53B-17-104.  Responsibilities of the Utah Board of Higher Education, the State Board of Education, the University of Utah, KUED – TV, KUER – FM, and UETN related to public broadcasting and telecommunication for education and government.

(1)  Subject to applicable rules of the Federal Communications Commission and Section 53B-17-105, the Utah Board of Higher Education, the State Board of Education, the University of Utah, KUED – TV, KUER – FM, and UETN shall:

Terms Used In Utah Code 53B-17-104

  • Board: means the Utah Education and Telehealth Network Board. See Utah Code 53B-17-101.5
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes a state, district, or territory of the United States. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
  • UETN: means a consortium and partnership between public and higher education, the Utah Department of Health, and health care providers, that is created in Section 53B-17-105. See Utah Code 53B-17-101.5
(a)  coordinate statewide services of public radio and television;

(b)  develop, maintain, and operate statewide distribution systems for KUED – TV, KUER – FM, and KUEN, the statewide distance learning service, the educational data network, connections to the Internet, and other telecommunications services appropriate for providing video, audio, and data telecommunication services in support of public and higher education, state government, and public libraries;

(c)  support the delivery of these services to as many communities as may be economically and technically feasible and lawfully permissible under the various operating licenses;

(d)  cooperate with state and local governmental and educational agencies and provide leadership and consulting service for telecommunication for education;

(e)  represent the state with privately owned telecommunications systems to gain access to their networks for the delivery of programs and services sponsored or produced by public and higher education;

(f)  acquire, produce, coordinate, and distribute a variety of programs and services of an educational, cultural, informative, and entertaining nature designed to promote the public interest and welfare of the state;

(g)  coordinate with the state system of higher education to acquire, produce, and distribute broadcast and nonbroadcast college credit telecourses, teleconferences, and other instructional and training services;

(h)  coordinate with school districts and public schools to acquire, produce, and distribute broadcast and nonbroadcast telecourses, teleconferences, and other instructional and training services to the public schools;

(i)  coordinate the development of a clearing house for the materials, courses, publications, media, software, and other applicable information related to the items addressed in Subsections (1)(g) and (h);

(j)  coordinate the provision of the following services to public schools:

(i)  broadcast, during school hours, of educational and administrative programs recommended by the State Board of Education;

(ii)  digitization of programs for broadcast purposes; and

(iii)  program previewing;

(k)  share responsibility for Instructional Television (ITV) awareness and utilization; and

(l)  provide teleconference and training services for state and local governmental agencies.

(2)  This section neither regulates nor restricts a privately owned company in the distribution or dissemination of education programs.

Amended by Chapter 365, 2020 General Session