Articles

Articles

Aug 8, 2007 ·

Lift the Veil Off the Finances of Colleges and Universities

Two leading members of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), are trying to increase transparency in the financial reporting by nonprofit organizations. Many of the reforms the senators propose—outlined in a May 29 letter to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen—would have a profound effect upon the kind of financial information that colleges and universities are required to disclose to the public.

Colleges and universities are required to file Form 990 annually with the IRS (available to the public through GuideStar). Baucus and Grassley propose a major overhaul of Form 990. They contend that the current form does not adequately encompass information regarding large, complex nonprofits such as universities. They call for more detailed reporting tailored to the specifics of these institutions and for making their financial reporting more transparent.

Aug 8, 2007 ·

More teachers, less smoking

Legislators finally placed an end to the eight-month legislative session on Aug. 3 after approving the state budget and pushing through some final pieces of legislation.

In all, more than 500 bills may become law from this session. The final number depends on how many Governor Mike Easley will veto. He has 30 days from the end of the session to decide about the nearly 200 bills still on his desk. Any bill Easley does not act on in that time frame will be automatically enacted into law.

Of those bills, only a handful concern higher education in North Carolina, and those primarily focus on procedural changes to programs currently in existence. A few bills do create new programs or initiatives with the state’s higher education systems.

Aug 1, 2007 ·

The Firing of Ward Churchill: A Good First Step

Last week, the University of Colorado terminated the employment of Professor Ward Churchill, the head of the “Ethnic Studies” department. It is an exceedingly rare thing for a university to fire a tenured professor and it took Colorado two years of investigation and hearings to finally determine that his employment would be ended.

Churchill’s firing was perfectly justified, but in my view is only the first step that the University of Colorado should take if it is to be truly accountable to the people of the state.

The case is well known, but let’s review the facts.

Jul 31, 2007 ·

Things We Could Do Without in the State Budget

On Monday, legislators gave final approval of a $20.7 billion budget for the 2007-08 Fiscal Year. Less than a day later, Gov. Mike Easley signed and sealed the package.

The budget appropriates $2.6 billion to the University of North Carolina system and $938 million for the community colleges.

“We have put reality behind the vision of an affordable, debt-free education from pre-kindergarten to an undergraduate degree at a state university,” Easley said in a statement. “Out of this budget, North Carolina emerges a leader in education on the national scene. History will note the courage and foresight of those who did not just make easy promises, but did the hard work to keep those promises and stand up for the future of our state.”

Among the items included in the budget are some that Gov. Easley and budget writers should be proud of, in my opinion. The budget spends $1.5 million to allow part-time private college students to participate in the legislative tuition grant program and $177,000 to provide additional funding for the Gateway Technology Center on the campus of North Carolina Wesleyan College. It also makes reductions to follow the recommendations of the President’s Advisory Committee on Efficiency and Effectiveness.

Jul 30, 2007 ·

House, Senate leaders approve $20.7 billion budget

House and Senate leaders have approved a $20.7 billion budget plan for the 2008 fiscal year. It’s a spending package that includes $2.6 billion for the UNC system and $938 million for community colleges.

UNC’s Fiscal Year 2007 budget was $2.2 billion.

The spending package comes one month into the 2008 fiscal year. Legislators had approved a continuing budget authorization in June after negotiators could not come to an agreement on critical aspects in the budget. Gov. Mike Easley is expected to sign the bill once it arrives at his desk.

Jul 27, 2007 ·

Athletics Arms Race

In January, Nick Saban signed an eight-year $32 million contract with the University of Alabama to become its next football coach, making him the highest-paid college coach in the nation.

The signing sent shockwaves across the college athletics landscape. Not only had Alabama signed a premier coach who had led Louisiana State University, a SEC rival, to a share of the national title in 2004, but it sparked criticisms – and fear – that Saban’s hiring would elevate the salaries of already highly-paid coaches to even higher levels. The fear was that it would place severe financial strains on the universities and their athletic departments.

Jul 27, 2007 ·

About the Speakers

Stephen H. Balch is the founder and president of the National Association of Scholars, America’s largest membership organization of scholars committed to higher education reform. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and for fourteen years taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. He is a trustee of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and has helped found four other higher education reform organizations.

Richard J. Bishirjian is president and professor of government at Yorktown University, an online university that espouses classical education. Bishirjian has a Ph.D. in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame and has studied under philosopher Eric Voegelin and political theorist Michael Oakeshott. He is the author of a history of political theory and editor of A Public Philosophy Reader.

Jul 25, 2007 ·

Keeping College Grads in the State

Politicians will try just about anything that might boost their state’s economy. There aren’t many measures that will actually do that, so they resort to policies that they can plausibly say will produce economic benefits.

One idea that has been cropping up a lot in recent years is that a state can give its economy a lift by trying to keep students who graduate from colleges within its borders from taking jobs elsewhere. Several states have gone down that path, most recently Maine and West Virginia.

In Maine, Governor John Baldacci recently signed legislation that makes residents who graduate from a college or university in the state eligible for ten years of state tax credits of about $2,100 annually as long as the individual works in Maine. In West Virginia, Governor Joe Manchin recently said that in order to get “more of a return” on his state’s investment in higher education, he would like to see residents who have graduated from a college in the state be exempted from the West Virginia income tax until they turn 26. He also suggested giving students who remain in the state tax credits for money devoted to repaying student loans.

Jul 20, 2007 · and

College Summer Reading Can Be Useful – Or Not

Many colleges and universities these days have a “summer reading” program for incoming students, which requires them to read a book and be prepared to discuss it during the first few days of class. The programs are designed to create a common ground among new students, challenge them to think critically about new ideas and introduce them to university work and intellectual life at a university.

This is a splendid idea. Done well, such reading programs can help to get college students off to a good start by concentrating their minds on the nature of and reasons for academic study.

Unfortunately, if it is done poorly this becomes at least a missed opportunity. If a school chooses a book that has no timeless message, it will fail to make any lasting impression on the students. And if a school selects a book that is faddish or polemical, it is worse than a missed opportunity. It conveys to the students the idea that college is more about what to think than about how to think. Sadly, at some institutions that happens to be the case in many of the courses taught, but still it’s best to start freshmen off with a good impression.