Call for a Higher Education Compact with the State

As Chair of the Inter-University Council of Presidents of Ohio’s four-year public universities, I am calling upon my presidential colleagues to join together with the Ohio Board of Regents and the Chancellor to develop a proposal to the Governor and Legislature that calls for a compact with the state and higher education.

This proposed compact would provide higher education with the funds to increase enrollment and access, and would establish a stable budget environment for higher education. It would also allow us to plan for our future with a known and predictable base funding level over the next four-to-six years, which would in turn also allow us to develop a long-term fee policy for our students. The Higher Education Compact proposal is a critical policy initiative that higher education leaders in our state will be presenting to the Governor, legislators, and business and community leaders.

If we are going to increase access to higher education in Ohio, and do our part in addressing the state’s economic, work force, and social needs, then we urgently need to enter into a reciprocal compact with the state to develop a plan that we work on together as we begin the slow, but deliberate climb to begin the reinvestment process in higher education—even as we work together to undertake tax reform, Medicaid reform, and other initiatives to get the state back on the road to economic recovery. Over the weeks and months ahead, we will need to make our voices heard, and urge all our elected officials to support a Higher Education Compact so that we can truly become partners with our elected officials in the economic and social recovery of our state.

As higher education leaders and concerned citizens, we need to work closely with the new Governor and our state legislators to develop a Higher Education Compact that serves as a proactive and reciprocal agreement that provides our colleges and universities with stable funding; provides students and their families with the ability to plan ahead with regard to tuition and fees, and provides performance measures and indicators of success in key areas that are aligned with our missions and in support of the state’s needs. These areas will need to be discussed and developed by all parties to the Compact, and may include areas such as access and enrollment, retention and persistence through to graduation, time to degree, transfer agreements with community colleges, K-12 partnerships in the areas of academic preparation, teacher preparation and math and science education, as well as a number of other areas that are critical to the economic recovery, work force development, and other needs of our state.

All of us as higher education leaders are painfully aware that funding for higher education has decreased significantly over the last five years. And, during this same period, we have seen inflation levels rise by approximately 15 percent, while enrollments have increased by approximately 17 percent across the state. In spite of internal cuts, reallocations, productivity and efficiency efforts, and other efforts to control spending and raise revenue, it has become increasingly difficult to provide quality academic programs and services to our students.

As I noted above, over the last five years Ohio’s colleges and universities have increased their student enrollment by approximately 17 percent, and during this period state funding has decreased significantly. As a result of reductions in funding, we now have approximately 50,000 students who have been admitted to Ohio’s colleges and universities over the last five years with no corresponding state support. If we stop and think about this, the implications of these numbers are staggering: 50,000 unfunded students would be approximately the size of the student body at The Ohio State University. During the last five years, across the state of Ohio, these figures indicate that we have been providing academic programs and services—without funding—to the equivalent of the number of students enrolled at OSU. A multi-year plan that provides sufficient base operating funding, as well as funding for enrollment growth, is essential if Ohio’s colleges and universities are to fulfill their missions and contribute to a higher standard of living and better quality of life for the citizens of this state.

It is critical that the state enter into a Higher Education Compact with our public colleges and universities and that we work together—both legislators and higher education leaders—to address issues related to access and enrollment, retention and graduation, as well as other key areas that are critical to our missions and to the economic and social needs of our state. The Higher Education Compact would be a significant policy change that would begin to move us in a positive direction in Ohio, with significant benefits for our colleges and universities, the business community, the state, and most importantly, for our students and their families.