Costs

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

The Supreme Court and the Inflation of Educational Credentials

Nov 9, 2006 ·

In the mid-nineteenth century, the French economist Frederic Bastiat distinguished between good and bad economists by focusing on whether they thought through the long-run consequences of their arguments. According to Bastiat, a good economist was not blinded by the possible short-run gains to be attained by pursuing a certain course of action, but asked the question, “What will be the long-run consequences of doing that?” Bastiat was saying that the good economist worries about what we today call unintended consequences, whereas the bad economist considers only the immediate and visible consequences.

While Bastiat’s point was couched in terms of economists, his analysis could be applied just as well to anyone in position to make public policy decisions, including judges who can make law through their decisions in cases. (Judges often say that they are simply “interpreting” the law when they’re actually creating it.) A classic case of this phenomenon was the Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Company (401 U.S. 424).

Higher Education Notebook

Nov 3, 2006 ·

Increasing faculty salaries was the second-highest budget priority out of 11 presented to the Board of Governors’ Committee on Budget and Finance October 12. The administration plans to seek funds from the 2007 legislature to boost faculty salaries, on average, to the 80th percentile of their peers. This would mean adding $43.9 million in 2007-08 and the same amount for 2008-09. The $87.8 total would be in addition to 4 per cent merit-based increases, which will add up to $136 million for the two-year period, plus a proposed $2 million for distinguished professorships.

These numbers come from a “draft for discussion purposes only” list of priorities presented at the meeting and could change. The top priority is need-based financial aid, with a total proposed request for such aid $53.6 million. Other high priorities include $1.75 million for the “Academic Summer Bridge” program for students not ready to enter as freshmen, funds for University of North Carolina Online ($10 million over two years), and a variety of research projects totaling $59 million for 2007-8 and $29.6 million for 2008-09.

Universities Plan Disaster Response

Oct 31, 2006 ·

CHAPEL HILL — A program administered by Duke, North Carolina State, and UNC-Chapel Hill universities will establish off-campus sites to improve response to disasters in eastern and western North Carolina.

The Renaissance Computing Institute will open offices next year in Asheville, in conjunction with UNC-Asheville, and in Greenville, which will be affiliated with East Carolina University. The institute will fund the sites for three years.

Jane S. Shaw Appointed New Executive Vice President

Oct 24, 2006 ·

RALEIGH – Jane S. Shaw has been appointed executive vice president of the J.W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, a Raleigh-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving higher education in North Carolina and the nation. The center is named for the late John William Pope, who was a trustee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Shaw comes to the Pope Center from the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana, where she was a senior fellow and director of outreach for over twenty years. PERC is a nonprofit institute that applies economics to understanding and solving environmental problems. Before joining PERC, Shaw was a journalist. She moved to Montana from New York City, where she was an associate economics editor for Business Week. Shaw has a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.

Shaw is perhaps best known for her writing about the environment. With Michael Sanera she coauthored Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children about the Environment (Regnery, 1999). This book points out the exaggeration and pessimism typical of middle-school and high school textbooks and offers more balanced discussions of environmental issues from acid rain to global warming. She also edited a series of young people’s books on environmental topics published by Greenhaven Press, and coedited a book on land use, A Guide to Smart Growth (2000).

App State Gets Wine-Study Grant

Oct 23, 2006 ·

BOONE — Two Appalachian State University professors recently received a grant from a joint program between the United States and the European Union to create a degree track in wine science. Four institutions will be involved in the program.

The grant program is a venture between the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and the European Union’s Directorate General for Education and Culture. It attempts to create dual degree programs among universities in the United States and Europe.

Grant Holder and Lucian Georgescu of Appalachian State were awarded a $65,000 grant from the European Union-United States Atlantic Program. Holder and Georgescu are professors in Appalachian State’s viticulture and enology program. Once the program is fully implemented it would create transatlantic degrees and dual recognition of degrees and credits. There also could be exchanges among students and professors.

Overselling Higher Education, British Style

Oct 19, 2006 ·

Prime Minister Tony Blair clearly believes in education. When he took office in 1997, he announced his priorities: Education, education, education.

He believes in education so strongly that he has set a target of inducing 50 percent of our school leavers (graduates) to go to university. There is, of course, something a bit fishy about this: why not 48 percent, or 61 percent? If there was any rational basis for deciding on this figure, we have not been told.

The trouble is that the Blair government—which has almost doubled public spending since he took office—cannot possibly afford to pay for all this. Until recently, students were entitled to free tuition, and grants to pay for their living expenses. In terms of public spending, this was affordable when only 7 percent of our school leavers went on to university.

Connerly says it is time for America to be colorblind when it comes to race

Oct 18, 2006 ·

RALEIGH – As a member of the University of California Board of Regents, Ward Connerly experienced pressure to increase diversity on the campuses of the university system. After a 12-year term that ended in 2005, he still doesn’t know what the system was seeking.

“There was a lot of mindless blather about celebrating diversity,” Connerly said about his period on the board. “When I left, I didn’t know more about diversity. I asked a lot of questions. I could never get an answer that made sense to me.”

Connerly was the keynote speaker at the recent Pope Center Conference on “Diversity: How Much and What Kinds Do Universities Need?” held in Raleigh at the Brownstone Inn. As a regent, Connerly successfully fought for the elimination of race-based admission practices at the University of California. He also led a successful statewide campaign in 1996 to adopt Proposition 209, which prevented the state government from giving preferential treatment based on race. Today he is supporting a similar initiative in Michigan.

UNC governors discuss system-wide study

Oct 13, 2006 ·

When Jim Phillips took over as UNC Board of Governors chairman this summer, one of his top priorities was to conduct a study detailing what North Carolina citizens want from their university system. On Thursday some of the initial planning for the study began to take shape.

Board members spent the afternoon discussing the structure of the study, designed to answer the question “What do the people of North Carolina need from their university, for the state to be successful in the 21st century?” Eva Klein and Associates, a consulting firm based in Great Falls, Virginia, along with Gottlieb and Associates of Washington, D.C., presented it during the work session, which was held in conjunction the October Board of Governors meeting.

Spellings makes recommendations for higher education’s future

Sep 26, 2006 ·

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced Tuesday proposals to reform higher education that would increase need-based financial aid and create a national database to provide more information to families.

The speech, delivered at the National Press Club, was the most anticipated in Spellings’ tenure and comes at the culmination of a year-long process examining the future of higher education in the nation. The process began in Charlotte last year when Spellings announced the formation of a national committee to look at how higher education can improve. Last week, commissioners, including former Gov. James Hunt, submitted their final report, titled, “A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education.”

Even though Spellings stated that she did not “envision or want a national system of higher education,” it’s clear that many of the programs that she desires would ultimately increase the federal government’s role in higher education.

Efforts to get conservative speakers at UNC-CH bearing fruit

Sep 25, 2006 ·

CHAPEL HILL — Despite the rude reception given former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and other conservative speakers at UNC-Chapel Hill recently, there are indications that the effort to get conservative voices on campus is making progress.

One liberal student even complained in a local paper recently that the star power of conservative speakers now outshines liberal speakers.

Leftist and liberal students on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus have kept up their tradition of heckling, disrupting, and walking out of speeches given by conservatives, most recently when Ashcroft appeared on campus last month.