Utah
Audit finds ‘insufficient board governance’ within the Utah Board of Higher Education
Sophomore Gaelen Kinkead, proper, sits subsequent to her pal and fellow sophomore Ashlay Findley on the College of Utah campus in Salt Lake Metropolis on Sept. 19. A brand new legislative audit assessing the effectivity and effectiveness of the Utah System of Increased Training discovered “a number of occurrences of inadequate board governance.” (Ben B. Braun, Deseret Information)
Estimated learn time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — The vast majority of Utah’s degree-granting public larger training establishments — six of the eight — fall under peer and nationwide averages in relation to commencement charges, based on findings of a latest audit.
“Utah appears to fall far under many different states,” mentioned audit supervisor Jesse Martinson.
The legislative audit, assessing the effectivity and effectiveness of the Utah System of Increased Training, discovered “a number of occurrences of inadequate board governance” inside the Utah Board of Increased Training.
“The Legislature has made it clear in code how they want the board to control the system of upper training,” Martinson mentioned. “They’ve additionally prioritized the system of upper training to the tune of $1.3 billion {dollars} … So, clearly, larger training is very prioritized by the Legislature.”
Board members mentioned they have been engaged on turning the tide.
“Utah taxpayers and Utah college students deserve a system that works and people completion numbers are usually not working and we all know that and we’ve initiatives underway to alter it,” mentioned Board of Increased Training chairwoman Lisa Church.
The audit recognized three particular areas of enchancment that the board can work on, together with tuition approval, presidential evaluations and operational effectivity monitoring.
So far as tuition approval, Martinson mentioned that the board checked out this challenge in a 2018 audit, the place it discovered that the board did not have “plenty of dialogue (and) did not actually have impartial, goal data to make a willpower whether or not or not tuition wanted to be elevated.”
“Sadly, we’ve not discovered plenty of enchancment,” Martinson mentioned.
The audit additionally pointed to issues with presidential evaluations at degree-seeking establishments.
When taking a look at annual presidential evaluations from 2016 to 2022, the audit discovered that solely 9 evaluations had been accomplished “when there ought to have been no less than 40 of them,” Martinson mentioned.
He added that the Workplace of the Commissioner of Increased Training might higher help the board with its “mounds” of knowledge that’s being underutilized, mentioning that a lot of the board is a volunteer board, made up of people who find themselves “being requested to make very massive selections on a really massive system with the restricted time that they’ve.”
The audit additionally requested the Legislature to affirm its governance needs for the board.
Establishments are spending numerous cash, not being held accountable, they weren’t capable of decide in the event that they had been being environment friendly with the funds they had been utilizing.
–Jesse Martinson, audit supervisor
When taking a look at the place the board presently stands on the spectrum of governance, Martinson mentioned it isn’t the place it must be.
“As an alternative of being a consolidating board, they’re nearer to a coordinating board,” Martinson mentioned. “Establishments are spending numerous cash, not being held accountable, they weren’t capable of decide in the event that they had been being environment friendly with the funds they had been utilizing.”
A coordinating board, based on the audit, is when a single coordinating board and/or company is accountable for key points of the state’s position with public postsecondary establishments and in some circumstances, impartial faculties.
Conversely, the audit says {that a} consolidating board — what the auditors are urging the board to be — is a statewide governing board that manages and oversees most features of the general public larger training system and sometimes has broad authority over establishments.
The audit additionally discovered that establishments are delegating the approval of tuition will increase — together with program approval — to their respective boards of trustees.
“We discovered a large chasm between the place they must be and the place they’re,” Martinson mentioned, noting that by way of the suggestions of the audit, the board can turn into the consolidating board that Utah code desires it to be.
The final a part of the audit discovered that Utah’s board is way bigger than boards of comparable construction in states of comparable dimension.
Utah’s board presently has 18 members, whereas different states that the audit in contrast Utah to have between eight and 13 members.
“We felt that one thing that they might do to be extra nimble and extra proactive and be capable to have extra well timed responses is to maybe look to cut back the scale of the board,” Martinson mentioned.
“I do not know any group that may have an 18-member board and be efficient, so, most likely have to take a look at that,” mentioned Utah Home Speaker Brad Wilson.
Whereas responding to the audit and its suggestions, Church mentioned that she believes the state has the appropriate board to implement the modifications the audit prompt.
“Now we have the instruments to do it, however whether or not or not we have truly gotten up and carried out it’s the query and we welcome the dialogue,” Church mentioned.