BLUE-RIBBON higher education commissions, like the Tennessee Council on Excellence,
are currently in vogue around the country. California, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana
and Virginia are among the states that have appointed high-profile groups to study
the needs and problems of postsecondary education.
In California, the Citizens’ Commission on Higher Education has recommended changes
in admissions policies, financing of public higher education and governance of the
state’s 106 community colleges, among other proposals. The commission’s main concern
has been finding ways to cope with an expected increase of about 500,000 additional
students in California higher education over the next decade.
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| John Slaughter, president of Occidental College,
in Los Angeles, is co-chairman of the California Citizens’ Commission. |
The citizens’ group, financed by private foundations, has been meeting for more than
a year under the co-chairmanship of Harold Williams, former president of the J. Paul
Getty Trust and also a former University of California regent, and John Slaughter,
president of Occidental College and former chancellor of the University of Maryland
system.
"Actual policy change is our goal," said William H. Pickens, executive
director of the commission, "either statutory or in the policies of governing
boards." The group also hopes to make support for higher education an issue
in the election for governor next November.
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber appointed a Task Force on Higher Education and
the Economy after the state’s high tech firms complained that they had to go out
of state to hire trained people because the Oregon public higher education system
was not meeting their needs.
Kitzhaber picked outsiders to scrutinize higher education because "you don’t
go out and seek change from people inside the system," said Danny Santos, a
policy adviser to the governor.
The task force has recommended sweeping changes, including a proposal that state
appropriations be tied directly to student enrollment and to other state needs. Public
colleges and universities would be encouraged to compete and collaborate through
decentralization of authority and institutional autonomy.
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| The California Citizens’ Commission on Higher
Education met in March to draft its final report. |
Kitzhaber welcomed the report and warned the higher education community that "it
is not my intention to pit my will against the will of this system—although I would
not shrink from doing so if I felt it was unavoidable."
In the State of Washington, Governor Gary Locke has named a high-level group to
study the state’s higher education needs, not in the immediate future but a quarter
century from now.
Jack Creighton, retired Chief Executive officer of the Weyerhaueser Company, and
Bob Craves, senior vice president of Costco, a discount chain, will head the "2020
Commission," which, the governor said, is "to leap over the problems of
today and focus on the needs of our state in the year 2020."
"If that long-term vision upsets the apple cart of today’s higher education
institutions, that’s okay," Locke said.
OTHER STATES:
Connecticut: The Board of Governors for higher education recently created
an advisory council to "engage a broad public dialogue…in determining what changes
will shape a system of higher education responsive to the needs of…the state, its
citizens and its individual institutions."
The advisory group includes representatives from private industry, the legislature
and the governor’s office, as well as from higher education.
Illinois: The Board of Higher Education, the state planning and coordinating
agency, will conduct its own "master plan" review of the state’s higher
education systems. This began as an exploration of the need for a new four-year campus
in the suburbs north of Chicago but has broadened into a statewide inquiry.
Louisiana: A citizens’ commission recommended this year that a separate
system be created for most of the state’s two-year community and technical colleges,
which now are administered by Louisiana State University, Southern University and
the state board of education. A state constitutional amendment to create the new
system has been approved by the legislature and now goes to the voters.
Maryland: The speaker of the House and the Senate president have proposed
a 21-member task force to review the state’s 1988 public higher education charter.
One of the contentious issues is a funding system that provides the same level of
support for the University of Maryland’s flagship campus in College Park as for all
other public campuses.
The group also has been asked to look into complaints that the University of Maryland
system duplicates the functions of individual campus administrations.
Oklahoma: The Citizens’ Commission on the Future of Oklahoma Higher Education,
named in 1996, recommended a series of reforms, including financial incentives to
promote the public interest; high quality distance education; targeted workforce
development programs; and higher student fees, accompanied by increased financial
aid. The Oklahoma Board of Regents has adopted the report but so far has funded only
the distance education proposal.
South Carolina: a 12-member study group composed of legislators and business
leaders, appointed by the legislature in 1995, recommended that the state shift to
a 100 percent performance-based budgeting plan for public colleges and universities.
Legislation to that effect was passed but implementation has proved to be difficult.
Virginia: Newly-elected Governor Jim Gilmore has announced his intention
to name a blue-ribbon commission on higher education but not everyone in the state
is convinced of the need for such a study.
"If you don’t want to do anything, you study it for three years," said
Gordon Davies, who was forced out as director of the State Council of Higher Education
after disagreements with former Governor George Allen and with Allen appointees to
the council.
"This system has been restructured recently in a fundamental way," Davies
said. "There’s not enough money for the institutions—this doesn’t need to be
studied; it needs to be fixed."
William Doyle
