Tution Freeze Vote set for Thursday, what do you think?

The Board of Regents will meet in a special session on Thursday, April 23 at 11am at Towson University to vote on tuition and mandatory fee rates for the 2009-2010 academic year.  The Board will consider a tuition freeze for in-state, undergraduate students.  Out-of-state tuition increases for undergraduate students does not exceed 4%, and for graduate students does not exceed 7%.  The Governor is set to hold a press conference to announce the Board's decision immediately after.  If the Board chooses to approve the tuition freeze, in-state, undergraduate students will not have seen an increase in tuition in five years.

The Chancellor has recommended, specifically, the tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates.  The Governor in his original proposed budget set aside $16 million to fund the lost revenue from the tuition freeze.  The legislature cut $5.9 from the base budget and a one-time fund balance cut of $9 million.  Additionally, the $16 million now is funded through the federal stimulus dollars, which will run dry after two years.

I support the proposed tuition freeze, becuase I believe that the provided budget serves the system well in maintaining quality and expanding access for in-state undergraduates.  While the subsequent cuts from the legislature will be felt, Maryland sits better than all other states during this diffucult time.

Members of the USM Student Council echoed its previous concerns of an "unfunded" tuition freeze, of which this is partially unfunded.  Members explained that they were concerned that politics was taking control of tuition.  Further, they expressed that policy leaders must engage in long-term planning to prevent major tuition increases in out years.  They explained that tuition predictability was just as important as affordability.  The USMSC has asked to address the Board of Regents at the meeting.

Even with the lost tuition revenues from the in-state, undergraduate tuition freeze, the operating budget fares better in the USM than any other place in the United States.  Despite the proposed budget cuts, USM saw an increase in state support.

What are your thoughts on a tuition freeze?

Tuition Freeze says the Governor

The Maryland General Assembly opened session yesterday.  With the budget at the fore, higher education state support will be up for debate.  Currently, 22% of the discretionary budget is directed to the University System of Maryland.  The level of state support for higher education has two related impacts on students:  quality and affordability.  As in the past and at public universities across the country, tuition is raised to offset declining state investment.

Maryland is in a bit of a different scenario because the Governor has made it a priority of his administration to increase affordability in higher education through tuition freezes.  In-state, undergradautes attending 4-year colleges have enjoyed three straight years of tuition freezes.  The Governor has vowed to do it once again, but will be challenged by the legislature.  The Governor will likely ask for an increase of $25 to $30 million for higher education alone.  A tuition freeze alone costs approximately $16 million.

Senate President Mike Miller has already spoken out against the idea of a tuition freeze, in light of proposed state layoffs possibly extending to1000 employees.  Speaker of the House Mike Busch has floated the idea if differentiated tuition increases, particularly at UMCP.  

The Governor recognizes the great need to maintain the cost of college for Maryland residents--it's one of the drivers of our state's economy and its a short-term investment that helps us retain Maryland citizens who might relocate if they attend college elsewhere.  But, what cannot happen is that quality bottoms out at our institutions through decreased state revenue support not offset by any tuition increase at all.  In other words, higher education and Maryland future cannot get caught in the middle of politics.

For the national picture, check out this article.

Coming weeks and months will be telling.  What are your thoughts on a tuition freeze?  Increasing funding for higher education while laying off state workers?

Higher Education Finances and What to Expect

Inside Higher Education highlights broad-based budget cuts across the nation. Salisbury President Janet Dudley-Eshbach warns of furloughs and mid-year tuition increases. The Chronicle of Higher Education highlights expert analysis of the tough consequences for higher education in the expected recession over the next two to three years.

The economy is in poor shape, and higher education will suffer. Fiscal pressures will come from a variety of areas:
- decreased state funding support for the operating and capital, due to declining state revenues
- decreased enrollments because of a lack of income and access to loans (both potential and current students); resulting in decreased tuition receipts

Undoubtedly, the more states cut their budgets, the more higher education will be cut. And so, to offset these lost revenues, higher education institutions will be pressured to either cut expenditures and services or significantly raise tuition. Each institution will likely work to balance the two budget-balancing strategies in the way to maintain prestige/quality and accessbility/affordability.

Next month, the Maryland Board of Revenue Estimates will examine the expected revenues for the next fiscal quarter for FY09. Possibly, the Board will identify the need to cut more from the budget. Do recall, the state experienced budget cuts amounting to around $350 million after the last revenue estimates were evaluated (higher education saw a $35 million cut, or 10%). Surely, with the further downturn in the economy over the past few months, we could expect more cuts.

A few things to consider:
- higher education occupies about 21% of the discretionary portion of the state budget (the portion of the budget that is not prescribed through legislative mandate)
- higher education saw 10% of the last round of budget cuts
- higher education is often seen as a non-essential expenditure

So, I presume that while Governor O'Malley has consistently provided significant financial support for higher education, he will be pressured more and more through fiscal realities to significantly cut higher education. In other words, the more money that is cut from the budget in Maryland, higher education will likely recieve an increasing percentage of the budget cut.

So then what happens? Tuition increases or service cuts. Take your pick. This can play out in a few ways:
- mid-year tuition increases
- larger class sizes
- decreased course offerings
- furloughs for staff
- hidden student fees and surcharges
- closed and limited student services (i.e. early closing hours for library)
- decreased and enveloped financial aid
- increased prices on campus sales (i.e. food, textbooks, t-shirts, etc.)
- fewer student job opportunities
- fewer research opportunities
- less research time for faculty


So, what are you willing to sacrifice? How do you suppose me and other policy makers balance affordability and quality?

Tuition Trends Up, Financial Aid to Fall

The College Board reported today on increases in tuition above rates of inflation. It explained that tuition has raised on average 6.4% at public four-year institutions. In response, the American Council of Education (ACE) stated that conditions are such that families should expect increases in tuition levels and decreases in financial aid, as highlighted in the Washington Post.

Maryland might be in a better situation than most states because of Governor O'Malley's expressed support for maintaining affordability at USM institutions.

HBCU Funding Report

The Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher Education, commonly referred to as the "Bohanan Commission" presented the final draft of the contracted report on funding for historically black colleges and universities (HCBUs) in Maryland. The four HBCUs in Maryland are University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, Coppin State University, Bowie State University, and Morgan State University. All but Morgan are member institutions of the University System of Maryland.

The report highlights studied undergraduate education, graduate education, and capacity of facilities within its report. Generally, the report found that HBCUs need more funding and support if they are to maintain their unique "dual mission" of 1) serving disadvantaged student populations, and 2) maintaining and expanding high quality academic programs. The report defines the standard of measure to me "similarity of outcomes," meaning that funding guidelines should be established to assist HBCUs to reach similar graduation rates, retention rates, and attainment levels.

After a cursory review of the report, I had a few concerns. First, I disagreed with the assessment that HBCUs should take the primary role in serving disadvantaged students, over community colleges (pages 6 and 7). We must ask whether students who are not ready for four-year college after high school should be remediated in public four-year institutions at a high cost, or at community colleges which are in the business of remedial and supplementary education. I do believe, though, that HBCUs play a prominent role in partnership with community colleges in serving disadvantaged students, possibly through expanded 2+2 program partnerships.

I also was struck by the expectation that HBCUs serve as both access and high quality institutions. From my perspective, most all other institutions fall on the spectrum of access and high-quality, atleast across Maryland. In other words, top-notch academic programs in Maryland are often housed at more rigorous institutions such as UMCP, Salisbury, and UMBC. More access oriented institutions, such as Frostburg, UMUC, and UB (undergrad), focus more on supporting students in their academic tenure. I question whether delineation of focus for HBCUs might be a more worthwhile approach. In other words, should not Morgan and UMES focus on high rigor academic programs, and Bowie and Coppin focus more on broad access, or some other more fitting arrangement..

Another issues of concern to me in the report is the lack of conversation about the political and decision-making structure of higher education in Maryland. The report highlights a lack of strategic planning for Morgan in the State (page 19), but makes no mention of its independent governing structure outside of the University System of Maryland. The report also neglects to address the lack of political independence of the "coordinating arm" of higher education, in which the Secretary of Higher Education reports directly to the Governor and not the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

Finally, I found the lack of detail regarding specific funding levels surprising. While some mention is found in the appendix of funding levels from the state and from tuition, the lack of study on this issue is concerning. The premise of the report is that more money is needed to make outputs more equitable; yet, the report simply assumes that more money will solve the problem. The report talks very little of the impact that increased funding has had on HBCUs in advancement over the past two decades. Possibly such an analysis would lead to meaningful suggestions as to how much more money is needed to raise outcomes at HBCUs.

For those interested in learning more about what the Supreme Court has to say on these issues, check out US. v. Fordice (1992) (full text / Oyez Summary). Also, see the article highlighting the report in the Baltimore Sun today.

Looking Forward in higher education...budget cuts

I spent two days last week participating in a retreat of the Board of Regents. We reviewed strategic objectives for each campus and heard from Presidents on how they would handle budget cuts in Fiscal Year 09 (this current year) and FY10. We asked Presidents to prepare statements on a 2% FY09 base cute and a 3% FY10 cut. The most popular cuts that we heard were:
- maintaining the hiring freeze
- further backlogging deferred maintenance
- financial aid for students.

We asked the Presidents to prepare these numbers in expectation of budget cuts in the current year because of the mid-year estimated budget shortfalls (see previous entry). It is estimated that the Governor will cut just over $220 million this year, and because higher education is such a large share of the discretionary budget, we expected to see cuts.

Since the retreat, we have heard from the Governor's office that we should expect to see a base budget cut of $10 million and a cut from our fund balance reserve of $20 million. While we will see a total of $30 million in cuts this year, the lasting effect on the budget will only be a cut of $10 million from each year out.

Of course, this budget situation is a tale of two cities. The Governor has worked very hard to support higher education, and planned to fund a tuition freeze for undergraduate in-state students at the cost of $16 million and fully funded the rest of the operating budget and capital projects. On the other hand, the system did not raise tuition because the Governor planned to fund the difference; but now with budget cuts, those dollars will now not come to our institutions.

Of course, things will be difficult over the coming months and couple years. A partnership with the Governor's Office is critical to maintaining as much funding as possible for education. Governor O'Malley been very supportive in the past and I do not doubt that he will be in the future.

USM Imposes Hiring Freezes

In response the the impending budget cuts, the USM has imposed a hiring freeze across all USM institutions as per a memo sent to all state institutions Thursday afternoon.

How are these measures to combat the declining USM budget going to affect designated growth institutions like Towson University who plans to increase the next few years of freshman classes by 700 students. Can schools that are on track with a growth plan, increasing the student body an building new facilities survive these freezes if we cannot hire staff and faculty to teach more classes?

Read Article Here

Rainy Days: Budget Shortfalls for Maryland

The state estimates today released that revenues will fall $432 million short this year (Letter from Board of Estimates), and could expand to $950 million next year (Baltimore Sun Article). The Board of Public Works plans to immediately put the breaks on a number of capital projects, many of which could affect you. In this fiscal year (2009 Capital Budget Draft), the University System of Maryland is slated to receive the second greatest amount of capital dollars, right behind public school construction, with a nearly $144 million allocation. The Governor has provided a response.

Also, check out the statement by Comptroller Peter Franchot.

Implications could be rough for higher education. First, capital projects could get hit, and later, we could suffer in the operating budget.

My Op-Ed in The Sun on Md. State Institutions

The Sun published an op-ed piece of mine today titled "Maryland universities offer an ideal path to success" in response to a claim in a Sun editorial last week that those of us who chose an in-state school "settled" on our choice.

Why did you choose your school? How have you found the quality of your education?