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The state's technical college is putting its search for a new leader on hold at the request of Utah's Republican Senate leadership.

"They're kind of holding some trump cards here," Chairman Tom Bingham told fellow members of the governing panel over the Utah College of Applied Technology (UCAT), "and I think we need to recognize that."

The board of trustees voted 11-2 on Friday evening to postpone a decision until the Utah legislative session closes in March, extending its previous deadline of mid-January.

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser called Bingham on Wednesday on behalf of Senate Republicans, but the legislator did not give details, Bingham told the board.

"I think it's clear to me that when the Senate president asks you to do something, and they hold the purse strings," he said, "it probably makes good sense to do it. You don't just thumb your nose at them and expect to be treated adequately during the session."

Niederhauser did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.

UCAT's network of eight schools has an enrollment of about 40,000 students studying trades from welding to cooking to nursing. It has scrambled to search for a new leader after its top choice, former Utah Sen. Aaron Osmond, instead accepted an unexpected counteroffer from his employer, Certiport. The company sells exam software to UCAT and schools.

The South Jordan Republican's November switch came just weeks after an unflattering legislative report said UCAT was "inflating" its graduation and completion rates to meet the governor's goal of 66 percent of Utahns having a post-secondary degree by 2020. After the audit's release, Osmond shared doubts about the state's progress toward the ambitious benchmark, but that was not the reason for the switch, he said. He also stepped down from the Legislature to take the Certiport promotion.

On Friday, despite the Senate request, some trustees said they wanted to nominate Russell Galt, vice president at the UCAT Davis campus and one of four finalists chosen in November. Galt and the two other finalists — five-time candidate Michael Bouwhuis, president of the Davis campus; and Utah Valley University administrator Darrel Hammon — each told Bingham they still were up for the job.

But it will be at least three more months before any new nomination. And it's possible the new pick will be someone the board had not previously considered.

Current UCAT President Rob Brems, who announced in August he planned to retire at the end of the year, will stay put until his successor is chosen, postponing his retirement and a planned Mormon mission in Barcelona, Spain.

Michael Jensen, one of the opposing trustee votes, said he believed the board should have used its power to choose a candidate Friday.

"We have a duty to appoint," he said.

Trustee Val Hale, who is the executive director of the governor's office of economic development, disagreed.

"We've got a black eye with the audit. And this would be some more dubious publicity if that were to happen."

Brems maintains that the new reporting questioned in the audit actually gives students due recognition for their achievement.

It is not the first audit to criticize the school.

In 2009, Brems was reappointed after resigning in the wake of an audit that found he had received a $157,000 transition package after his first promotion to UCAT president and under-reported his income on tax forms. Brems in December called it an oversight that since has been corrected.

Even though lawmakers don't convene at the Capitol until January, one legislator already is focusing on the school.

Sen. Stephen Urquhart, chairman of the Higher Education Appropriations Committee, already has filed a bill to change the way UCAT is governed. The St. George Republican has not yet made the proposal public.

Last week, the governor's office also gave UCAT cool treatment. Gov. Gary Herbert recommended 2.5 percent pay increases for employees and about $500,000 to build partnerships with Utah companies, but he did not include any money for the school's campuses in 2016-2017.

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