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Hog House Blog finally lets out a juicy bit of news from the Dec. 7 Rapid City crackerbarrel: Rep. Mark Kirkeby (R-Rapid City) wants to "ask the Board of Regents to eliminate or reduce one of our public universities in the state of South Dakota" [quoted by Denise Ross, "Bill Would Close a SD University,"Hog House Blog, 2007.12.14].
Kirkeby suggested that with all the talk about closing and consolidating small schools in the K-12 system, maybe we ought to be asking the university system to make some sacrifices as well.
I'd brush this off as a freshman legislator spitballing about a crazy idea that will go nowhere. But he's saying the same thing Rep. Gip Koetzle (D-Sioux Falls) said last month:
Sen. Gil Koetzle, D-Sioux Falls, will be a hard sell.
"That guy can spend more money than a kid in a candy store," Koetzle said of Perry. "How about instead of trying to spend, we try to save? If we want to have all these research facilities, maybe we should think about not offering college courses in seven different locations. I'm serious. I don't know how we'd do it, but do we need more labs at every campus?" [Terry Woster, "Lawmakers Question Need, Cost," that Sioux Falls paper, 2007.11.18]
And it wouldn't be the first time that a big change in the university system (Janklow's 1984 mission change for DSU from liberal arts to computers) is accompanied by the closing of a Regental campus (USD-Springfield).
Now let's be clear: The Madville Times's current and future livelihood is bound up closely with Dakota State University. As a doctoral student, paid research assistant, aspiring professor, Madison booster, and Lake Herman resident until I die, I will vigorously oppose any effort to close DSU. If the Legislature gets out the long knives, it'll be Madison's duty to make the case for Madison's interests, and this blog will make that case as rationally and as passionately (the two can go together) as anyone else.
But just in case Kirkeby, Koetzle, and other lawmakers get serious taking the axe to the Board of Regents, let's consider some hard numbers supporters of DSU, NSU, BHSU, and maybe even SDSM&T might need to battle to save their schools.
Expenditures: "We have approximately 400 million state-supported dollars that supports approximately 120,000 kids, K-12. We also have approximately $200 million that supports our six public universities … representing about 30,000 students..." [Kirkeby, in Ross]. Indeed, university education is spendy, but that spendiness must be viewed in context. We are paying for specialists who are even better trained than K-12 teachers. We're paying for professors generating the research that serves as the basis for Governor Rounds's plans for economic development. University boosters, be ready to argue bang-for-the-buck.
Resources per Capita: South Dakota has the highest ratio of public universities to population in the country. (We're also second in the nation for public and private higher ed institutions per capita.) We have 1.16 public institutions of higher ed per 100,000 residents. North Dakota is right behind us at 1.1. Minnesota and education powerhouse Massachusetts are back at 0.23. That's close to the national average of 0.21. Wyoming is close to the national average, too, at 0.20... and they have one public university, in Laramie, for their 500,000 residents.
Now Wyoming's decision to get by with less doesn't in itself justify our doing the same. Consider: the University of Wyoming has 13,000+ students. That's a couple thousand more than SDSU, but almost 18,000 fewer than the system-wide enrollment in South Dakota's public universities [if you don't mind PDFs, see the SD Board of Regents Factbook 2007, p. 6]. Kirkeby and Koetzle aren't talking about shutting down every campus but one (I recall our friend Doug Wiken suggesting we might get along better with one big campus in Chamberlain, but I can't find that link this morning). But shut down one campus -- let's say the smallest, School of Mines. Those 2,124 students will not all simply transfer to SDSU's engineering programs or to BHSU to discover their true calling as English majors. We will lose some fraction -- maybe a big fraction -- of those undergrads to other states. Ditto with any other campus closing. Telling every HS senior looking at NSU (enrollment 2,319) to go elsewhere will send many of them to Fargo-Moorhead, Bismarck, or Dickinson. Closing DSU (enrollment 2,439) would send its computer specialists to similarly focused programs out of state. Mines, NSU, and DSU boosters need to be ready to make the case that whatever might be gained by diverting funds from their schools will pale in comparison to what will be lost in sending more of our talented youth out of state.
The Legislature will have a lot to talk about this session. One silver lining this weekend: the HUH crowd (Hunt-Unruh-Howie et al.) are taking the initiated-measure route and keeping their moral-grandstanding from cluttering up the Legislature's already crowded calendar. Thanks, Leslee, for letting the Legislature concentrate on issues where Pierre really can make a difference.
Let's consider the fact that Higher Education has virtually unlimited spending for new buildings, remodeling and new degree programs. During the past five years, K-12 has been cutting, reducing and closing while our higher ed friends have grown their budgets, even in the face of declining K-12 enrollment, which is percolating up. One thing is for sure. K-12 has too many different lobbying groups, large school, small school and our legislators use that against K-12 proposals since there is no one fix for all. We need to come to the legislators with ONE proposal, one lobbying group and one voice, similar to what Tad Perry gives higher ed. Only then will K-12 see the gains they deserve instead of the stumbling, bumbling minimal increases that have become so regressive to K-12 budgets.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good practical point, Anon. While I'm not a fan of the funding lawsuit, the 71 school districts that have united behind the suit are on the track of the sort of unified effort you recommend. All the schools, large and small, have to fight together to get what they want.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, if we want our big increase in spending for research facilities, we need to be ready to make the case why the universities are not asked to cut their budgets the way the K-12 system does. It sounds some legislators are asking that hard question.
One obvious difference though in higher ed is that you have a LOT of fundraising going on to help pay for a lot of the expansion projects.
ReplyDeleteTake for example, the Dykehouse center, that's being built at SDSU. The State Legislature would NEVER fund this project for the athletic department, so it's being funded privately. All the Legislature has to do is approve it's construction, since it's on State property.
I'm not a big fan of cutting staff, budgets, etc, when it come to higher ed or K-12 ed. I can remember SDSU making massive cuts when I was a freshman and going from paying $45 a credit hour to over $60 by the time I was a senior. Believe me, that really adds up! And I remember my one year of teaching in Doland where they had to RIF several of the staff (except me, of course, but then I had already resigned).
I'm just curious why a lot of these K-12 schools don't look to business partnerships or major fundraising to help defray some of these costs in the short run. It's not pretty, but at the same time, until funding finds a happy medium where everyone is satisfied, that may be the way to go.
Anyway, that's my 2-cents... for what it's worth.
much more than 2-cents' worth, j1!
ReplyDeleteIf K-12 has to turn to business partnerships, alumni donations, etc. to fund its operations and keep teachers here, then so be it. But if we can find those resources that way, wouldn't it be easier to just appropriate them at the state level in the first place? The line I'll take is that we as a state ought to fulfill our moral obligation to pay the full price that our teachers and our kids' futures are worth.
Two other things to consider when comparing K-12 to Higher Ed:
ReplyDelete1 - Over the past ten years or so, K-12 enrollment is DOWN and university enrollment is UP - quite a bit.
2 - Two-thirds of university budgets are paid for with tuition. Most buildings are paid for with student tuition and fees or donated money. Very little state money goes into buildings or upkeep.
I think comparing K-12 to Higher Ed is just a really bad idea, because they are very different things.
Interesting topic. I do wonder why the Board of Regents staff is growing so large and expensive while we are paying outrageous salaries to SD University Presidents who would seem to have less to do with all the staff at the BOR.
ReplyDeleteThat aside, an alternative to one UNIVERSITY near Chamberlain,SD. is to have fewer colleges and universities, but include a transportation charge in the tuition fees that effectively subsidized travel for those who would need to travel much further to attend a SD college with fewer of them.
The time to close BHSU was when it was still called BHTC and noted in an SDSM&T ditty as "far across the hills of Rapid, stands an old abandoned outhouse called BHTC." That was over 40 years ago when the Davis report proposed merging BH and SDSM&T and prior to the large building projects at BH.
A campus like BH still makes little sense, but a lot of resources sit there. Perhaps a better use than making them another prison could be found.
Meanwhile there are plans to build another separate facility in Rapid City that is not connected with SDSM&T. There seems to be a major disconnect with reality in some of these proposals.
Meanwhile, at SDSM&T, too many professors still view their job as not so much teaching as a duel with their students with the professors performing an expensive sorting process. The pool of students for SDSM&T will further diminish if the idea of actually educating students doesn't become a first priority even as the push toward more research by professors.
And of course, since a close relative of mine is a prof at DSU, I can't really take any shots at that institution which does seem to be on some kind of cutting edge (for SD at least) in education innovation.
I'm with Anon5:03 -- K-12 and Univs. are apples and oranges. But faulty as the comparison may be, some politicians sound like they're ready to use it to push their agenda. Higher ed supporters had better be ready to shoot the comparison down... and to keep the regressives from sparking a civil war among all supporters of education, just to stave off having to muster the political courage to raise the revenues needed to support world-class education at all levels.
ReplyDeleteLet us just look at closing the newest university. 'University Center' How did USDSU become a university anyways?
ReplyDeleteThey told the legislature that it would not become our 7th public university, but after the last session, they showed plans of monuments to be built on campus as well as 22 new buildings! (This was all in their plans to purchase land in the area.)
If they want to 'get rid of' a university, how about starting off with the one that they said would never be... ?
Would closing DSU really "send its computer specialists to similarly focused programs out of state?" Couldn't we move the computers, servers, and the IT faculty to Brookings or Aberdeen or Rapid City? The buildings in Madison aren't magical, are they?
ReplyDeleteAnon2:21 has a fair idea in theory, shutting down the SF campus before we invest much more there (again, assuming we buy into weighing sunk costs). But arguably the Regents can make more money on the SF campus than any of the smaller state campuses with smaller surrounding markets of non-trads and night-class students.
ReplyDeleteAnon2:23 -- I'm not sure. You're right that no building is magical and that we'd probably merge the IT and Elem Ed with SDSU or elsewhere. It's anyone's guess how to quantify it. But there are a number of small-town kids, like some of my Montrose alums, who don't want to go to a big campus like SDSU or USD (and I know "big campus" sounds funny to you out-state readers from campuses of 30K-40K students). Would they trek up to Northern? Switch to DWU or Mount Marty? Go out of state? Or maybe dump college all together? If Kirkeby and Koetzle push consolidation, let's survey students and admissions folks, see if they can help us estimate the impact of closing a campus.