Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Former president of Brigham Young University and member of the Quorum of The Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered our commencement address this year. Many of our students transfer to BYU after completing their studies at Snow College. It was such a delight to have Elder Holland on our campus, and to hear his encouragement and advice to our graduating students.

Elder Holland's address was entitled, "Voices from the Past" and he pulled together a beautiful collection of life suggestions from such people from the past as Thomas Wolsey, Rudyard Kipling, and John Doone.

Towards the conclusion to his commencement address became more personal. He said, "Above all else you have learned here, may you leave this great school secure in the promise of God's unfailing love for you. You undoubtedly will, as Donne says, have days ahead when you may feel dark, cold, clouded, or eclipsed. But if you desire God's mercy, I promise that help will come to you, "not in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the sun at [full] noon. . . . [banishing every] shadow." All occasions invite divine mercy, and in heaven it is always harvest time."

American Government 2010 Tour

At the end of each spring semester my American Government class finishes up the year with a tour of American government and history sites on the East Coast. We spent a day in Boston, New York and Philadelphia and two days in Washington D.C. In route from historic Philadelphia to Valley Forge we stopped at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to run the "Rocky Steps," a place of debatable significance in American history but a fun diversion nevertheless.

Pyramid Skylight

One of three identical pyramid-shaped skylights in the ceiling of the fourth floor of the Karen H. Huntsman Library.

Cleaning the Brick

A worker cleans the brick on our new Karen H. Huntsman Library. Contractors tell us they are well ahead of schedule, they should be mostly finished in five weeks.

Legislative Session and Budget Update

The Legislative appropriations subcommittees have finished their hearings and new revenue estimates have been released. Here is an update on the session and our state budget challenges.

First, a brief bit of recent history. Our base budget for this fiscal year (2010) was reduced by 17% and then built back up to nine percent with federal stimulus funds, for this year only. In December, the Governor reduced our base budget by an additional three percent and then, relying on the most current state tax revenue estimates available to him at the time, put together a budget proposal for next year (2011) that would keep all the colleges and universities at nine percent down. (His proposal is based mostly on one-time state funds and has the effect of extending the federal stimulus funding for one more year.) Last month, in the first days of this legislative session, the Legislature took the base budgets for all colleges and universities from 17% to 19% down.

February tax revenue estimates (official estimates used to complete state budget work) are out and unfortunately project that tax revenues will be $50 million less next year than what was projected from last December (when the Governor put together his budget proposal). It is not all bad news--although the December estimates projected stronger growth for next year than is projected in the estimates released this week--the current estimates still project tax revenues will grow in fiscal year 1011 by $140 million over fiscal year 2010. Maybe we have hit the bottom and are starting back up, albeit more slowly than hoped.

Based on state tax revenue estimates released this week the Executive Appropriations Committee voted on a plan to reduce the budgets of all colleges and universities by an additional five percent--we understand this five percent to be on top of the 17% for a total cut of 22%. This is apparently our bottom-level starting point for building next year's budget. From now until March 11th, the last day of the legislative session, the Governor and legislative leadership will be working to find sources of funding, including rainy-day funds, that they can use to reduce the 22% budget cut. We don't know yet where we will land but apparently the floor has been set at 22% and the ceiling is somewhere around 12 or13%. We have reason to hope that ultimately our final budget next year will only be down by 15 to 17% over where we started a couple years ago.

To keep all these numbers in perspective back at home, we have implemented a budget plan for next year at Snow College that is approximately 16% down.

We are at the low point for this coming year; things are bound to improve from here. Governor Herbert remains committed to help us and in the legislature we have many sympathetic friends.

International Students Trip to Salt Lake City

I took 20 Asian students, who are away from their families over the Christmas holiday, to Salt Lake last Tuesday. We had a great day shopping, eating dim sum, and looking at the lights on Temple Square. The international students are among my favorite things about Snow College.

After 15 Months of Budget Cuts We Are More Efficient But We Have Not Compromised Our Ultimate Inefficiency.

The last final exams were administered Friday and most of the students have now gone home for the Christmas Break. Some of the career and technical education programs at our Richfield campus continue for a bit longer. But things are becoming quiet on our two campuses--if only for a few weeks

2009 has been a very long year full of massive state budget cuts (17% down), lay-offs (12% of all employees-mostly staff positions), and record enrollment increases (24% up). Our intent in working through our state budget reduction was to focus everything we had on our core values, impact the least number of students possible, and prepare for institutional and student growth. We have spent more hours than I would want to recount in careful, deliberative, data driven, strategic planning. Despite the institutional and personal pain shared by many over the past 15 months we have become a more efficient and focused college prepared for the challenges we face in the next decade.

Although we are more efficient we have not compromised our ultimate inefficiency--small classes taught by real professors. We have no graduate student instructors like the universities, we have no large auditorium classes, we still have relatively few adjuncts faculty members, and most of our adjuncts help us--not to save money--but to be more responsive to particular student needs. Freshman and Sophomore opportunities at Snow College are better than anywhere else in the Intermountain West.

Few of our students know of our difficulties this year. To the casual observer it looks like everything is moving along better than even in the best of years. We just dedicated our new Heritage Plaza; our new, beautiful Karen H. Huntsman Library is on schedule for completion this summer; we are planning for significant expansion this year in our nursing program; will are advertising for our first full-time general education instructor in Richfield; we are hiring several replacement and new faculty members to relieve stress in core general education courses; and we are proposing our first, narrow focused four-year degree program, in music education.

Yesterday Governor Gary Herbert, by executive order, further reduced the budgets of all colleges and universities in Utah by 3%. We are halfway through the current budget year. The actual impact of this 3% cut, halfway through the budget year, is 6% on the remaining half. And when approximately 80% of our funds are spent on personnel this could have been one more devastating announcement. I don't know what other institutions will do to meet this new cut. But implementing the new reduction at Snow College was simple. From the first announcement of budget cuts 15 months ago we have been ahead of the curve. The first cut of 4% was announced in October 2008. We knew it would grow deeper so we started with an 8% cut and with each successive announcement we have remained ahead the economic downturn. I called the college's chief financial officer, Marvin Dodge, from Salt Lake City yesterday after the Governor's announcement, and within a few minutes we had resolved the new cut without any additional layoffs or reduction in course sections. We were able to do it because we anticipated this possibility and were prepared for it.

I don't want to suggest our preparation for and implementation of these cuts, including yesterday's executive order, has come without significant pain. Because it clearly has. I don't think anything illustrates this point more than to say I have had to layoff six members of my own LDS ward, including my next door neighbor and one of my vice presidents. Snow College's campuses are in two small towns and we have felt the cuts more personally than any other institution.

Governor Herbert's proposed budget for fiscal year 2010-11 lights our first real ray of hope. I fully support his proposal. It will restore the 3% cut ordered yesterday and will replace one-time federal ARRA funding. We are doing well but cannot continue indefinitely. We have several people working full and part-time at Snow College without pay this year to help us get through. For example, Dave and Pat Willmore rented a small, student apartment in Ephraim and travel back and forth from their comfortable home in American Fork, all at their own expense, to cover the workload of other employees who were let go as a result of the budget cuts. Ralph Brenchley retired a year ago and has continued teaching full-time without pay. Other employees have taken on extra assignments and classes without pay to get us through this crisis.

Institutions, like people, come out out of significant challenges weaker or stronger. We are coming out of this challenge stronger. And, I hope, with a deeper appreciation and respect for the service of so many wonderful people at our college.

I know this college president has a new found respect and appreciate for the people of Snow College. And a burning optimism in our future.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.