A Message from the President | University of Colorado

A successful legislative session for CU

Last week marked "sine die," the final day of the 2013 state legislative session. It was a difficult session with substantial partisanship and divisive issues. We are grateful to the many people in our university community who provided information about bills, testified before committees and engaged legislators on behalf of CU. Your efforts helped make this a successful session for CU.

Legislative highlights include:

Budget and Capital
The governor signed SB 13-230, the Long Appropriations Bill, which sets the FY 13-14 budget, on April 29. Higher education will receive an increase of $30 million plus $5 million in financial aid; it is the first time higher education has received an increase since 2008.

The bill also includes $142 million state general fund for capital construction. CU's share is about $21 million:

$7 million for CU Anschutz Medical Campus COP payment
$6 million for Systems BioTech at CU-Boulder
$4 million for Performing Arts at UCCS
$4 million for the Library on the Auraria Campus.

The Joint Budget Committee's supplemental bill, SB 13-090, includes about $9 million for higher education for the current fiscal year. CU's portion is $3 million.

HB 13-1194 In-state Tuition for Military Dependents
Current law allows a dependent of a service member to receive in-state tuition at a Colorado public college or university if the service member was stationed in Colorado during the dependent's last year of high school and the dependent enrolled in a Colorado college within 12 months of graduation from a Colorado high school. The bill extends in-state tuition to all dependents, including spouses.

HB 13-1320 Support For Meritorious Colorado Students
State-supported institutions of higher education must maintain a required ratio of resident student admissions to nonresident student admissions. The bill allows an institution to count a student who is admitted as a Colorado scholar as two in-state students for purposes of calculating this ratio.

This CU-initiated bill will allow institutions to create and have a stable funding source for a merit scholarship program that will allow us to be more competitive in keeping Colorado's brightest students in the state. The bill passed through both houses and was sent to the governor.

SB 13-165 Community Colleges Limited Number of Bachelor Degrees
SB 13-165, a bill that would have allowed the state board for community colleges to seek approval from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to offer up to 10 four-year baccalaureate degree programs, was defeated.

CU joined a coalition of the state's four-year institutions against the bill, arguing it would allow costly and duplicative degree programs in the state lacking adequate funding for higher education.

More detail on the legislation and the session are available here: http://statebillinfo.com/SBI/index.cfm?fuseaction=Public.Dossier&id=18716&pk=747

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