Costs

American colleges and universities spend billions of dollars a year from state, federal, and private sources. The following articles identify ways to cut costs and ensure that public investment in higher education provides value to students, taxpayers, and society.

The Federal Takeover of Higher Education

Mar 8, 2007 ·

Editor’s Note: Guest columnist Richard Bishirjian is president of Yorktown University, an online liberal arts college dedicated to teaching the forms of knowledge we have inherited from western civilization.

Two events occurred in Washington, DC, in late February that could foreshadow a significant decline in the independence of American colleges and universities.

First, representatives of accrediting associations, state universities, and private colleges engaged in negotiated ‘rule-making’ with representatives of the Department of Education. This rule-making was to establish procedures by which college students are tested, and by which colleges and universities will be compared on the basis of that testing. The other event was even more ominous — an announcement that actions would be taken to control the independent system of accreditation of American higher education by establishing a national accreditation foundation.

House approves rules for UNC nominations

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House members approved this week a bill that outlines the procedures for nominating members to the UNC Board of Governors.

The bill sets specific deadlines for when nominations can occur, as well as when a vote must take place. Many of these procedures were missing in previous administrations and the publication of the rules brings transparency to the nomination process that has been missing in years past.

House members must approve eight members to fill their portion of the 16 open seats on the Board of Governors. These terms would begin on July 1.

Higher education leaders plea case to legislators

Mar 7, 2007 ·

RALEIGH – The heads of the University of North Carolina, the North Carolina Community Colleges, and the organization of independent colleges all appealed for money at a legislative committee hearing Tuesday.

Hope Williams, president of the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, asked that the governor’s new EARN scholarship program apply to students in private schools as well as public. She made the request during a joint meeting of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Education. UNC President Erskine Bowles and Community College System President Martin Lancaster also discussed the budget recommendations made by Gov. Mike Easley last month.

UNC-Rocky Mount doesn’t stand up to fiscal analysis

Mar 4, 2007 ·

Business and political leaders from Rocky Mount and eastern North Carolina have championed the idea of transforming North Carolina Wesleyan College into a public institution within the UNC system. A study commission authorized by the legislature is wrapping up its findings, and supporters are already referring to the school as “UNC-Rocky Mount.”

Their argument is that a public institution would spur economic development in Rocky Mount and eastern North Carolina and give more students access to higher education. Before the state commits to spending a substantial amount of money making a private college, affiliated with the United Methodist Church, into the 17th state-supported campus, the costs and benefits need to be carefully examined.

Easley’s budget request makes rounds at General Assembly

Mar 1, 2007 ·

RALEIGH – A week after Gov. Mike Easley released his record-setting $20 billion budget, legislators were at work dissecting the proposal.

Members of Easley’s budget team were in the General Assembly Tuesday and Wednesday providing legislators details of the proposals included in the budget for the 2007-09 biennium. With Easley’s budget being released last Thursday, it was difficult for appropriations meeting to start until now, because members typically leave Raleigh following Thursday’s sessions.

Easley’s budget, as has been the case throughout his administration, calls for increases in the spending on education, which comprises 58 percent of the governor’s budget. The University of North Carolina would receive an appropriation of $2.7 billion, an 11.3 percent increase from the 2006-07 appropriations. The percent increase far outpaces those of other branches of governments.

Pope Conference Scheduled

Feb 23, 2007 ·

The Pope Center will hold its annual conference on higher education, “Building Excellence into American Higher Education, on Saturday, October 27, 2007, at the Hilton Raleigh-Durham Airport at Research Triangle Park.

The keynote speaker will be Harry Lewis, former dean of Harvard College and author of “Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education.”

Legislature Should View “EARN” Scholarship with Caution

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Responding to Governor Mike Easley’s plan to provide tuition-free college for two years, Shannon Blosser of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy said, “The legislature should view this program very cautiously. It could create an expensive entitlement for students that will put heavy burdens on taxpayers.”

“It seems to be more of an effort by the governor to leave an education legacy than a sound program for students and taxpayers,” said Blosser. “Most of the students who will benefit will be students who have already been planning to go to college – and preparing for it academically and financially.”

Governor Easley’s “EARN” initiative (Education Access Rewards North Carolina) would allocate $150 million over the next two fiscal years to cover scholarships in the University of North Carolina system. The scholarships, at $4,000 per year, would cover two years of college. They would dovetail into the existing Learn and Earn program, which allows high school students to attend a community college while still in high school and complete an associate’s degree in one year after high school at no charge.

Could We Have Champagne Education on a Beer Budget?

Feb 22, 2007 ·

In a recent Clarion Call, I lamented the fact that when higher education types get together to talk about the problem of affordability, they almost always conclude that the solution is to spend more government money to further subsidize college attendance. Very rarely do they consider ways of delivering education that will simply cost less.

At least one professor has given this some serious thought, however. Vance Fried, the Brattain Professor of Management at Oklahoma State University, has set forth a proposal that he believes will enable students to get “champagne education on a beer budget.” (You can read his proposal in full here.)

Professor Fried proposes what he calls the College of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Society (CELS) as a new model for undergraduate education that will give students more educational value for less money. His idea certainly caught my interest.

Gov. Easley releases budget recommendations

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RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley on Thursday released his $20 billion budget recommendation to the General Assembly, which calls for a new $150 million scholarship grant as well as a special bond election for university projects.

The budget also increases spending on on-line education programs offered through the University of North Carolina and the North Carolina Community College System.

Easley presented his budget at a press conference in Raleigh. Officials from his administration will meet with legislators Tuesday morning to discuss further details of his budget proposal.

Where the Money Is?

Feb 20, 2007 ·

The Raleigh News and Observer has been quarrelling with a group based in Chapel Hill called the Citizens for Higher Education (CHE). CHE is the second-largest political action committee (PAC) in the state, measured by the amounts of money given to legislators. Its goal is to ”build political support for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the state’s other research universities.” In other words, it lobbies the legislature to obtain special benefits for the state’s leading public campuses.