Here you have it. The words straight from The Chairman; Gene Powell. I an excellent interview by Jake Silverstein of the Texas Monthly the Chairman expressed his thoughts on Higher education, the UT controversy, and how MOOCS are changing the face of America. A good read without the usual biased negative media slant on the regents.
By Andrew Messamore Daily Texan
As the attorney general investigates the University of Texas Law School Foundation, legislators and former Foundation trustees are continuing to hammer out the fine line between the University and the private institutions that support the 40 Acres. Read More
The University of Texas Board of Regents has been getting more than its fair share of press lately, but often for the wrong reasons. Read More
by Megan McArdle
Mythomania about college has turned getting a degree into an American neurosis. It’s sending parents to the poorhouse and saddling students with a backpack full of debt that doesn’t even guarantee a good job in the end. With college debt making national headlines, Megan McArdle asks, is college a bum deal?
Why are we spending so much money on college? Read More
By Liz Farmer
The Office of Student Financial Services must use current tuition rates to determine financial aid because the Board of Regents has yet to set a date for its 2012-2014 tuition setting meeting. Read More
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, has known Francisco Cigarroa since he was born. His mother is one of her best friends. His father is her physician.
But Cigarroa, the chancellor of the University of Texas System, didn’t alert Zaffirini, who leads the Senate Higher Education Committee, when a controversy erupted early this year over the direction of the system and its governing board.
“And when UT was criticized in particular, you didn’t defend UT,” Zaffirini told Cigarroa at a hearing held Friday by a special House-Senate panel. “Why not?” Read More
By Reeve Hamilton
For-profit institutions see opportunities in the declining state support for public institutions, disappointing graduation rates, and questions about productivity and efficiency.
Such schools, often referred to as career colleges, have their own well-publicized problems, including steeper price tags than some public schools, higher student loan default rates than other sectors and lingering suspicions about quality. It’s not uncommon to see an exposé questioning a for-profit college on the evening news.
But many stakeholders in Texas’ higher education ranks believe those schools will play an even greater role in the state’s future. And career college leaders are mobilizing to make the case that they offer an education that is both high quality and efficient. Read More
Written by Michael Quinn Sullivan Empower Texans
One can understand the impulse of some bureaucrats and legislators to shield themselves from oversight. But it’s surprising to find a citizen — a businessman, no less! — cheerleading for such recklessness… Until you realize he presided over “one of the largest financial institution failures in U.S. history.”
Following Kenneth Jastrow’s governance advice…
Kenneth Jastrow, the disgraced former CEO of Temple-Inland and board member of Guaranty Bank, is accused with others in a billion-dollar lawsuit by the failed banks’ creditors and the FDIC of causing “the failure of [the bank] by fraudulently looting… the Bank of assets exceeding $1 billion.”
Yep, Mr. Jastrow clearly knows a thing or two about governance.
The apologists for higher education bloat were apparently interested in how they can loot their institutions and taxpayers. They found their man.
So, of course, the Texas Legislature’s special committee on higher ed listened raptly to Mr. Jastrow’s every word at a hearing on Monday. Mr. Jastrow was invited to testify on the virtues of mismanagement… though that’s not what he (or they) called it.
The accused bank looter, whose actions allegedly forced a massive taxpayer bail-out, essentially told lawmakers that bureaucrats in Texas’ universities need less oversight from the boards of regents.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Jastrow is one of the key leaders in a pro-bloat organization called the “Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education” which sprung up this year to oppose reform and transparency efforts. Read More
WGU Texas, a subsidiary of the nationally recognized nonprofit Western Governors University, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. WGU Texas announced that it is one of three state subsidiaries that will be supported by a $4.5 million dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This investment will help the state’s new online university expand its access to affordable, competency-based higher education. At a cost of less than $6,000 per year for most programs, WGU Texas allows students to take advantage of prior education and experience to move quickly through courses including material they already know and to focus more heavily on new material needed to complete a degree. The investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will enable WGU Texas to better meet the needs of today’s students, who require a flexible and affordable path through higher education.
WGU Texas, texas.wgu.edu, is one of three state subsidiaries that will be supported by a $4.5 million grant to Western Governors University from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The overall grant is aimed at leveraging Western Governors University’s state subsidiaries in Texas, Indiana, and Washington to expand access to affordable, competency-based higher education. The investment in Texas will help support development and outreach for WGU’s new subsidiary, WGU Texas.
Established August 3 by Governor Rick Perry with support from Texas Higher Education Chairs Senator Judith Zaffirini and Rep. Dan Branch, WGU Texas is a subsidiary of nationally recognized, nonprofit Western Governors University. Open to all qualified Texas residents, WGU Texas offers 50 online bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in Business, Information Technology, Teacher Education, and Health Professions, including Nursing. Read More
New reform framework unites critics and supporters of ‘seven breakthrough solutions’
In much-anticipated remarks to the University of Texas Board of Regents Thursday, Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa laid out a broad nine-point plan to streamline operations across the system, increase accountability and expand science and medical education around the state.
The “Framework Action Plan” received unanimous support from all nine regents, and lawmakers and groups that have strongly disagreed about Texas higher education reform hailed Cigarroa’s plan as a turning point in the years-long debate.
Read more from American Independent http://www.americanindependent.com/191366/ut-chancellor-lays-out-broad-plan-for-higher-education-reform
Written by Kevin Kiley Inside
Texas Governor Rick Perry is surging in polls for the Republican nomination for president, but Francisco Cigarroa might be the Texan with the biggest political victory this week.
At a meeting of the University of Texas System’s Board of Regents on Thursday, Cigarroa, the system’s chancellor, presented a framework, which the board adopted unanimously, designed to improve accountability, outcomes, and efficiency at the system’s nine academic institutions and six health centers.
Cigarroa’s plan, much like the efforts being pushed by Perry and conservative think tanks in the state, involves much more public reporting about faculty performance and focuses on using technology as a way to drive down college costs. But unlike those plans, it gives considerable leeway to campuses to determine how they will evaluate faculty members. It also avoids some of the controversial assumptions made by other reform efforts — such as the view that there is a clear relationship between grants obtained and the value of research, or that student evaluations are the best way to measure a faculty member’s teaching — to which faculty members have objected.
The new plan is ambitious in its scope — encompassing everything from a public database to evaluate faculty productivity to a new resource to develop online courses — but its biggest success might be the fact that, so far, it has the support of groups on multiple sides of what has been a contentious debate about the future of higher education in Texas. The framework provides a rough outline for the system, and campuses will be left to figure out the details of exactly how they will meet the chancellor’s goals, which could create tension down the road. But the fact that Cigarroa is being praised by conservative think tanks, faculty members, and even Perry is a notable departure from the rhetoric that has dominated higher-education talk in Texas. Read More
Written By Curt Olson
Curt W. Olson
COlson@TexasBudgetSource.com
The debate that raged over the cost, productivity, and efficiency of higher education in Texas calmed swiftly Thursday with the announcement of a higher education excellence and reform agenda branded the “Texas Plan.”
“It’s visionary. Some might consider it radical,” said University of Texas System Regent Alex Cranberg, who served on the Task Force on University Excellence and Productivity.
And yes, some even see it as a model for higher education systems across the nation to emulate.
Dr. John Mendelsohn, now past president of the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, called it “a blueprint for the nation, not just Texas, after hearing the presentation from UT System Chancellor Dr. Francisco Cigarroa.
The Task Force on Blended and Online Learning proposed a $50 million investment for the Institute for Transformational Learning, which would utilize technology for more strategic instruction. It was embraced in Cigarroa’s Framework for Excellence Action Plan.
This was part of more than $240 million in expenses regents approved Thursdsay directed to implement the plan.
Cigarroa’s plan generated unanimous support from all sides of the debate over the future over higher education that has raged for six months — sometimes quite fiercely.
More than one regent described the situation as stressful at times.
“Texas finds itself at the epicenter of the national debate on the future of higher education,” Cigarroa said. “I also firmly believe no university system is better poised than the University of Texas System to lead the debate and offer solutions to benefit our students, faculty and staff.” Read More
By Melissa Ludwig
The University of Texas Board of Regents on Thursday approved an action plan to raise quality and productivity at its 15 institutions in an era of declining revenues, fortifying the effort with $243 million in strategic investments.
After months of public squabbling over how best to reform academia, regents unanimously backed the framework created by Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa and said they would give him latitude to work.
“Chancellor, I think the ball is yours,” said Gene Powell, chairman of the board of regents and a San Antonio businessman.
The plan pleased higher education boosters and critics alike, including Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative Austin think tank that’s served as a brain trust for those seeking radical changes in Texas higher education.
“The plan unveiled today reflects important steps toward both increasing productivity and improving academic quality in The University of Texas System, and I applaud Chancellor Cigarroa and everyone involved for their hard work in this effort,” Perry said in a statement. Read More
Written by Reeve Hamilton
At this morning’s meeting of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa won unanimous approval for a plan addressing hot-button higher ed issues of the moment like productivity, efficiency and accountability. The regents also committed to $243.6 million in investments that support Cigarroa’s vision.
As expected, turnout for the meeting was unusually high. In addition to a number of students and higher ed boosters, a handful of state officials were also in attendance, including Senate Higher Education Committee Chair Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board chairman Fred Heldenfels.
Speaking of the need for “continual improvement,” Cigarroa laid out a 9-plank framework focusing on undergraduate access and success, faculty and administrative excellence, research, productivity and efficiency, strategic investments in the system’s information technology infrastructure, enhancing philanthropic success, boosting Ph.D. programs, advancing the state’s medical education and services and expanding educational opportunities in South Texas.
“Texas finds itself at the epicenter of the national debate on the future of higher education,” Cigarroa said. “I also firmly believe no university system is better poised than the University of Texas System to lead the debate and offer solutions to benefit our students, faculty and staff.”
Multiple strategies and goals accompanied each of the nine planks, along with firm dates for benchmarks. One fast approaching example: All university presidents must establish and submit goals for higher rates degrees conferred by December of this year. A longer-term goal: implementing incentive-based compensation systems for faculty and administrators by fiscal year 2014.
Cigarroa, who in May warned regents against micromanaging institutions, made a point of noting that institutions could reach these goals in their own way. “One size does not fit all,” he said.In addition, the regents’ teaching awards program will be expanded, there will be promotion of research collaboration between institutions, the efforts of the System’s emerging research universities will be bolstered and greater emphasis will be placed on shared services among institutions to help boost productivity.
Starting next academic year, in the name of transparency and to encourage quicker times to degree, students will be provided disclosure statements of anticipated costs for their degree. Further strategies for reducing both student cost burdens and policies that encourage students to graduate in four years will also be due next year.
Cigarroa’s plan also includes initiatives addressing issues that have not been a focus of the recent higher ed debate, such as investing money in enhancing science and technology education in South Texas or and allocating of a larger portion of institutional expenditures to philanthropy by a date certain.
The plan, which Cigarroa said has been in process since May, incorporated the recommendations of two task forces created earlier this year —one on blended and online learning and another on university productivity and excellence. “This is a significant first step in what will be a lengthy and rewarding process,” said Regent Brenda Pejovich, who chaired the task force on excellence and productivity. Read More
The below statement is from the Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education in response to yesterday’s announcement by Senator Zaffirini and Representative Branch that the first public hearing of the Joint Oversight committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency would be held in September. The Committee’s release is below for your reference.
COALITION encouraged by announcement of FIRST HEARING OF joint oversight committee on higher education governance, excellence and transparency
AUSTIN—The Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education today issued the following statement in support of the announcement that the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency would hold its first public hearing on September 21, 2011:
“We commend Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst, Speaker Straus, Senator Zaffirini and Representative Branch for their unwavering commitment to improve quality, accessibility, efficiency, and transparency in higher education. As we continue to discuss and advance thoughtful, constructive dialogue around improving higher education in Texas, we applaud our legislative leadership for making higher education a top priority. We support these leaders as they work together with the public to solve the challenges facing higher education and look forward to productive discussions at this and future hearings.”
____________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 23, 2011
CONTACT:
Will Krueger, 512/463-0121
Candice Woodruff, 512/463-0367
JOINT OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
GOVERNANCE, EXCELLENCE AND TRANSPARENCY
TO HOLD FIRST HEARING
AUSTIN –Today the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency posted notice for its first public hearing, which will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 21, in Room E1.036 of the Texas Capitol.
Co-Chaired by Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and Representative Dan Branch, R-Dallas, the committee was created by Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and Speaker Joe Straus to ensure that governing boards follow best practices when developing and implementing policy; look for major policy decisions to be adequately vetted and discussed transparently; and protect the excellence and high quality of our state’s institutions of higher education.
Senator Zaffirini and Representative Branch also chair the standing higher education committees of their respective chambers.
Other House members appointed by Speaker Straus are Representatives Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton; Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio; Eric Johnson, D-Dallas; Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham; and Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie.
Other Senate members appointed by Lt. Gov. Dewhurst are Senators John Carona, R-Dallas; Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock; Rodney Ellis, D-Houston; Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo; and Kirk Watson, D-Austin.
“Higher education oversight is critical because our colleges and universities are among Texas’ most important assets,” Senator Zaffirini said. “They not only equip our future leaders to be lifelong learners, but also conduct nationally recognized research, thereby expanding knowledge, creating new technologies and positioning Texas at the forefront of the knowledge-based economy.”
“I thank the Speaker and the Lt. Governor for the opportunity to serve, and for assembling a team of thoughtful legislators who care deeply about the importance of higher education in Texas,” Representative Branch said. “Governance of our universities is important because, in so many ways, higher education will set the course for the future of our state.”
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In an era of online universities and their reputation of being nothing more than worthless degree mills, Gov. Rick Perry’s executive order to establish Western Governors University: Texas, an online nonprofit university, rightfully warrants caution and skepticism.
Largely targeted at working adults, WGU promises low tuition, flexible schedules and quality courses to people who want and need degrees.
Overcoming assumptions and appearances, it seems to deliver based on comments from current and former students and WGU’s list of credentials.
WGU is accredited by The Northwest Commission which has given accreditation to universities such as the University of Washington, the University of Idaho and Brigham Young University.
The University has more than 25,000 students from all 50 states. There there are currently 1,600 Texans enrolled at WGU.
The WGU order seeks to address a variety of issues.
“Working Texans who cannot pursue their higher education goals on college campuses certainly should reap the benefits of WGU Texas’ online, competency-based model,” State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said in a press release on WGU’s website. Read More
By Gov. Rick Perry / Special to the Express-News
Last week, Texas partnered with the Western Governors University in the creation of WGU Texas, an accredited, online university offering degrees in more than 50 areas of study, many of them vital to meeting the demands of the growing jobs market here in the Lone Star State.
We all know attaining a college degree is among the most effective ways to improve anyone’s quality of life, and ensuring a steady stream of college graduates ready to take on the high-tech jobs of the future is imperative to our mission of keeping Texas on top of the nation in job creation.
Innovative ways to effectively and affordably educate Texans, like WGU Texas, are going to be essential parts of improving access to higher education, but it’s far from the only approach we’ve taken.
In 2000, Texas was falling behind the 10 most populous states in the proportion of students enrolling in college. Acting on recommendations of a commission I formed as lieutenant governor, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) adopted a strategic plan for higher education, Closing the Gaps by 2015, challenging our higher education institutions to increase enrollment by 500,000 in 15 years.
Closing the Gaps has been a success for students and their families, taxpayers and policy-makers alike. So successful, in fact, that in 2005 we moved the goalposts back further, increasing the target number to 630,000 by 2015. With enrollment up by almost 486,000 in 2010, our institutions are well on their way to meeting this revised goal. Read More
We are very encouraged by this latest statement today in response to the announcement of the Western Governors University Texas. For the first time the Coalition admits that cost and access are problems to be addressed; offering more students the commitment and opportunity to reach their academic and lifelong goals.
By Jenifer Sarver
AUSTIN – The Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education today issued a statement in response to the announcement of the newly-formed Texas branch of the Western Governors University, a nonprofit, online university that offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in key workforce areas.
“We applaud Governor Perry, Senator Zaffirini and Representative Branch for adding to the diversity of higher education opportunities in Texas with the announcement of the Western Governors University Texas. This low cost alternative will expand access to more Texans, engaging our diverse student population and upholding our statewide commitment to help more students reach their academic and lifelong goals. This educational alternative will give more Texas students the opportunity to pursue higher education and become leaders in our state and global economy.” Read More
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry, with the support of Higher Education Chairs Sen. Judith Zaffirini and Rep. Dan Branch, today announced the creation of WGU Texas, a subsidiary of Western Governors University (WGU), which is an accredited, nationally-recognized, nonprofit university. WGU Texas will offer an affordable and flexible alternative for Texans seeking a higher education degree. The governor also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance the state’s participation with and support of WGU, which was founded in 1997 by governors of 19 states, including Texas.
“Earning a college degree is one of the most effective ways for individuals to improve the quality of life for themselves and their families,” Gov. Perry said. “By offering online, competency-based courses in key workforce areas, WGU Texas provides another flexible, affordable way for Texans to fulfill their potential and contribute their talents for years and decades to come, without any need for state funding. Our strengthened collaboration with WGU plays an important role in the effort to ensure Texas has an equipped workforce to meet the needs of job creators.”
WGU is an online university that primarily serves working adults and offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in key workforce areas of business, information technology, education and health professions, including nursing. More than 75 percent of students are low income, minority, first generation to attend college or rural students. WGU does not receive state funding, but is self-sustaining on tuition of about $5,780 per 12-month year. WGU was started through a memorandum of understanding and provision of $100,000 in start-up funding from each of the 19 founding states.
“Working Texans who cannot pursue their higher education goals on college campuses certainly should reap the benefits of WGU Texas’ online, competency-based model,” Sen. Judith Zaffirini said. “They also should benefit from the program’s flexibility, which will allow them to meet family and work responsibilities while continuing their studies. Although WGU Texas does not receive state funding and is self-sustaining through tuition, it will help address our state’s key workforce needs while offering affordable career and continuing education opportunities to Texans over 30.”
WGU Texas is being created through Executive Order RP 75, which calls on state agencies to work cooperatively with WGU toward the creation and establishment of WGU Texas. It also directs agencies including the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), Texas Education Agency and Texas Workforce Commission to create appropriate data sharing processes as may be required by state or federal guidelines for higher education providers.
“Texas needs legions of new, sharp, credentialed minds to succeed in a knowledge-based economy,” Rep. Dan Branch said. “The creation of WGU Texas will provide another low cost, flexible and tested option for Texans seeking to compete in a global marketplace.”
This MOU is an addendum to the one executed by the state and WGU in 1997, and further enhances Texas’ participation and support of WGU Texas, particularly through the creation of an advisory board whose members will be appointed in consultation with the governor.
“By establishing WGU Texas, Gov. Perry and the State of Texas are making quality higher education more accessible for working adults throughout the Lone Star State,” said Dr. Robert W. Mendenhall, President of WGU. “We look forward to this partnership with the state, which will help thousands of Texans earn the college degrees they want and need, on a schedule they can manage, at a cost they can afford.”
WGU degrees are competency-based, meaning students advance by demonstrating their knowledge and abilities, rather than accumulating credit hours. This model better serves adult learners who enroll with specific skill sets, allowing them to graduate faster. Additionally, this model particularly benefits veterans, who are able to apply the skills they learned in the military toward their degrees, which helps implement SB 1736 that created the College Credit for Heroes Program and was signed by Gov. Perry. More than 25,000 students from all 50 states, including 1,600 Texans, are enrolled at WGU, which has grown more than 30 percent annually.
“WGU Texas will significantly expand access to affordable, high quality education and training,” said THECB Commissioner Raymund Paredes. “This initiative is yet another innovation that is making Texas a national role model for reinventing higher education.” Read More
Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes is warning that the Legislature’s reduction in funding for the state’s main financial aid program could threaten its viability as an incentive for low-income students to attend college.
Lawmakers cut the Texas Grant program by about 9 percent for the next two years despite surging enrollment. As a result, only about 30 percent, or 33,100, of the 110,000 incoming students who meet academic and financial eligibility requirements are expected to receive the grant during the 2012-13 biennium, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Continuing students getting renewal grants will bring the total number of students in the program to 77,300 during the biennium, down from 106,000.
“A lot of students will say, ‘I can’t count on this kind of support,’\u2009″ said Paredes, who is the coordinating board’s chief executive. “We’re going to have to find a way to fund a sufficient number of students so the Texas Grant remains a viable option.” Read More
Regarding the following article that was written By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz AMERICAN-STATESMAN, students, parents and taxpayers should publicly ask the following question: Is it true or not that UT President Bill Powers attempted to withhold information from the public and regents, as alleged by Rick O’Donnell? Is anyone going to ask Powers this question?
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz (original headline: Booster urges top regent to stand up for UT president)
A leading booster of the University of Texashas written a testy letter to the chairman of its governing board demanding that he stand up for the school’s president.
The letter to Board of Regents Chairman Gene Powell from Kenneth Jastrow II underscores the continuing divide between Powell and much of the Longhorn nation.
The chairman’s critics also include major donors, such as Dallas investor Peter O’Donnell Jr., as well as the Ex-Students’ Association, also known as the Texas Exes.
Jastrow is chairman of the university’s $3 billion fundraising campaign and led its blue-ribbon Commission of 125.
He wrote to Powell after the regents’ chairman issued a statement last month defending Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, who oversees the UT System’s 15 academic and health campuses, against allegations by a dismissed system official, Rick O’Donnell (no relation to Peter O’Donnell Jr.).
Although O’Donnell also criticized UT-Austin President William Powers Jr., Powell’s statement made no mention of Powers. That didn’t sit well with Jastrow.
His July 8 letter outlines the Austin president’s impressive fundraising record during tough economic times, with more than $1.6 billion raised since the campaign was started in 2008.
“Clearly, 191,000 plus donors believe President Powers and others at UT are doing a good job, and they believe in the mission and core values of The University of Texas,” wrote Jastrow, former CEO of Temple-Inland Inc.
He went on to say, “Your overt lack of support of Bill Powers is troubling, especially given the fact that in a UT System Board of Regents roll call vote, Thursday, May 12, 2011, you voted to support Chancellor Cigarroa and the Presidents of each institution in the UT System which, of course, includes Bill Powers.” Read More
By Reeve Hamilton
A new analysis of faculty productivity data from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University-College Station argues that the institutions’ employment practices resemble “a Himalayan trek, where indigenous Sherpas carry the heavy loads so Western tourists can simply enjoy the view.”
The author of the study is Rick O’Donnell, the controversial former adviser to the University of Texas System whose previous writings questioning the value of academic research helped ignite a debate about the future of the state’s higher education systems.
After settling with the UT System last month following a threat of a lawsuit over the terms of his abrupt termination, O’Donnell told The Texas Tribune that he intended to remain involved in that debate in Texas. Clearly, he means it.
In his analysis, O’Donnell divides faculty into five categories: “dodgers,” “coasters,” “sherpas,” “pioneers” and “stars.”
In this system, coasters have low teaching loads and very little externally funded research. Dodgers are the most extreme segment of coasters. Sherpas have high teaching loads and low research funding. Pioneers have the inverse of that. And stars have both high teaching loads and high levels of research funding. Read More
Come out and join the Generation Debt Happy Hours around the state. If you care about the future, contribute to the discussion of higher education reform. Visit http://www.Facebook.com/RockTheIvoryTower and follow the tweets at http://www.Twitter.com/RockTheTower for details. Read More
In 2003, Gov. Rick Perry signed off one of the most significant policy changes in the history of Texas higher education. With both the state and its public universities strapped for cash, the decision was made to grant universities the autonomy to set tuition rates, freeing them from government regulation that had artificially kept Texas public higher education affordable for generations.
As expected, college costs in Texas ticked upward — a trend that looks likely to persist as the state’s contribution continues to decline. Texas Tech University in Lubbock, for example, has seen the state-funded portion of its budget drop from 56 percent in 1990 to 36 percent in 2010. After taking another cut this year, the Texas Tech University System regents — all Perry appointees — just hiked the tuition at their main campus by 5.9 percent and at Angelo State University by 9.9 percent. At the state’s flagship institutions, the numbers are even worse: State contributions make up 24 percent of Texas A&M University’s budget and 14 percent of the University of Texas’ budget, down from 52 percent 30 years ago
It’s not the sort of trend that Perry — who often notes in his stump speeches that he is an animal-science graduate from Texas A&M — wants to be associated with. More recently, he has ramped up a public push for lower tuition while shifting blame to the universities by urging them to reduce inefficiencies.
“There are serious improvements that need to be made to our higher education system,” Perry spokeswoman Catherine Frazier says. “We have a great higher education system, but there are steps that need to be taken to improve it, and we can’t ignore what those needs are.”
In recent months, the various forces in Perry’s conflicted higher ed history have come to a head. The result: an overwrought public identity crisis in the state’s higher education community, the resolution of which will likely define the governor’s legacy on the topic and could be a factor in any potential bid for higher office.
Among the issues at hand: Can access to higher education be expanded and tuition lowered without sacrificing quality? What role should academic research play at public universities? Who should and shouldn’t be managing the state’s educational institutions — and how are the current leaders doing so far?
Even before taking the helm of the state in late 2000, Perry showed interest in higher education. In 1999, as lieutenant governor, he established a Special Commission on 21st Century Colleges and Universities “to take a long-term look at improving higher education — its mission, its role in the new economy, and its accessibility and its affordability.”
The next year, worried about the quality of Texas’ higher education system and that it was lagging too far behind the country’s leaders, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which monitors the implementation of the state’s higher ed policy, launched a 15-year initiative to bring the state up to a level of parity. Encouraged by the governor, it has seen success in some areas. But headed into the final four-year homestretch, challenges remain.
“Texas has done a much better job on access,” observes Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business. “Now we need to turn the directions toward completions.”
While Texas students are heading to college in greater number (and Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes anticipates they will reach the 2015 enrollment goal), they still struggle to come out of the system with a degree or certificate. As Mark Miner, the governor’s spokesman, noted in a recent press release calling on universities to “join the reform efforts,” the statewide four-year graduation rate is about 28.6 percent compared to a national average closer to 40 percent. Degrees conferred in science, technology, engineering and math fields are particularly behind in reaching the state’s goals, as are teacher certifications.
Hammond says the long-term workforce implications of such success rates should be of more concern than rising tuition. “It’s higher than anyone would like it to be, and that’s a hindrance,” he said, “but I don’t think that’s the issue.” For one thing, Hammond points out, before the cuts made in the just-ended legislative session, funds going toward financial aid had been increasing. Also, tuition in Texas remains relatively low — in the case of community colleges, extremely so.
Average tuition at a public two-year institution in Texas is $1,796, which is 45th among all the states. With an average tuition cost of $5,623, Texas’ public four-year institutions rank 28th. According to recently released U.S. Department of Education statistics, South Texas College in McAllen and the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg are the two most affordable colleges in the country.
And not everyone is troubled by recent trends. Randy Diehl, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, concedes that tuition increases have outpaced inflation, but argues that the average yearly increase in tuition since deregulation is less than average yearly increases in the decade preceding it.
Also, he says, if tuition were lowered, in order to maintain access, the portion of tuition that is currently set aside for financial aid would have to be replaced with increased funding from regressive sales taxes. “So in terms of what’s fair, socially and economically,” he says, “I would trade a higher tuition for a lower state contribution any day.”
In his State of the State address this year and in subsequent public remarks, Perry called for three things for higher education: a funding system that rewards outcomes, a four-year tuition freeze and the creation of a $10,000 bachelor’s degree — books included. But the proposals that have ended up getting the most attention are “seven breakthrough solutions” for higher education that Perry has been promoting behind the scenes for the last three years.
The proposals — which focus on the widely agreed upon goals of emphasizing quality teaching, efficiency and productivity — were written by Jeff Sandefer, a wealthy oil investor and founder of a private business school in Austin. He was one of the initial members of Lt. Gov. Perry’s special commission. After Sandefer’s proposals were unveiled at a summit in 2008, Perry made it clear that regents would be judged by what they did with the suggestions, and his office later emphasized that the initiatives — which have been deeply unpopular in academic circles — should be “regent driven.”
The chief source of influence the governor has at a university stems from his power to appoint the members of the boards of regents, who are charged with the oversight of university systems including matters such as tuition increases and the hiring and firing of administrators. Read More
To support Gov. Perry on education, Chairman Powell wants to develop a $10,000 four-year degree, increase undergraduate enrollment by 10 % a year and cut tuition in half.
Inefficient professors are the targets in Gov. Rick Perry‘s plan to reform higher education
By Katherine Mangan
Austin, Tex.
Depending on whom you talk to in Texas these days, college professors are either elitist intellectuals oblivious to the financial struggles of their students or hard-working teachers and researchers being pressured to churn out graduates like widgets on a production line.
And no matter where you fall in this increasingly divisive debate, there’s an interest group armed with colorful sound bites, well-heeled supporters, and a conviction that the future of higher education here hangs in the balance.
In recent weeks, the rhetoric of the players in this statewide power struggle has escalated to match the intensity of the blistering Texas heat. Students, alumni, and faculty members have weighed in, along with new coalitions consisting of former university presidents, chancellors, regents, and business leaders.
The political fight largely centers on a series of reforms dubbed the “Seven Breakthrough Solutions,” pushed by Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank in Austin.
The proposals, which are based on the premise that professors spend too much time on esoteric research and not enough time in the classroom, would separate teaching and research budgets, give professors pay raises based on student evaluations, and treat students as customers.
The debate intensified this spring after a series of controversial comments and actions by Gene Powell, chairman of the University of Texas system’s Board of Regents.
In addition to expressing support for the governor’s call to develop a $10,000, four-year degree, he floated the idea of increasing undergraduate enrollment at the flagship campus by 10 percent a year for four years and cutting tuition in half.
And in March, Mr. Powell hired Rick O’Donnell, a former fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and a former executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, as a $200,000-a- year special adviser to the university’s governing board. Mr. O’Donnell was fired six weeks later after complaining that university officials were suppressing data on how much professors earned, how many students they taught, and how much grant money they received.
Last month the system reached a $70,000 settlement with Mr. O’Donnell, a decision that Barry D. Burgdorf, vice chancellor and general counsel for the university system, said was based on “pure and simple economics” because Mr. O’Donnell had made it clear that he planned to sue the system.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Democrat who chairs the state’s Senate Higher Education Committee, says that rather than cooling the controversy, the settlement fanned the flames when the former adviser came out swinging, accusing university officials of orchestrating a smear campaign against him and the regents who supported his efforts to gather faculty-productivity data, which were eventually published.
“Higher-education administrators and faculty generally like to be left alone,” Mr. O’Donnell said in an interview last month. “These are people who enjoy enormous privileges at taxpayer expense, and someone wants to question how much that costs and what we’re getting in response.”
Senator Zaffirini says the policy foundation and Jeff Sandefer—a board member who wrote the “breakthrough solutions” it promotes —are the ones hiding from public scrutiny. She co-chairs a new legislative oversight committee on higher education.
“They talk about transparency,” she says, “but meanwhile, they’re working with the governor behind closed doors in an attempt to hijack the higher-education agenda.” Mr. Sandefer and foundation executives deny that accusation, and Mr. Perry’s office did not reply to a request for comment last month.
Senator Zaffirini adds that the foundation’s actions could harm the efforts of seven “emerging research universities” to gain “tier one” status.
David Guenthner, a spokesman for the public-policy foundation, scoffs at that idea. “Barely one in five faculty members is involved in research that relates to the university’s tier-one status,” he says. Taxpayers deserve to know why many professors teach less than a full load and “where their research is being published, how many people are reading it, how much is it being cited, or is it, for lack of a better term, a publication for the sake of a publication—or worse, a vanity project?” Read More
By Huma Munir
Gov. Rick Perry has backed the Seven Breakthrough Solutions for Higher Education, but the plan from a conservative think tank could prove to be a breaking point between Perry and members of the higher education community even as Perry may be seeking support for a presidential run.
UT President William Powers Jr., Student Government President Natalie Butler and UT alumni organization Texas Exes went on alert after interest grew in proposals from groups such as the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation that suggest rewarding professors based on student evaluations, splitting the budget for teaching and research and increasing class enrollments to halve tuition. Perry’s endorsement of such policies in speeches stirred further controversy among leaders of the University.
“We don’t want to see the de-emphasis of research because that’s what made our state so great,” said outgoing Texas Exes President Richard Leshin.
Leshin said he thinks Perry has had a lot to do with setting the agenda for the UT System Board of Regents and it’s something the administrators, students and other members of the higher education community have seen for a long time. A UT spokesperson said nobody from the University administration would want to speak publicly about the matter, but several administrators expressed discomfort with Perry’s ideas off the record.
“I think it’s very difficult for them to speak up because they are state employees, and it makes it very difficult to oppose anything like that,” Leshin said.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said Perry’s constituents have questioned his position on higher education in the form of letters to the Texas Ethics Commission. Perry and others, including the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the UT System Board of Regents are pursuing proposals that would damage higher education’s quality without seeking input from university students, professors and administrators, Zaffirini said. She said Perry and those who support his views on education have the right to make suggestions and be heard, but they must also consider competing proposals.
“When we deal with higher education, we must deal with the educators,” Zaffirini said.
Liberal arts professor Tom Palaima said education cannot be treated like a manufactured automobile. Rather, you have to create a balance between big and small classrooms and continue to engage in research that proves essential for the future of students and citizens of the country, he said.
“Education is designed to create something absolutely new,” Palaima said.
Perry and supporters say they don’t want to dilute the quality of higher education — instead, they’re trying to increase efficiency and improve educational experiences. Prominent advocates of this idea include Perry, Ohio State University economics professor Richard Vedder and Texas Public Policy Foundation members. Read More
By MELISSA LUDWIG
Rick O’Donnell, a former special adviser to the University of Texas System who received a $70,000 settlement, this week skewered top UT officials for trying to block the release of faculty productivity data, accusing them of orchestrating a scare campaign to pit donors and alumni against regents pushing for changes at the system.
He also took shots at state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who chairs the higher education committee, saying she went to bat for university brass due to overly cozy relations between lawmakers and public universities.
Faculty and administrators “basically want to be left alone,” O’Donnell said. “They push back when regents try to run the university. They ask for lots of (state) funding, and legislators get buildings named after them and tickets to bowl games. (Zaffirini) seems to be extremely defensive of the administration, more so than what is in the best interests of taxpayers.”
Zaffirini denied there is anything unseemly about her support of academia.
“I proudly carry the banner of higher education,” Zaffirini said. O’Donnell and other critics “seem to hate higher education; they seem to hate UT.”
The exchange is a skirmish in a larger philosophical battle over the direction of higher education in Texas. Read More
By Jeannie Kever jeannie.kever@chron.com
Jay Kimbrough has been one of the state’s key troubleshooters over the years, dispatched to overhaul a number of public agencies following reports of wrongdoing or mismanagement.
But after being named deputy chancellor and interim chancellor for the Texas A&M University System on Thursday, Kimbrough said this job is different.
“I don’t see any crisis here at all,” he said in a telephone conference call with reporters. “This is not like those other missions.”
Kimbrough, 63, said he does not want to be considered as a permanent replacement for Chancellor Mike McKinney, who resigned last month. McKinney’s last day was Thursday.
Richard Box, chairman of the board of regents, said he expects a new chancellor to be selected later this year.
But Box sidestepped a question about whether the new chancellor will come from an academic background — a key issue for faculty in light of their often rocky relationship with McKinney, a medical doctor and political operative whose blunt manner proved an uncomfortable fit with the more deliberative style of academia.
Other people are talking about the issue, however.
“I would hope they would find someone who is of the stature of the (University of Texas) chancellor (transplant surgeon Francisco Cigarroa), someone who is highly intelligent and who understands the academic arena,” said state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo and chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee. “Someone who is committed to research universities and equally committed to the other institutions in the system.”
Normally, Kimbrough’s appointment wouldn’t have occasioned much interest outside the 11 A&M campuses. But the flagship campus in College Station has been ground zero for a contentious battle over changes in public higher education in Texas, pushed by Austin businessman Jeff Sandefer and the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation and backed by Gov. Rick Perry.
The proposals — aimed at cutting the cost of a college education and favoring teaching over research — gained notoriety this spring as regents for the University of Texas system took up the charge. Read More
A&M regents are expected to name Jay Kimbrough to a pair of top positions later this week.
While Texas A&M’s choice of an interim chancellor is looking more certain, a fresh controversy is developing around the way Gov. Rick Perryselected a student regent for the system’s board.The Texas Tribune reported that Rick Perry’s former chief of staff Jay Kimbrough was the likely pick for the Texas A&M system’s interim chancellor, and Kimbrough later told the Bryan-College Station Eagle he is indeed being considered for the job.
“It’s not set in stone,” said Kimbrough, who serves as special adviser to the Board of Regents. “Regents have the authority and flexibility to pick anyone they want.”
The A&M System Board of Regents will meet Thursday to consider selecting an interim chancellor and deputy chancellor, and Kimbrough confirmed that he’s being considered for the deputy chancellor job as well.
Kimbrough, 63, a motorcycle enthusiast who received a Purple Heart in Vietnam, has served as deputy chancellor and general counsel from June 2007 to October 2008.
In August of 2009 he became an adviser to regents. He also has been put in charge of several troubled state agencies, including the Texas Youth Commission. Read More
A $70,000 settlement could have bought peace between the University of Texas System and former special adviser Rick O’Donnell, but O’Donnell, who was fired April 19, instead spoke out against UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, UT-Austin President William Powers Jr. and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
In an interview with the American-Statesman earlier this week, O’Donnell said Cigarroa and Powers stirred up opposition among donors, alumni and faculty members against efforts by O’Donnell, and some regents to dig up data on faculty productivity. Efforts to gather similar performance data at Texas A&M, rating the “worth” of professors according to revenue brought in and classroom hours taught, earned a rebuke from the prestigious American Association of Universities.
O’Donnell said that Cigarroa, Powers and Zaffirini, a Democrat from Laredo who leads the Higher Education Committee, mounted “a brutal campaign” to demonize the regents who have been active in pursuing faculty data, including Powell, Alex Cranberg, Wallace Hall and Brenda Pejovich. He said Powers begged him and Powell not to collect the data, according to the Statesman.
O’Donnell, a former executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, was dismissed after writing a letter accusing officials at the “highest levels” of the system of suppressing data that showed a great deal of tuition and taxpayer money go to professors do little teaching. Read More
At the height of a controversy about the direction of the school’s governing board earlier this year, the chairman of the University of Texas System regents told a fellow regent that he felt as winded as he did during football practices decades ago under coach Darrell Royal.
“Reminds me of two-a-days in Austin in August — you never seem to catch your breath and when you do it feels like steam!” Gene Powell, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, said in an email to Regent Robert Stillwell in March.
That email and hundreds more that circulated among regents and others involved in the controversy were obtained from the UT System by the American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act.
The messages convey frustration on the part of some regents that they were being criticized as anti-research, as well as an intense interest among regents in gathering data from the system’s campuses on online class offerings, teacher evaluations and other matters. When those data were eventually released publicly, the system said the information was “raw” and “cannot yield accurate analysis, interpretations or conclusions.”
The emails also show that three prominent supporters of higher education wrote a strongly worded letter to Powell urging the regents to make “meaningful statements” regarding the importance of fundamental and applied research, the benefit of the dual mission of teaching and research, and the value of tenured faculty members.
Such statements are essential to address “the perception that actions are being taken that would hurt UT System schools, in particular UT-Austin,” said the letter April 1 from Kenny Jastrow, former CEO of Temple-Inland Inc. and chairman of the university’s ongoing $3 billion capital campaign; Charles Tate, a member of the University of Texas Investment Management Co.’s board; and Pam Willeford, a former chairwoman of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and a former ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
The UT System is seeking approval from state Attorney General Greg Abbott for its decision to withhold an unknown number of emails and to black out portions of some that it released to the Statesman.
The Statesman will argue that the information should be made public, said Editor Fred Zipp.
The emails give a flavor of Powell’s reaction to criticism from some lawmakers, alumni and others for his hiring of a $200,000-a-year special adviser who had written that much academic research lacks value. Powell also drew criticism for suggesting in an interview with the Statesman that it might be possible to offer cut-rate degrees that he styled as Bel Air quality, a reference to a mid-level Chevrolet of a generation ago.
“I promise everyone I will be much more careful with my metaphors in the future!!!!” Powell said in a March 9 email to various UT System officials.
The adviser, Rick O’Donnell, was dismissed April 19 after accusing top UT System and UT-Austin officials of suppressing information on faculty members’ productivity. O’Donnell and the system reached a settlement Friday under which he agreed not to sue the system in exchange for $70,000 and a glowing letter about his work from Powell.
In a March 14 email to O’Donnell, Powell said the “loyal opposition” is “telling anyone that will listen that you will be making policy and you have been hired to fire the Chancellor, fire the president of UT Austin and to take over the System.” Read More
Updated 2:00 p.m.: Barry Burgdorf, vice chancellor and general counsel at the University of Texas System, said the decision to settle the matter was based on “pure and simple economics.”
In fact, the amount of the settlement is less than O’Donnell would have been paid if he had remained a system employee until the end of August, as had been agreed to following an initial restructuring of his position.
Burgdorf said the cost of defending the system in court would have greatly exceeded the $70,000 paid out as part of the agreement. Though, had it gone that way, Burgdorf said, “I felt very good about our legal position on this.”
Senate Higher Education Chairwoman Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, a prominent critic of O’Donnell’s during his time at the system, said she thought there were “some good and some bad aspects” to the settlement.
“I like it, because ostensibly, it will put an end to that chapter,” she said. “The bad side of it is the truth did not emerge, so we don’t know exactly what happened.” Read More
A $70,000 settlement between the University of Texas System and a former system official seeks, among other things, to “buy peace,” as the agreement released Monday puts it.
But any peace the UT System obtained with its money and a glowing letter from the chairman of the Board of Regents about the former employee’s work and integrity didn’t last long.
Rick O’Donnell, who was dismissed April 19 after seven weeks on the job, lashed out within hours of the settlement’s release at UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, UT-Austin President William Powers Jr. and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Democrat from Laredo who leads the Higher Education Committee.
In an interview with the American-Statesman, O’Donnell said Cigarroa and Powers ginned up opposition among donors, alumni and faculty members to efforts by O’Donnell, regents Chairman Gene Powell and other regents to obtain faculty productivity data.
He said Zaffirini has been carrying water for university administrators instead of letting regents govern the institution.
O’Donnell also charged that Cigarroa, Powers and Zaffirini mounted “a brutal campaign” to demonize the regents who have been active in pursuing faculty data, including Powell, Alex Cranberg, Wallace Hall and Brenda Pejovich. And he said Powers begged him and Powell not to collect the data.
Moreover, O’Donnell said his understanding and expectation from conversations and emails with Powell and Francie Frederick, general counsel to the regents, was that he had been hired for the long term.
Barry Burgdorf, vice chancellor and general counsel for the UT System, said no assurances or promises of continuing employment were given to O’Donnell. System officials declined to address O’Donnell’s comments about Cigarroa.
Powers said, “I am not in a position now to comment on his comments in the press.”
Zaffirini said, “Clearly, he doesn’t know me or understand the principles by which I operate.”
O’Donnell, a former executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, was fired from his $200,000-a-year job with the UT System after writing a letter accusing officials at the “highest levels” of the system and its Austin flagship of suppressing data showing that a growing sum of tuition and taxpayer money is paid to professors and administrators who do little teaching.
The data were later released publicly in response to open records requests, with UT System and campus officials arguing that the figures on faculty salaries, teaching loads and other matters are not only raw and unverified but also give no insight into the quality and impact of professors’ work.
O’Donnell became a focus of controversy shortly after Powell, without consulting other regents, hired him March 1. Critics cited his previously published policy papers that criticized much academic research as lacking value and that recommended reducing such “wasteful spending” and returning universities to the “rightful mission of teaching.”
Within about three weeks of his hiring, O’Donnell was reassigned as a special assistant for research and told that his job would end by Aug. 31. His hold on employment got even shakier when the UT System announced that it was investigating errors in one of his published articles.
It’s unusual for the UT System to award money to people it has dismissed. In O’Donnell’s case, a settlement made economic sense, Burgdorf said.
“It was very clear that he was going to sue the UT System, and he had the backing to do it,” Burgdorf said. “It would have cost me a lot more to defend that lawsuit and get it dismissed than we ended up paying.”
The letter from Powell to O’Donnell, which is part of the settlement, was negotiated, Burgdorf said. “The chairman would not have signed it had he not believed what was in it,” Burgdorf said.
In the letter, Powell praised O’Donnell’s work as “excellent by all measures and done with integrity.” Powell noted “how sorry I am for the unfortunate controversies that surrounded your original appointment and subsequent work for the System” and said the controversies were “not of your making.”
Regent Steve Hicks, vice chairman of the UT board, said the settlement agreement was not submitted to the board for a vote. Such a vote is not required.
Asked whether he supports the settlement, Hicks replied, “I don’t have an opinion on that. The settlement speaks for itself.”
O’Donnell said the settlement tells prospective employers that he was not fired for performance issues.
“Not even universities can fire people for free speech and civil rights and speaking out,” O’Donnell said. Read More
On Monday morning, the Texas Secretary of State posted a notice for a special meeting of the Texas A&M University System on Thursday for the purpose of appointing a deputy chancellor and an interim chancellor. The man for both jobs may be Jay Kimbrough, a former chief of staff to Gov. Rick Perry, sources tell the Tribune.
While nothing is final until the A&M regents vote on the matter, sources tell the Tribune that the deputy job will go to Kimbrough and he is likely to also take over the interim chancellor position until a replacement for outgoing chancellor Mike McKinney, who will step down on July 1, can be found.
“Jay Kimbrough and I have been friends for a long time and I think he’ll do a good job as the interim,” said McKinney, who also formerly served as Perry’s chief of staff.
Most recently, Kimbrough, known as a go-to guy for troubled agencies, has been overseeing an overhaul of the Texas Department of Transportation. His resume also includes taking over as conservator of the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission in 2007. “I’ve never really heard him get into really partisan issues,” said state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso. “He’s always just been given a project: clean up this, look at that.”
That’s one of the reasons Pickett and others recommended Kimbrough for the job at TxDOT. “He’s just very, very direct, holds no punches, calls it like he sees it,” Pickett said.
Pickett joked that extra space would have to be cleared out in “the interim chancellor’s office” for the noted motorcycle enthusiast’s Harley-Davidsons. Kimbrough, a Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, is also known as a passionate veterans’ advocate.
“When I’m on that college campus, I’m thinking about all the young guys who didn’t make it back” from Vietnam, said Kimbrough. “I came back for a reason, and that reason is to serve.” Read More
By Dave Player
For the past several months, various members of the UT community, including students, alumni, legislators and prominent donors, have rallied their support for the University and its administration in light of a political attack on UT, coming in the form of higher education “reformation,” orchestrated by Gov. Rick Perry and his local pet think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. It has been encouraging to see such an outpour of highly vocal support for this University and its teaching and research missions.
The movement has been especially refreshing after months of headlines dominated by talks of budget cuts and faculty layoffs.
And now the “but.” While the UT community has rightfully rallied against a set of misguided proposals, that support should not be allowed to fester into the kind of protectionist mentality that assumes that the University is infallible.
Many of the issues threatening the University over the past year have been a part of the larger dollar-and-cents game being driven by the state budget crisis. For more than a year, the University has known that state funding was almost guaranteed to decrease significantly. The state’s new budget has funding for UT being reduced by $92 million.
Meanwhile, tuition costs at UT and around the country have continued to skyrocket in recent years. Today, one year of in-state tuition at UT costs more than $9,400. Ten years ago, it cost only $4,226. Those drastic increases caused Perry to call for Texas colleges and universities to offer a bachelor’s degree for $10,000. Whether that request is another ludicrous attack on higher education or a responsible attempt to put a check on runaway tuition costs is really a matter of opinion.
However, much of the recent debate has not been so much about funding as it has been about ideology. Prominent voices on both sides have argued over the merits of online classes, the role of research in higher education and whether metrics measuring “efficiency” and “productivity” should be employed. Read More
By Huma Munir
Gov. Rick Perry has backed the Seven Breakthrough Solutions for Higher Education, but the plan from a conservative think tank could prove to be a breaking point between Perry and members of the higher education community even as Perry may be seeking support for a presidential run.
UT President William Powers Jr., Student Government President Natalie Butler and UT alumni organization Texas Exes went on alert after interest grew in proposals from groups such as the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation that suggest rewarding professors based on student evaluations, splitting the budget for teaching and research and increasing class enrollments to halve tuition. Perry’s endorsement of such policies in speeches stirred further controversy among leaders of the University.
“We don’t want to see the de-emphasis of research because that’s what made our state so great,” said outgoing Texas Exes President Richard Leshin.
Leshin said he thinks Perry has had a lot to do with setting the agenda for the UT System Board of Regents and it’s something the administrators, students and other members of the higher education community have seen for a long time. A UT spokesperson said nobody from the University administration would want to speak publicly about the matter, but several administrators expressed discomfort with Perry’s ideas off the record.
“I think it’s very difficult for them to speak up because they are state employees, and it makes it very difficult to oppose anything like that,” Leshin said.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said Perry’s constituents have questioned his position on higher education in the form of letters to the Texas Ethics Commission. Perry and others, including the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the UT System Board of Regents are pursuing proposals that would damage higher education’s quality without seeking input from university students, professors and administrators, Zaffirini said. She said Perry and those who support his views on education have the right to make suggestions and be heard, but they must also consider competing proposals.
“When we deal with higher education, we must deal with the educators,” Zaffirini said.
Liberal arts professor Tom Palaima said education cannot be treated like a manufactured automobile. Rather, you have to create a balance between big and small classrooms and continue to engage in research that proves essential for the future of students and citizens of the country, he said.
“Education is designed to create something absolutely new,” Palaima said.
Perry and supporters say they don’t want to dilute the quality of higher education — instead, they’re trying to increase efficiency and improve educational experiences. Prominent advocates of this idea include Perry, Ohio State University economics professor Richard Vedder and Texas Public Policy Foundation members. Read More
Recently, there has been a great deal of controversy in Texas higher ed, particularly at Texas A&M and The University of Texas, about whether tuition and taxpayer dollars are being spent as efficiently and transparently as they should be.
Students are graduating with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt and no great prospects for earning, and, increasingly, employers are saying that graduates are not even remotely prepared for the workplace.
Many professors and other faculty, it turns out, aren’t really teaching that many, if any, classes. The excuse from the administration at our big public institutions is that they are busy researching. Research is a valuable endeavor (or can be, at least), but it turns out that only a tiny fraction of professors at UT are doing nearly all of the funded research.
Meanwhile, administrative staff and other overhead costs have continued to climb, and students and taxpayers just keep shoveling more and more money into the system, while taking on crippling levels of debt.
The question then turns to “excellence.” It takes a lot of money and a lot of overhead and bureaucracy to create an excellent university, the thinking goes. Well, UT still has an embarrassingly low 4-year graduation rate, and both UT and A&M have not moved up in any significant way in any of those all-important national rankings over the past decade or so, even as their budgets have exploded.
Unfortunately, most media coverage on this issue has not really focused on affordability, transparency (isn’t the press supposed to be pro-transparency?), accountability for tuition and tax dollars, or stagnation in the rankings. The focus has been on personalities. The reformers– Governor Perry, his donors, and appointed Regents; versus the establishment– State Senator Judith Zaffirini and UT President Bill Powers.
Lost in the shuffle: students, parents, taxpayers, and alumni. Not to mention big employers and entrepreneurs who need a high quality workforce to compete in the global economy.
Recently, a UT student decided to change the trajectory of the discussion:
It is time we rock the Ivory Tower…maybe long overdue.
How do parents prepare for the high costs of college? It could be that jumping on the bandwagon to reform higher education would be the best way to enhance affordability.
More parents are saving money for their children’s college education…in 2010; $9 billion has been put in government-run college savings plans. It’s a good thing. In 2010 public university, average undergrad college tuition $7,605.
But that money is not enough. The average student graduates with a debt of between $22,000-$27,000. Rate of default in student and parent loans is 5-10% per year. About 41% of people with student loans get in trouble and at some time become delinquent.
Pew poll reveals 75% say college is too expensive for most Americans to afford it.
Average cost of a college education has tripled since 1980.
While parents are struggling to find a way to pay for their children’s college, and almost half of those who have taken out loans are struggling to make their payments, this is money that is not in the economy and is a drag to our economic growth.
A well-educated workforce is important to our economic well-being. But with college costs growing (in Texas, costs have gone up 70% since 2003), we should be looking for ways to make college more affordable and accessible to Texas students. Read More
As a hub for tort reform and conservative rhetoric, Texas might be expected to have a statehouse with a demonstrable anti-attorney bias. If that’s the case, then Texas lawmakers are a self-loathing bunch. According to a new nationwide study by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Texas has the highest percentage of state legislators with a law degree.
Texas is the only place where more than 30 percent of state legislators have a law degree (30.4 percent). Rounding out the top 5 are Florida (29.4 percent), New York (29.2 percent), Virginia (28.6 percent) and Massachusetts (27.6 percent). Overall, 17.2 percent of state lawmakers in the U.S. have law degrees.
With 86.2 percent of state lawmakers having a bachelor’s degree or more, Texas ranks fifth overall in the country, behind California (89.9 percent), Virginia (88.6 percent), Nebraska (87.3 percent) and New York (86.8 percent). Overall, 74.7 percent of state lawmakers in the U.S. have a bachelor’s degree or more.
By comparison, about 25 percent of Texans have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 46 percent did not attend college at all. Read More
After receiving several extremely defensive emails from UT President William Powers Jr., I wanted to learn more about the higher education debate that has obviously struck a nerve and was seemingly being hurriedly swept under the rug.
What I learned was pretty depressing. College tuition has been skyrocketing over the past decade, but Powers was not addressing this huge problem that college-bound Americans will face. Instead, he was attacking a proposed solution that dealt with improving productivity at public universities.
Just between 2005 and 2010, there has been nearly a 36-percent increase in the average cost of tuition at UT. At this rate, tuition at UT will be anything but sustainable. In the fall semester of 2005, the average cost of tuition at UT was $3,643. Fast forward five years and that number jumps to $4,969. Think of it this way: At this rate, if I were to have a child in three years — add 18 years for him or her to grow to college age — my child would be paying more than $17,000 per semester to attend this same public university in Texas. Read More
By Reeve Hamilton
The current controversy dominating the higher education headlines in Texas is nothing if not nuanced. It’s hard for anyone to disagree with the broad buzzwords used by both sides: accountability, productivity, excellence, accessibility, transparency.
One might be hard-pressed to find an official of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which has promoted the controversial “seven breakthrough solutions” for higher education, who openly opposes “great research” or an administrator of a research institution, such as the University of Texas, fighting against “great teaching” — though those two are often presented as being at odds with each other.
This may be because there’s more agreement than disagreement, even among the most strident players on either side. Senate Higher Education Chairwoman Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, has been outspoken in her criticism of Gov. Rick Perry‘s agenda. At the same time, she carried — and passed — most of his office’s proposed higher education legislation. Alex Cranberg, one of Perry’s newly appointed regents at the University of Texas System and a strong advocate of reforming higher education, told the Tribune recently that he believes the differences between himself and those who have criticized him to be “relatively modest.”
Of course, the devil’s in the details. Read More
By Daniel Greer
A source polled last night on potential Lt. Governor replacements, further suggests David Dewhurst is on the move. It’s likely his next race will be for Governor or US Senator. Last night’s poll gives us a few other leads.
The subjects of the poll were Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, Comptroller Susan Combs and House Speaker Joe Straus. Of the three Straus and Combs face the toughest odds.
Straus, in poor shape having gone through a speaker’s race, will have to convince Texans the conservative outcomes in the House were achieved because of him and not in spite of him. The “race to replace Straus” saw Texas activists mark Straus a moderate Republican who campaigns as a conservative and this opposition is only growing. Read More
Legislators want to ensure transparency and impartiality in university boards of regents with a new committee after learning officials were meeting with Gov. Rick Perry behind closed doors, said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, to The Daily Texan.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, formed the Texas Joint Committee for Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency last month to discuss higher education policy decisions openly and protect the high quality of Texas universities. In recent months, Perry and interest groups such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation have pushed for separation between research and academic funding, which legislators said could harm universities’ goals.
“We must do all that we can to ensure that these public institutions operate transparently and with world-class leadership,” Straus said in a press release. “The talented members that we are appointing understand that effective university governing systems enable our students to compete on the global stage.” Read More
By Daniel Greer
Texans need to keep a close eye on state Senator Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) and Republican Lt. Governor David Dewhurst.
Currently Sen. Zaffirini is lead blocking for anti-transparency in spending at Texas state universities. While taxpayers are asking for clearer answers to how money is being used Zaffirini is conjuring up conspiracy theories about meddlesome regents to distract and sideline the reform efforts. Zaffirini, a liberal Democrat, has the backing of a Republican Lt. Governor.
Last week Zaffirini told the Austin American Statesman public university boards of regents merit close watch for up to six years. In reality it’s Zaffirini and her cohorts who need close watch. Her reason for the extra attention is a belief the regents are part of a grand scheme to fundamentally alter higher education in Texas.
It all depends on what she means. If by “fundamentally alter” she means make higher education more affordable and hold professors accountable for teaching and research, the regents would almost assuredly agree. This week has seen two reports that strongly suggest the need fundamental changes to how our universities are run. The first revealed workloads at UT vary widely; a small portion of the faculty does most of the work. The second report revealed universities are failing to provide graduates with a high-quality education. Read More
By Weston Hicks
An avowed ally of controlling university tuition costs, Representative Dan Branch (R) has nevertheless given mixed signals concerning the UT Higher Ed controversy. Branch co chairs the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence, and Transparency.
It’s unlikely he’ll spend political capital on liberal Democrat Senator Judith Zaffirini’s one woman conspiracy crusade against accountability in higher ed, especially given his own commitment to controlling tuition costs. Given growing suspicions among Republican voters that words and actions don’t match up in some politicians, Branch would do well to make his position harder to mistake. Read More
Representative Dan Branch, Republican of Dallas and chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, succeeded this session in passing a major bill on a new financing system for institutions of higher education. A system with a large “outcomes-based funding” component has so far garnered significant support. The implementation of such a practice would reward universities for a higher number of graduates, not merely for an increased number of enrolled students. This system is tailored to encourage Texas to meet its 2015 goals, one of which is to increase the number of degrees awarded by 46,000 each year.
Among the supporters of an outcomes-based funding system is Raymund Paredes, the Texas higher-education commissioner. However, there is disagreement as to which specific outcomes to measure and, as a result, how to encourage them.
At the end of the session, Senate Higher Education Committee chairwoman Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) insisted that the questions remains “if, not when” Texas might adopt a system of this sort. Read More
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
No one expected institutions of higher learning in Texas and their students to emerge unscarred from the legislative session, and they did not.
The number of students receiving state financial aid grants will decline by tens of thousands during the next two years. Community colleges aren’t getting any extra funding to accommodate sharp enrollment growth. Appropriations to the University of Texas are down 16.5 percent, or $92.1 million, for 2012-13.
All that comes as no shock considering that state leaders said at the outset of the legislative session that they would not raise taxes or dip into the rainy day fund.
Perhaps the most surprising development of the session with regard to higher education was the creation of a House-Senate oversight panel charged by House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, with conducting a deep review of university governing boards, policymaking and other matters. Read More
By Weston Hicks
A recent article in a Bryan-College Station paper, The Eagle, provides a good example of the kind of distraction people defending the unsustainable status quo in Texas higher education are forced to engage in.
The article discusses accountability efforts elsewhere (Oklahoma University, in this case), including who came up with them and how well they worked, trying hard to make it all sound controversial enough to further hamper efforts in Texas.
The fact is, tuition costs, expensive in the first place, are rising faster than almost everything else in our economy without corresponding improvement in teaching or research. Why does the same exact thing cost so much more every year? Why is it “irresponsible” to expect that to change?
The UT Regents, Governor Perry, and others on the side of reform simply want transparency and accountability in teaching, research, and money-spending so we can get ahead of the problem. Common sense ideas for change are out there. It’s true we won’t fully know how well they’ll work until they’re tried. If they don’t work well, we need to find better solutions. Read More
