unprecedented as the Legislature gears up for a session of lawmaking that starts Jan. 20.

The fall 2002 law, which changed residency requirements for Utah's university and college students from one year to 60 semester hours -- equivalent to two years of full-time schooling -- is likely to be defeated, local lawmakers say.

The bill will be replaced by amended legislation sponsored by Rep. Loraine Pace, R-Logan. If passed, the new law will lower the residency requirement from 60 to 45 credit hours for nonresident undergraduate students and 30 hours for graduate nonresident students. Students could also spend two years in the state to establish residency.

"This way, we're being more realistic," Pace said. "We have unique circumstances here in Utah. Our kids work their way through school; some of them have families, and others serve missions for their church. They take longer to go through school. Sixty hours may take more than two years."

Pace said she and Utah State University President Kermit L. Hall met with Utah County Rep. Jeff Alexander, the proponent of HB 331, and apprised him of how damaging the bill could be in its current form.

"So far, we've only been saying that the bill could hurt us. Now we have statistics, and when we showed them to him [Alexander], he agreed," she continued.

Pace and other opponents of the measure have had help from the Salt Lake City-based Utah Foundation, a non-profit, non-advocacy research organization. According to a recent report published by the group, the advantages of HB 331 had been grossly overstated.

"The State Board of Regents found that of the projected $5 million to be generated by stricter residency requirements adopted by the bill, $4.9 million failed to appear," Pace explained, quoting the report.

USU has been most affected by the legislation. It lost 24 nonresident full-time equivalents, instead of gaining the 241 it had anticipated, according to the report. That means, if the bill remained in effect, USU would lose competitive advantage to other western schools vying for nonresident students. This would eliminate any revenue gain and possibly even create deficit situations, as USU is highly dependent on nonresident students, the report explains.

Additionally, the lack of a grandfather clause in the law precludes students who had been enrolled as nonresident freshmen and were anticipating residency in their sophomore year from being eligible for it. This could result in a reduction in the overall size of the student body, the report adds.

HB 331 cost USU about $2 million in scholarships created to keep students affected by the legislation from dropping out of school, Pace explained.

"They may now try to recover some of that money. Whether they will get it all back, I cannot say," she said.

The battle against HB 331 may be over, but there is still reason for concern.

"There's a mindset in the Legislature that college students are adults and ought to pay their way," Pace said. "There aren't many spokesmen for higher education."

"I think we're going to cut kids out of education," she said.

By Leon D’Souza; leon@cc.usu.edu