Will $500 help struggling universities?
Published May 20, 2016
By Tom Campbell
by Tom Campbell, Executive Producer and Moderator, NC SPIN, May 19, 2016.
Most of our state’s 16 public universities are thriving but the UNC Board of Governors and our General Assembly continue to look for solutions at struggling campuses in smaller communities and those with larger minority enrollments. Declining enrollments, financial mismanagement and academic problems too often surface in many of these schools and beg solutions.
Senator Tom Apodaca has proposed legislation to help these universities attract more students, while at the same time addressing the mounting debt many students incur. His suggestion is to freeze tuition at targeted universities at $500 per semester for eight consecutive semesters, perhaps a good starting point for a long-overdue conversation.
Leaders have known for years about problems in these universities but have deferred serious consideration to fixing them because they necessarily raise questions of race, tradition, faculty and administrative personnel, admission standards, academic rigor and campus culture - issues guaranteed to be both controversial and divisive. While we nibble around the edges of the problems we do great disservice to the institutions, the students and the taxpayers of our state.
Hard questions need answering. Why are students choosing to attend other public universities instead of these schools? Many minority students who might previously have attended are gaining admission to other institutions within the system and matriculate to them. Many White and Asian students don’t even apply to these schools. Do they believe they can’t receive the quality of instruction at HBUs? Do they not feel they would fit into the prevailing culture on these campuses? Do these schools not offer specialty majors and advanced degrees sufficiently attractive to students?
Apodaca’s proposals also raise questions. Will reduced tuition necessarily result in more enrollments? Does cheap tuition send the message of lesser quality instruction? Does it also accompany lower admission standards? Will it really lower the real cost of delivery in higher education? If not, who is going to pay for the reduced revenues to these schools? Are taxpayers willing to absorb the projected $60 to $80 million increase in the state budget?
We are not ready to give up and close these universities, especially those in the northeastern, southeastern and far western parts of our state. Further, the suggestion to change the names of these schools dishonors the rich heritage of educators like Dr. Thomas Conway (ECSU), Robert Lee Morrison (WCU), James Shepard (NCCU), Simon Green Atkins (WSSU) and Dr. E. E. Smith (FSU). These heroic and dedicated educators devoted their lives to ensuring access and education to the poor and disadvantaged, and we strongly suspect these founders would be leading the charge to make needed changes to assure they survive and thrive.
A cursory examination of leaders in education, business, politics, the arts and nonprofit sectors demonstrate the value these institutions have played in their personal development. That said, none of our public universities can live on past accomplishments. Current circumstances, especially in our historic minority and smaller universities, mandate that changes are needed, perhaps significant changes. It is time for our Board of Governors, educators, legislators and leaders from all races and disciplines come to the table in a spirit of finding solutions to ensure these struggling universities can be viable for the future.
May 20, 2016 at 2:01 pm
Charles Larry Horne says:
Anything Apodoca suggests would not be any benefit to North Carolina and the sorry state of affairs his lack of leadership has perpetrated. Time to elect real leaders who are not in the pocket of Art Pope and Koch syndicate.
May 20, 2016 at 5:08 pm
Norm Kelly says:
'financial mismanagement'. Good place to start. What's the solution? Simple: replace the management! We do NOT rescue leaders who can't manage the money properly. We do NOT give them more money to mismanage. We replace bad money managers with people who know how to be responsible. This is not a case of racial prejudice if the poor money manager is a black person. It is not racist to remove the bad manager and replace them. If it means replacing a black leader at a HBU, then it means replacing the black leader even if the replacement is a white person! Just because a leader happens to be black does NOT mean they get to be terrible at their job and get rewarded for it! That would simply be stooooopid!
'academic problems'. Another easy one to take care of. Those who are creating the problems are replaced. Race does not matter. Those who change grades to reward students who don't deserve it need to BE FIRED! I know, we are talking about institutions; a good word for those places that are SUPPOSED to be for higher education. Those who cheat, lie, steal are to be removed from their position. Either that or they run for elected office in the Demoncrat Party. In the demon party, those who lie, cheat, steal THE BEST are rewarded the most. Witness Bill, Hillary, most people in the current administration, including the current occupier! Even Jimmy Carter qualifies for being terrible and getting rewarded. Until the current occupier, Jimmy was the least qualified occupant in the last 100 years or more! The current occupier beats Jimmy, hands down.
Fixing problems in colleges and universities IS NOT A RACE ISSUE. Just because the bad management (or whatever you want to call it) happens at a HBU does NOT MEAN those who try to fix the problem are racists. Actually the opposite is true. Those who refuse to recognize the problem and attempt to fix it are the racists. Which describes the vast majority, if not all, demon pols in the state. Only demons look at skin color first to decide how to handle a given situation. If the person in question has an abundance of melanin in their skin, demons automatically believe the person is under-educated, under-qualified, and in great need of help from kindly loving libs. Any melanin-rich person who has failed to perform their job properly is automatically excused by a racist with the assumption that they really couldn't do the job they were asked to do. The typical lib response, anyway. It's typically conservatives who believe melanin-rich people ARE qualified and CAN perform. It's typically conservatives who believe that melanin content does not determine whether the job is done properly or not; melanin content does not determine if the person should remain in the job or be fired. Libs always look at melanin content before determining the ability of the person. Libs always believe the more melanin, the less able & qualified a person is. It's their default position.
'Why are students choosing to attend other public universities instead of these schools?. Was this a serious question or a trick question? The answer is as obvious as the nose on the average face, apologies to anyone who does not have a nose; no discrimination intended. Students are choosing other schools because the other schools are recruiting them to qualify for government benefits by NOT being a racist institution. The HBUs typically will get government benefits simply because they are HBUs while other institutions are called racists, by libs of course, if enough melanin-rich people don't attend. And at the same time, it's true that these other institutions are lowering their standards for melanin-rich folks in order for them to qualify. Add to that, it looks better when attempting to get your first job if you can list UNC-CH than whichever HBU. Not me being a racist; just stating facts. I know, you libs are offended, but I say grow up, mature, and get real with life. Not only will you realize that I'm right on that point, but suddenly you become opposed to Billary instead of one of her/his supporters!
'Do they not feel they would fit into the prevailing culture on these campuses?' Ok, enough with the trick questions! Or was this just another obvious one? Hard to tell! Again, simple answer. It's not a question of whether they 'feel' they wouldn't fit into the prevailing culture. It's that they KNOW they will not fit in. Their feelings have nothing to do with it. The average (read that: most) white people WILL NOT fit into the prevailing culture of a HBU! Fact. Not fiction. Not made up. Just like melanin-rich have started whining that they are being discriminated against at non-HBU schools when they are expected to perform just like any other student. Difference is the melanin-rich aren't being discriminated against (most of the time) while whitey definitely would be an outsider!
'Will it really lower the real cost of delivery in higher education?' Of course it will NOT! It will move the cost even more from the student/family onto tax payers. Tax payers are already being skrewed on 'higher' education costs. The cost of 'higher' education doesn't go down just because the student is charged less. The cost is simply shifted, like ALL government programs, onto tax payers. We do NOT need more of a burden!
'leaders from all races and disciplines come to the table in a spirit of finding solutions'. Good luck getting the buffet slayer to go along with this. He will automatically call this a racist act perpetrated by Republican legislators bent on closing down these HBUs. The current occupier will have his unJustice Dept investigate on racist grounds. The current occupier will also threaten to withhold federal funds from the state in order to terminate the racist activity.
May 20, 2016 at 11:10 pm
Tom Hauck says:
Thank you for your thoughtful columns, Tom.
One way to save personal(less borrowed money) and state government money would be to increase, and perhaps strengthen, the offerings at the Community Colleges so that children would go to the community colleges for the first two years and then seamlessly transfer to the University for their final two years. It works with the Central Carolina Community Colleges and UNC Chapel Hill. This saves tuition funds and perhaps room and board funds. The students who have done this have better graduation rates and have saved thousands of dollars. Their education has also not suffered.
This might cause disruption at some Universities but the financial savings to the State and the student are enormous and with better results for the students.
May 21, 2016 at 1:55 pm
Barbara Kirby says:
This is a thinly veiled plot to close these universities. If they need to be closed, close them. If they are being mismanaged, get rid of he current administration and get more responsible people.
To another point, I can't imagine why Western Carolina University is even on this list.
May 21, 2016 at 5:47 pm
Robert P. Storck says:
Forgive me if you can but ANYTHING Apodaca has an opinion about is very likely to be steeped in the GOP viewpoint of fooling the many who trust him by ultimately hurting everyone but himself and his Republican cronies in the NC General Assembly. Badically, if he's for it, I need to watch out that his agenda is to undermine what progress we have made so that HE can benefit from his (allegedly) privileged position.
May 22, 2016 at 9:07 am
Bennie Lee says:
It sure was pleasant this morning not having to lesson to Chris's negativity.
