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The
blue ink was barely dry on the summer newsletter
from the Virginia Business Higher Education Council
when the horizon suddenly turned black. The council,
a Richmond-based non-profit organization that
partners 76 business leaders with college and
university presidents, was trying to clarify the
good news/bad news coming out of the 2002 General
Assembly session in its publication. Then came
reports that state revenues would fall short
by another $1.5 billion.
The
good news first. Delegates and senators passed
legislation early in 2002 to allow
Virginia
voters on
November 5 to approve an $846 million bond issue for
new classroom, library and laboratory space at
community colleges, colleges and universities. The
$350 million in bonds authorized by the General
Assembly to be issued by the Virginia College
Building Authority at the same time could add up to
$1.2 billion investment of public funds in building
and renovation projects. That's huge.
Use
the
University
of
Virginia
as one
example. The bonds sold would provide $14 million
for a new
Arts &
Sciences
Building
, $7
million toward a $34 million nanotechnology and
materials science and engineering building and $24
million toward a $50 million medical research
building in which researchers will focus on advances
in immunology and fighting infectious diseases and
cancer.
"If
we want to maintain our position in American public
higher education, we simply have no choice but to
increase and improve the quality of space in which
we do our basic work," says Edward L. Ayers,
dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at UVA.
Not coincidentally, the Cavalier football program at
the earliest (August 22) and possibly the hottest
NCAA game ever, featured a full page ad making the
bond referendum case to fans, who transform into
voters November 5.
The
same needs hold true for universities from Virginia
Tech and James Madison to George Mason and William
and Mary and for community colleges across the
state. Not only are classrooms and labs small and
outdated, but basic maintenance on heating, cooling,
water and electrical systems have been postponed so
long that capital replacements are the only answer.
Further, the State Council for Higher Education (SCHEV)
projects 32,000 more students at
Virginia
public
colleges and universities by 2010. Without
expansion, where will
Virginia
put them?
No
college or university is going to admit more
students than it has space or faculty to
accommodate. So a future without new bond-financed
improvements translates directly into diminished
physical capacity and education quality in
Virginia
higher
education. That prospect warns Virginians with
students now in middle school that there may not be
room for their students at state colleges and
universities and they might be wise to step up the
savings needed for out-of-state college fees.
Fortunately,
that’s the last future that Virginians would
choose for their students. Virginians take a pride
in their state universities and a community college
system increasingly driving the transition of the
state workforce. When asked, Virginians always
validate the importance of opportunity that higher
education creates and the priority they give to
higher education funding. Three out of four voters
approved the last higher education bond referendum
in 1992. They understand that universities, like
children and students, respond best to sustained
attention, sustained support and sustained
commitments.
Unfortunately,
as the prolonged drought across most of Virginia
this summer has proven, even large drops of
occasional rain aren't enough when the earth is
parched. Those rain drops settle the dust, even
green up the grass, but they cannot in an instant
make up for years of drought. The revenue drought
for Virginia's colleges and universities is over ten
summers long. And even large drops of revenue for
capital improvements in 2002 won't be enough to
offset a scorched-earth policy of purposeful
under-investment, where policy makers for more than
a decade have tried to harvest more than they've
been willing to plant.
The
Business-Higher Education Council, in fact, has made
the case for years that Virginia colleges and
universities need $2 billion in capital
improvements. So, the November 5 bond issue would
address about half the need. Further, as one turns
to the bad news, the council estimated in its
newsletter that operating budgets at colleges and
universities are $250 million a year below levels
considered adequate to prepare Virginia college
students.
The
key words here are "below adequate."
Virginia is not meeting minimum levels, much less
the high quality Virginians want and think they are
getting. How does "below adequate" start
and why? Interestingly, in the case of Virginia
colleges and universities, "below
adequate" is driven first by success. Fourteen
thousand more students want to attend state colleges
and universities now than just two years ago. The
knowledge and information revolution that Virginia
companies are leading requires more knowledge,
skills, instruction, equipment, research and space.
The
record revenue drought, at the same time, is cutting
$124 million in state support for higher education
operations this year and another $166 million next
year. Now comes the prospect of additional seven,
eleven or fifteen percent cuts in state support to
close the new $1.5 billion gap. Losing hundreds of
faculty members as a result, even closing whole
college departments, threaten the very reason
students returned to campuses in August.
These
conflicting trends create a volatile mix for
citizens, students, parents, universities and policy
makers alike. Forced increasingly to rely on
tuition, alumni, and research partnerships with the
private sector, more than one college president has
concluded that the state is now the most unreliable
financial partner higher education in Virginia has.
Disappointed business leaders see the Commonwealth
as a minority investor in its own public
institutions of higher learning.
Adding
to the frustration is the conclusion of economists,
such as Stephen Fuller of George Mason University,
who suggests, "Much of the state's fiscal
problems come from self-inflicted wounds, including
clinging to an archaic tax and revenue structure and
cutting taxes more generously than the state can
afford."
Redress
of these larger problems will have to wait until the
2003 General Assembly session. But the legislature
hasn't shown itself ready to attack problems head
on. Elections in November 2003 already are being
cited as reasons to defer tax and revenue reform in
January/February 2003, which shows where legislator
priorities really lie.
Governor
Mark R. Warner will lead a series of kickoff events
this week in favor of the bond referendum –
September 3 in Richmond and September 4 in Roanoke. Here
is the case in a nutshell: Needs of colleges and
universities are great. The General Assembly has
signaled it won’t meet its responsibilities to
higher education directly. The bond referendum is a
hoarse cry from delegates and senators for
Virginians to help themselves. There are few times
better than 2002 to borrow money at historically low
interest rates to meet capital needs.
Bonds
for college construction really aren’t any
different than borrowing to finance a house, a car
or an office building expansion. Even conservative
Virginians can agree it's better to borrow money
from bond investors and pay it back than to borrow
quality education and opportunity from Virginia
students, who may never get it back. The 14,000 jobs
that college construction and projects will create
will give a $1.5 billion boost to Virginia's economy
and produce another $40 million a year in state and
local tax revenues.
The
word "university" comes from a Greek root,
"universitas," meaning "all the
knowledge." At a time when the Internet and new
technologies offer the opportunity to make all the
knowledge accessible everywhere to everyone, some of
the knowledge and opportunity for some of the people
some of the time isn't enough. On November 5,
Virginians can make it rain knowledge and
opportunity.
-- Sept. 3, 2002
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