Latest news with #UniversitySystemofNewHampshire
Boston Globe
26-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
New Hampshire lawmakers agree to last-minute budget compromise with Governor Ayotte, averting veto
Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up The final budget, which every Democratic lawmaker voted against, features several controversial cost-saving measures, including significant funding cuts for the University System of New Hampshire and the Department of Corrections, plus a move to charge premiums for certain Medicaid beneficiaries who earn more than the federal poverty level. Advertisement 'The budget they forced through is nothing short of catastrophic, ripping health care away from low-income families, defunding public education, slashing child protection services, and funneling millions to out-of-state casino operators and private schools,' said Representative Alexis Simpson of Exeter, the House Democratic minority leader. Advertisement Simpson said the chaos and deal-making that complicated this process demonstrated 'a crisis of leadership' and resulted in a budget that will 'forever leave a stain on this state.' Republicans, however, celebrated. House Majority Leader Jason Osborne of Auburn said 'principled leadership' had produced a budget that defends the interests of taxpayers, provides additional funding to local schools, and more. Deputy Majority Leader Joseph F. Sweeney of Salem said the budget will work for all Granite Staters. 'Whether you care about property taxes, public safety, or educational freedom, this budget reflects the priorities of New Hampshire families,' he said. 'We can all be proud of that.' While citing constrained revenue estimates as necessitating cuts from certain programs they disfavor, Republican lawmakers relied on an expected increase in gambling revenues from newly legalized slot machines to help fund expanded investments in certain programs they favor. The primary sticking point that Ayotte cited when she threatened last week to veto the Legislature's version of the budget revolved around retirement spending for certain public safety personnel whose benefits were reduced in 2011 amid an earlier budget crunch. Ayotte had campaigned on restoring much of those benefits, but some GOP lawmakers objected to the price tag. Ayotte traded barbs on the radio earlier this week with New Hampshire Senate President Sharon M. Carson, and she called for a special legislative session in case lawmakers failed to deliver a budget that met her expectations. On Wednesday evening she Advertisement 'There is no doubt in my mind that our citizens respect politicians who keep their word and fight for change,' said Michael Geha, president of the New Hampshire Police Association. 'That is what Kelly Ayotte did, and the entire state is better off and safer for it.' To adopt the late compromise, senators revived and amended But the two bills that comprise the actual budget nearly didn't make it. When state representatives first voted Thursday on House Bill 1, they rejected the measure by a single-vote margin, as members of a libertarian-minded faction within the GOP balked. Gasps filled the 400-seat chamber. As lawmakers began debating potential contingencies, such as a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government operating through the summer, negotiators embarked on a fresh round of targeted talks — and when the House reconsidered HB 1 a short while later, the measure was approved by a five-vote margin. One of the members who changed his mind, Republican Representative Travis Corcoran of Weare, said When state representatives approved House Bill 2, they did so by a one-vote margin, with gasps filling the chamber again as House Speaker Sherman A. Packard announced that he had cast a tie-breaking vote. Advertisement Steven Porter can be reached at
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
University system doesn't take noncitizens over residents, chancellor says
The University System of New Hampshire does not prioritize international or noncitizen students at the expense of qualified residents for enrollment, officials said. Keene State College, Plymouth State University and the University of New Hampshire have a total 109 noncitizen students out of 21,427 enrolled this spring semester, according to numbers released in response to state Rep. Joe Sweeney's accusations that the state is admitting nonresidents at an alarming rate and denying admission to qualified residents. 'Students are denied admission if they are not academically prepared,' University System of New Hampshire Chancellor Catherine Provencher said in a written statement Wednesday. 'The last thing we want to do is have students paying tuition and possibly taking on debt if we do not think they will succeed academically. We do not admit any students from outside of New Hampshire at the expense of our Granite State students.' The number of in-state undergraduate students actually increased 2.8% last fall across the University System after 12 straight years of decline, officials said. The number of nonresident students, however, continued to fall. New Hampshire's university system doesn't accept noncitizens over residents, chancellor says State Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, has questioned the admissions policies in the University System of New Hampshire. USNH Chancellor Catherine Provencher said his accusations of favoring international and noncitizen students over residents is off-base. Sweeney, a Salem Republican and House deputy majority leader, has questioned the system's admission policy, filing at least two Right-to-Know Law requests, and has continued to criticize the university system. 'New Hampshire taxpayer funded colleges and universities are denying New Hampshire Residents admission while encouraging illegals to apply. This is just wrong!' Sweeney said in April after he launched the second request for records. The total number of international students — those attending from foreign countries on visas, separate from the 109 noncitizens — at Keene State, Plymouth State and UNH is 649. Sweeney contends that the university system accepted those students instead of 742 New Hampshire residents who were denied admission. Provencher said Sweeney is wrong and left out an important detail: Of those 742 who were not accepted, many had applied to more than state college or university, and many now attend one of the schools. Thirty-five percent of residents who applied to one state school also applied to at least one other, according to the USNH. 'In fact, USNH accepted 95.2% of New Hampshire resident students to at least one institution over the past four fall terms. The number of students denied admission to any institution over the past four fall terms was 1,083 individuals (4.8%) out of 22,557 applicants,' Provencher's statement said. Sweeney doubles down Sweeney released a written response Wednesday afternoon in which he doubled down on his criticism of the USNH. He said three of the 109 noncitizen students are 'either undocumented or under temporary immigration protections' and threatened to have campus police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 'restore accountability' if USNH officials didn't take his objections to their admissions policy seriously. 'USNH is publicly encouraging illegal aliens to apply and rewarding them with in-state tuition,' Sweeney wrote. Sweeney has based his disputed accusations on partial text from one sentence in a small section of a secondary UNH admissions web page concerning the policy for nonresident students. The section he continues to quote is not on the main admissions page – 'DACA applicants' is the 18th of 19 subsections of the that inside webpage for admission and reads in full: 'UNH encourages the application and enrollment of undocumented students and students granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to contribute to an environment of inclusive excellence where all students, faculty, and staff can thrive. DACA students are students that came to the U.S. as children and meet guidelines in which they can work/study in the United States. It is the student's responsibility to contact the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to request consideration of DACA. This determination is not made by the University of New Hampshire. DACA students are not eligible for financial aid.' To read the entire page, visit Sweeney did not respond to a phone call seeking clarification of his claims. Plenty of room in USNH Enrollment fell 11% from 2020 to 2024 with 2,709 fewer students enrolled in state colleges and universities, according to data from USNH. There's plenty of room for more state residents who are qualified, officials said. In fact, enrollment has decreased by 19% at Keene State and nearly 16% at Plymouth State during that time. Enrollment went up by 93 among the two UNH campuses from 2020 to 2024, but that's mostly due to Granite State College closing and about 1,000 of its students being absorbed into UNH Manchester. The enrollment at the public college level is similar to the statewide drop in kindergarten through 12th grade. From the 2019-2020 school year to the 2024-25 school year, K-12 enrollments fell 8% (13,508 fewer students), according to the state Department of Education. dpierce@
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
USNH says House-approved cut in state aid 'unsustainable'
Higher education administrators said the House-approved, $50 million cut in state aid to the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) is 'unsustainable' and risks tuition rate increases that could cause enrollments to plummet. USNH Chancellor Catherine Provencher said the cut would end six years of 'unprecedented support' from the state for the system that led last fall to the first increase in enrollment for the four-year colleges in more than a decade. 'This steep reduction is unsustainable for the university system,' Provencher told the Senate Finance Committee during a public hearing Friday afternoon. Responding to an intense lobbying effort on behalf of USNH, House Majority Floor Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, said he filed a Right-to-Know Law request asking the system to identify how many foreign students attend the four-year public colleges and how many New Hampshire residents have been denied admission. During the presentation, Provencher and USNH board of trustees Chairman Michael J. Pilot didn't address the number of international students that attend USNH, but said for several years every New Hampshire resident who meets the minimum requirements has gained admission. Last year, 3,000 graduates from the system remained in the state with 80% of residents taking jobs in New Hampshire. 'About 20% of non-residents stay here. We need to keep New Hampshire students because they are much more likely to stay here and drive the workforce that all our employers need,' Provencher said. 'We have capacity if more students want to apply in state and out of state, we would welcome them.' The $50 million cut represents about a 30% reduction from the state aid in the current budget that ends June 30. Gov. Kelly Ayotte has proposed a 4% cut in state aid which Provencher said the system could withstand. Even with recent years of increased aid, New Hampshire continues to have the lowest level of state support for its public colleges and universities in the nation. Provencher said for comparison purposes, the $25 million reduction would be nearly a 5% cut of the $556 million that USNH receives in revenue to support educational programs. The rest of its budget is $221 million from room and board fees and $518 million the system receives from research grants that are '$1 in for $1 out,' Provencher said. Similar cut in 2011 House GOP leaders argued that the system received a similar cut in state aid in 2011 for the 2012-13 state budget and recovered from that. Provencher pointed out responding to that cut 14 years ago that the system trustees raised in-state tuition 19.5% in the first year and 13.5% in the second. 'No student would come ... if we even considered tuition increases at that level,' Provencher said. 'It would have to come, for the most part, from cuts and massive reductions.' USNH trustees have approved a tuition increase for New Hampshire residents of up to 2.5% in the coming academic year, she said. Both USNH officials stressed the system has undergone significant reorganization since 2019 to cope with declining numbers of available students and more competition from other schools as a result. They have cut full-time staff by 4.5% and part-time staff by 19% while twice increasing premiums paid by employees for their health insurance, Pilot said. Other changes include consolidating on all campus's procurement, human resources, accounting, finance and research administration. 'We have a system that is built for a market no longer available to us,' Pilot said. The chancellor and individual college presidents are working on a plan to make further budget adjustments to eliminate the structural deficit that would grow from $13 million in the current year to $58 million by 2030. 'USNH understands the landscape, it will right size and will continue to successfully manage through these real challenges, however, a steep reduction in the state's investment will be crippling during this period,' USNH officials said in the 15-page report to Senate budget writers. What's Next: The Senate Finance Committee has to recommend to the full Senate a two-year budget plan early next month. Prospects: The Senate is likely to restore much of the cut the House made beyond the 4% reduction Ayotte had proposed in February. klandrigan@
