Guest Column: Why UT-Austin Shouldn’t Raise Its Tuition
University of Texas System Regent, Alex Cranberg
The University of Texas System is an extraordinary institution. It educates more than 200,000 students, mostly from Texas, and it conducts an enormous amount of groundbreaking research. The cumulative impact of the education of young people and the research output of the thousands of brilliant faculty is prodigious and valuable. I could not be prouder of the University of Texas diploma on my wall, representing as it does not only knowledge and thinking skills gained but also the symbol of the four joyous and challenging years I spent growing as a person and learning about myself and others. What a gift the founders of Texas gave our state in establishing “a University of the first class.” It is a special privilege for me to serve on my university system‘s board of regents (although the views expressed here are mine personally and not necessarily those of other board members).
Over the 35 years since I graduated, many measures of the quality of UT-Austin have grown dramatically. But tuition has also increased — by more than 80 percent over just the past eight years. I am forever grateful to the university and to the state of Texas for giving me the opportunity to be able to pay my own way through school and graduate almost debt free. Today’s students are not typically so lucky.
It is fashionable to blame higher tuition on legislative tight-fistedness, but the facts simply do not support that charge. Nationally, state support for higher education has roughly kept pace with general inflation over the past 20 years. Some pushing for higher student tuition tend to point out that state support of higher education has dropped substantially as a share of total revenues. That is true, but only because educational costs have increased much faster than inflation and federally funded research budgets have grown substantially, making state support naturally account for a much smaller portion of the entire budget.
At UT-Austin, generous philanthropists and state-granted lands have endowed the university with extraordinary additional pillars of support that other institutions could only dream about. Even intercollegiate athletics, often a loss-maker, provide meaningful support for academic programs. Finally, a little-noticed change in the admissions practice at UT-Austin is shifting many slots previously allocated to Texas residents, who pay $10,000 per year, to nonresidents, who pay $33,000 per year.
During the past 10 years, after inflation, investment income and university funds available for operations (i.e., over and above capital expenditures) have grown by $2,100 per student. State support has dropped by only $1,300 per student, partly due to nonresident students not being subsidized by the state. Roughly two-thirds of state funding cuts are either tied to or offset by increased nonresident tuition. The $3,300-per-year tuition increase families are already paying is simply not justified by reductions in state support — and nor is possibility of further increases.
The public is told by some that holding the line on tuition will imperil much-needed student programs, hold back research or result in a “dumbing down” of the university. The actual data demonstrate that this is a fundamentally misleading position. Instructional revenues are going up, even without tuition increases. State funding cuts are frequently cited by those asking for more money from students — despite the negative consequences of even higher tuition on student access. Yes, there are plenty of students willing to pay the tuition at UT even if it increased further. But is that what the founders of Texas had in mind for their “University of the first class”? The Texas Constitution does not famously promise its citizens a “University of the upper class.”
We can earn financial support from other parts of society than students facing an uncertain job market. We can enhance learning productivity, better reward our faculty and have an even bigger positive influence on the world by harnessing technology even more innovatively than we do now. We do not need to increase tuition.
It is a competitive world. I love the University of Texas too much to see others take the lead. I expect the Texas Legislature, the University of Texas System and our many dedicated, inspired faculty, staff and administrators will continue to work together to find ways actually to cut students’ outlay and increase quality of learning so that UT students may be even more blessed by the UT opportunity than I have been.
Alex Cranberg sits on the University of Texas System Board of Regents.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told an audience of 1,700 Denver business and civic leaders on Tuesday that a failing educational system puts the United States at risk of becoming a nation in decline.
Speaking at the spring luncheon of ACEScholarships at the Hyatt Convention Center, Bush said the path to fixing the systems is more parental engagement, higher educational standards, better accountability, customized learning, reform of the teaching profession and empowering people with school choice.
“In schooling, the most important thing we ought to be doing is providing choice,” he said.
Half of African-American and Hispanic children drop out of high school. Of those who graduate, many read at a middle school level, and few are ready for college. Our poor, inner-city children are not receiving the education they need to become successful contributors to society.
Without a diploma these children are as likely to go to prison, as they are to go to college. The promise of the American Dream – “a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement,” according to James Truslow Adams – is just that for these children: a dream.
We can fix this crisis. But first, we must truly understand the extent of the problem.
What’s more, last year’s success will enabled ACE to add 300 new scholarship recipients for the 2012-13 school year, increasing our scholarship program to 1,500 low-income children.
To put this in perspective, in 2008 ACE supported 727 students; to almost double our scholarship program during one of the most challenging economic climates in recent memory is an incredible achievement.
Thank you for all you have done to make this possible!
Just a month into the year, 2012 has already started off with some exciting developments
ACE was honored to partner with close to twenty other Colorado organizations to launch ColoradoSchoolGrades.com an online tool that allows parents to better understand how their public school is performing by assigning each school with an easy-to-understand letter-grade based on state data. This site gives parents valuable information to make an informed choice about their child’s education.
Also last month, we sponsored an exciting event as part of National School Choice Week during which tens of thousands of people attended more than 400 events across the nation to shine a spotlight on the need for better educational options for children.
ACE was the Title Sponsor of an event in Castle Rock that brought more than 1,200 people together to hear about the benefits of school choice and take away valuable ideas about how they can get involved in this critical cause.
2012 will indeed be an exciting year as we continue to showcase the impact that school choice can have on the lives of kids… kids like Julio, Lindsay and Nehemias.
Thank you for your continued interest and investment in ACE and Colorado’s children. It’s an investment with untold rewards.Here’s to a great 2012!
Surprise! 2011 has been a monumental year for education reform. This year alone, 36 states have either passed or are considering comprehensive legislation on school vouchers, tax credits, and other education reform measures. Of these, 12 states and the District of Columbia have implemented reforms to expand or create school choice programs. What accounts for this sheer volume of school-funding reform activity? And what role did philanthropy play? While some have said the reforms were a byproduct of the 2010 elections, others have pointed to the dramatic shift in strategy away from white papers and editorials and towards public awareness-building and sophisticated political advocacy. At this session, speakers from three states that exemplify the resurgence—Colorado, Arizona, and Indiana—will explain how they turned things around. What are the lessons for donors who want to advance school choice reforms in their states? Where did reforms fail, and what can we learn from these failures? As the school choice movement moves forward, how can it maintain momentum and guard its victories as it evolves and matures?
Regent Cranberg serves as a member of the Audit, Compliance, and Management Review Committee; Facilities Planning and Construction Committee; Finance and Planning Committee; and Technology Transfer and Research Committee.
UT board approves changes. Plan aims to boost productivity, academics.
By Melissa Ludwig
mludwig@express-news.net
The University of Texas Board of Regents approved an action plan Thursday 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 ChancellorFrancisco 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 the state’s 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.
Cigarroa said the plan is meant to set goals, not dictate how they are achieved. A deadline looms for defining and achieving each benchmark.
“One size does not fit all,” Cigarroa said. “The innovation, the creativity of how to address these issues … is dependent on the creative leadership of our presidents and faculty.”
Accountability steps
To help monitor the plan’s success, the system set aside $10 million to build a user-friendly “dashboard” that university presidents and citizens alike can use to access real-time productivity and success metrics at the system, university, departmental and even individual faculty level.
The dashboard will include salaries, number of credit hours taught and student evaluation scores of individual professors, data that kicked up controversy when they were first released to the public.
But unlike the previously released database, which presented a snapshot in time, the dashboard will include historical data to show trends over the years.
“You will be able to see the full contributions of (faculty), our greatest assets,” Cigarroa said.
It also could help provosts decide where to allocate resources and department heads make decisions about staffing, Powell said.
Faculty productivity has been one of the hottest topics of debate, with critics claiming many professors spend too much time on frivolous research and not enough time teaching.
The plan calls for strengthening post-tenure review, conducting outside audits of academic departments, and tweaking the pay structure to better reward performance. The plan also expands teaching excellence awards and allocates more money to recruit top-notch faculty.
“UT can benefit from clear, unambiguous guidelines regarding, research, teaching and service,” Allen said. “Some despair that we are not capable of accurately measuring (those duties). It is not beyond our capacity.”
To increase student success, the plan calls for increased degree production, higher four-year graduation rates and tuition policies that reward students for graduating within that time frame. Speeding time to degree for Ph.D. students is a priority as well.
The plan also demands more careful enrollment management, which could mean higher entrance standards at regional universities, and asks universities to find ways to reduce student debt and issue financial disclosure statements to increase transparency.
Money for online
Recognizing that technology could revolutionize education, regents dedicated $50 million to create an Institute for Transformational Learning, which will dole out competitive grants to develop high-quality online and blended courses, and to use technology to improve learning outcomes in large, gateway courses.
The idea sprang from a task force on online and blended learning chaired by Regent Wallace Hall, who said UT must compete in the online sphere or risk being left behind.
UT’s online brand must be “synonymous with excellence,” Hall said.
Ideas from two task forces on online learning and productivity and efficiency were blended into Cigarroa’s framework.
Regent Alex Cranberg, who sat on the productivity task force, helped broker a $10 million deal with an Austin-based company called MyEdu to provide custom, private-label services for UT that include electronic advising, degree planning and cost calculators.
Some of the data collected by MyEdu, including grades issued for each class, will likely be incorporated into the dashboard.
In terms of research, the framework encourages institutions to collaborate more freely and for the system’s four emerging research universities, including UTSA, to formulate business plans for reaching Tier One status.
Because philanthropy will play a bigger role in a time of declining state revenues, the plan sets aside $9 million to beef up development offices with experienced fundraisers.
The plan also allocates money to improve technology infrastructure and computational power.
Part of the $243 million investment will boost health and science education in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who has openly criticized Chairman Powell for micromanaging and stirring up what she deemed “unnecessary controversy,” said she hoped the plan would unite stakeholders and calm the upheaval of the last six months.
“The controversy was unnecessary and a distraction,” said Zaffirini, who attended the meeting. “I hope the vote means regents will allow chancellors and presidents to do their job.”
Powell said he’s not bothered by the “slings and arrows” pointed at him. In his opinion, the debate churned up some great ideas.
The Board of Regents, the governing body for The University of Texas System, is composed of nine members who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. Terms for Regents are scheduled for six years each and staggered so that three members’ terms will usually expire on February 1 of odd-numbered years. In addition, the Governor appoints a Student Regent for a one-year term that expires on May 31.
Throughout the more than 100-year history of the U. T. System, the Board has been composed of dedicated and distinguished Texans who have been strong advocates of excellence in academic programs, scientific inquiry, and responsible public service.
Alex Cranberg indicated a desire to find common ground regarding the UT debate over higher education. He has begun making inquiries about joining the recently formed Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, a large group of prominent Texans who have joined together in response to the debate. Cranberg said he wishes to do his part to “inform their efforts and support their aims.”
“The Coalition will do its best work if it is well informed about what sorts of ideas are actually under consideration as opposed to those which are not,” wrote Cranberg, who has also expressed an interest to being a member of the group’s leadership committees. “It’s not a good use of time to fight over things we agree over.”
ACE has awarded more than 6,000 scholarships totaling more than $12 million and works with 200 partner schools.
“It was in response to the failed initiative to create a voucher program,” said Cranberg, who recently was appointed to a six-year term to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. “We figured we couldn’t just tell other people to spend their money. We should ourselves. We could put together a demonstration project to show what happens when kids got additional opportunities beyond those that were originally offered.”
Although ACE has been associated with private schools, Cranberg stresses that it advocates for choice in education overall and supports the rise of charter schools in the public school system.
“Kids are very diverse, and their needs are very diverse. They need to have products that are designed for them, and not just for everybody or the average,” he said. “We’ve always been big believers in the underlying fundamental principle of choice and competition, wherever that can be derived. And that doesn’t necessarily mean private. Since ACE was founded there has gotten to be more and more public competition and public choice – true competitive choice, not just flavors of the same basic product. The biggest piece of that is the growth of the charter movement.”
I approved of Chancellor Cigarroa’s message, but warned against confusing prestige with achievements like advances in knowledge and student outcomes. The chancellor’s message reinforced the important reforms that the UT System Board must push forward to advance excellence at the University of Texas.
For hundreds of kids, ACE Scholarships means freedom — the freedom to pursue the American Dream, that promise of “a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement,” according to James Truslow Adams.
By giving low-income children scholarships to attend quality schools, ACE empowers kids to pursue their dreams.
The Chancellor’s message reinforced the important reforms that this Board must push forward to advance excellence at the University of Texas.
Among these are:
– A purpose that is relevant to society
– Recognition and rewards for great teaching (grad AND undergrad) as well as for great research
– Quantify and track with transparency with emphasis on outcomes
– Embrace and lead in learning technology
– Make sure that students achieve their degrees more efficiently
Recent controversy at the University of Texas System could hamper serious attempts for reform and taint the results of two task forces studying efficiency and online and blended learning, observers say.
“It is harmful for a bunch of false hysteria to be whipped up about what the board may or may not actually do,” said Alex Cranberg, a UT regent appointed in February.
Cranberg did not direct his comments at the task forces, one of which he sits on, but Richard Leshin, president of the Texas Exes, UT Austin’s alumni association, did.
“The genesis (of the task forces) is tainted, so I think it will continue to be tainted,” Leshin said about the group’s work.
The controversy sparked six weeks ago when UT regents hired Rick O’Donnell, a Colorado native, to staff two UT task forces on distance learning and efficiency. News reports linked O’Donnell to Jeff Sandefer, a wealthy entrepreneur whose “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” for higher education reform hold a lot of sway with Gov. Rick Perry, who made them the topic of a summit for university regents in 2008.
‘Insubordination’
Despite a chilly reception to the solutions, Perry continued to push behind the scenes for implementation at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas systems, according to internal emails.
Texas A&M carried out a couple of the solutions, garnering backlash from faculty and the public. UT held back.
Observers speculated O’Donnell was brought in to “bring UT to heel” to the seven solutions, and rumors surfaced that regents tried to fire Francisco Cigarroa, chancellor of the UT System, and Bill Powers, president of UT Austin, for “insubordination.”
Cranberg said Friday the rumors are untrue.
“Anyone who says otherwise is misinformed or manipulating,” Cranberg said in an email.
Leshin, whose Texas Exes adopted a resolution this week supporting Powers, said he “has heard from some very good sources that the two were both considered at-risk.”
The Executive Committee of the Chancellor’s Council, which represents more than 300 donors to the UT System, issued a similar statement in support of Cigarroa earlier this month.
In the end, it was O’Donnell who got the pink slip.
His $200,000 a year salary and job description first raised alarms, prompting regents to reassign O’Donnell and made his job temporary. Emails later showed that Gene Powell, chairman of the board of regents, had settled on O’Donnell before even writing a job description.
Powell declined a request for an interview.
When it came out that O’Donnell had written a 2008 policy paper that deemed most academic research a waste of time and money, supporters of UT Austin feared a plot to destroy the flagship’s mighty research enterprise. An Express-News analysis later found two dozen citation and other errors in the paper, written for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think-tank.
In letters and public statements, alumni, donors, students and lawmakers raised concerns that regents’ reforms were headed in the wrong direction.
On Monday, O’Donnell penned a letter to Regent Wallace Hall complaining that leaders at the system and the flagship campus had resisted his efforts to get data, which he said showed a growing share of tuition and tax dollars going to professors and administrators who did little teaching.
By Tuesday, O’Donnell was out of a job.
Like ‘Coca-Cola’
Charles Miller, former chairman of the UT Board of Regents, said he believes Powell fumbled O’Donnell’s hiring, but that UT stakeholders overreacted with their public statements and letter-writing campaigns, damaging the school’s reputation nationally and abroad.
“If you are Coca-Cola, you don’t let your brand be diminished,” Miller said.
The work of the task forces is critically important, he said. Technology, combined with dwindling budgets, is forcing a paradigm shift in higher education. Leaders must find a way to lower the cost of educating while teaching more students. Powell’s instinct to study online education and productivity was right on, he said.
But will the task forces lose credibility in light of recent events?
“That could happen if we don’t tone down the discussion,” Miller said.
Kyle Kalkwarf, UT’s student regent and a medical student at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, disagreed.
“I don’t have a problem with people speaking up because they are interested,” Kalkwarf said. “I think it’s good we are having an open, frank discussion.”
Cranberg, a Coloradoan who has known O’Donnell for years and Sandefer from the oil and gas business, agreed that change is imperative, but denied that he is doing Perry’s bidding by pushing Sandefer’s seven solutions as the answer.
“Gov. Perry is a man whose opinions I respect,” Cranberg said. “However, I am very much my own man. I’m too committed to making a difference based on the principles I believe in to try running my life according to someone else’s belief system.”
Cranberg said excellence comes from “a fearless willingness to ask hard questions, experiment and capacity to make sometimes uncomfortable change.”
“I hope and expect that each campus’ leadership will be fearless in the pursuit of excellence and will follow that trail wherever it leads.”
ABOUT THE INVENTOR
Dr. Lawrence Cranberg is a research physicist, inventor and entrepreneur whose career has spanned seven decades.
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