RE: Financial Burdens on Higher Ed

Upon reading Logan's blog on the financial burdens of higher education and the recent occurrences in approving the 2015 North Carolina State Budget, I felt compelled to respond to this topic.  As we have learned, the national, state, and local economic and political environments strongly influence the economies of higher education.  A rising federal deficit, unsettled financial markets, and increased funding for defense and security has altered the perception of higher education when considering funding.  While education is general is a political topic of interest, funding assistance for higher education institutions have not been viewed as a top priority in recent years.  Colleges and Universities rely on a variety of sources for financial support.  In an effort to keep higher education accessible to all individuals who have the desire to learn, colleges and universities try to keep tuition and fees reasonable.  Therefore, other sources of funding such as governmental, private, institutional, and sales are needed for financial support.  Public institutions rely heavily on governmental funding since the revenue generated by tuition and fees is approximately 20 percent and tuition is often determined by state or local agencies. For example, 5.4 % and 44.7% of public two year institution revenues are from federal and state sources respectively (Goldstein, 2005). This dependence can prove to be problematic when the federal or state government cannot reach budget agreement. 

We all have experienced this during the past few months while North Carolina's legislature struggled to pass the state budget.  When the budget is delayed educational institutions are left in limbo.  Primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions do not know how to allocate resources and ultimately affects the primary individual it serves...THE STUDENT.  This year teacher salaries and positions, and driver education programs were at the forefront. The NC state budget should have been approved by July 1, 2015 but has been delayed several times.  The following links address this year's budget dilemma.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/nc-budget-agreement-reached-worker-pay-spending-ta/nnRmC/

http://wncn.com/2015/08/25/north-carolina-budget-impasse-to-continue-into-september/

But Finally! The state budget was approved! Now community colleges, universities, primary, and secondary public schools can move forward instead of remaining in limbo.  Take a look at the following link to see an overview of the approved budget.
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/north-carolina-budget-now-turns-house-debate-votes/nngyF/

References:

Goldstein, L. (2005). College and university budgeting: An introduction for faculty and academic administrators. Washington, DC: NACUBO.

RE: Should college athletes be paid?

When considering whether college athletes should be paid or not, we need to consider how much money the institution makes off of athletics. The first sport that everyone believes is making a school a ton of money, is college football. Not only that, but many believe that the cost of a college athlete stops at tuition, books, room and board and food. However, according to the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, the average amount of money spent on a collegiate football player is just over 91,000 dollars. Compare this to the same organizations' figure of just over 13,000 per other collegiate athlete a year (Peale, 2013). According to University of Cincinnati's athletic budget for 2012-2013, University of Cincinnati students and the cities tax payers are making up 8.5 of the 10 million dollar athletics budget.
Personally, I find this unacceptable, tax payers paying for large chunks of athletic budgets? Paying for robust stadiums in collegiate and professional athletes? Tax payers are paying for collegiate athletics while our country's infrastructure crumbles, citizens live in poverty and most of all, student debt climbs higher and higher. These are just a short list of financial needs that I believe should be addressed before we keep contributing to the athletics arms race. To summarize my attitudes quite appropriately, "It's very alarming to see how intercollegiate athletics is distorting expenditures and value in higher education," the Knight Commission's Kirwan said. "It has so much potential for good, but I think we're on a trajectory now that in my opinion is doing more harm than good" (Peale, 2013). 
To be frank, we don't have the money to invest in college athletes. There will need to be reform in higher education spending soon and I believe that athletics will be one of the first programs to go. This isn't related to athletics, but is related to budgetary issues in higher education. Think about the issues surrounding us as higher ed professionals when viewing this video. 

Although the college athletes are going to be paid a minimal amount on top of their scholarships (of course, the NCAA is fighting it)

In my final thought about the paying of collegiate athletes, I do think that student athletes should be paid for sales of t-shirts, jerseys, video games and other memorabilia that is directly related to their team success or an athletes success. I also think donors should be allowed to donate money towards a specific team. If a donor wants to help the quality of living for an athlete, they should be allowed to donate to a certain pool and that pool be distributed to the athlete. Of course, ideas like those proposed above require some rule changes and less control from the NCAA, which means these ideas may be a long shot. I don't believe the cure of the issues comes from a crowd of people saying "we need to pay the athletes". I think we need reform in education, legislature in education and athletics in legislature.

REFERENCES

Athletics cost colleges, students millions. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/15/athletics-cost-colleges-students-millions/2814455/

College athletes are about to get paid, and the NCAA is fighting it. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2015/7/28/9051317/ncaa-paying-college-athletes-obannon-case-injunction

LastWeekTonight (2014, September 7). Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Student Debt (HBO)

        Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8pjd1QEA0c

Faculty Salaries and Budget

http://aft243.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Contract-color.jpg

 

This week's reading, The Economic and Political Environment, confirmed and explained the current community college budget situation that I experience every day.  As a community college administrator who just completed the 2015-2016 budget request process, I am aware of the administrative challenges in human resource costs.  As explained by Goldstein (2005), this cost category is the largest single expense for community colleges and can represent as much of 75% of total expenses.  In a recent leadership meeting, I was told that my community college is holding all vacant positions until the state budget is approved.  This is truly impacting current faculty responsibilities and moral.  One health technology program is down six instructors and struggling to manage teaching assignments.  Additionally, programs are struggling to feel positions with qualified instructors due to low faculty salaries.
Since community colleges are in the education business, productivity gains are not easily shown.  External factors such as the state of the economy and unemployment rates determine the amount of available resources for community colleges.  When the economy and unemployment rates are bad then community college enrollment typically rises.  This increases the need for instructors and staff.  But when the economy is good and enrollment decreases then the amount of available resources becomes limited.  Many community colleges manage this uncertainty by controlling faculty salaries or benefits and utilizing part-time faculty instructors.  However, stagnant faculty salaries and workforce reductions dramatically affect moral. 
Recently, the former NC Community College President, Dr. Scott Ralls, was interviewed and asked  what he wished he had accomplished.  He stated that NC Community College faculty salaries are among the lowest in the nation and should be increased (Stancill, 2015).  You can read the full article and view the interview in the following link:
 http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article32584824.html
Furthermore, as evidenced by the following data charts, part-time faculty now make up the majority of faculty instructors. 

 

While this is one way to manage human resource costs, community college administrators should monitor this trend closely to ensure consistency and effectiveness in the classroom.  Attention to human resource costs is imperative for community colleges to be among the best regardless of economic and political environment.

References:

Goldstein, L. (2005). College and university budgeting: An introduction for faculty and academic administrators. Washington, DC: NACUBO.

Stancill, J., (2015). Five questions for departing community college leader. Retrieved fromhttp://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article32584824.html

 

Waiting for ... Bernie?

One of my favorite things to indulge in outside of work is politics and learning about political science. I find political science to be fascinating. The cost of education has become a topic of debate in current political races and has been an initiative of the Obama administration for at least the last year. Most recently, president Obama made a speech about community colleges that sparked the debate of cutting the cost of college (all together for community colleges)

For more details regarding this plan, see the fact sheet. 

What started this fire though? Yes, has President Obama indicated, there is a need for our workforece to be more educated to maintain pace with the global economy we are depending on, but what really made the people take a step back and look at college and student debt and scratch their heads? It may have been something like this: 

The infographic above is chock full of information for you to use when arguing with your mother or father about how affordable college education used to be. Now keeping in mind of what President Obama proposed, here is what Bernie Sanders proposes; a debt free education system. But where is this money coming from (what you're probably asking)? If you're hedge fund manager or a career military person, you probably won't like the answer; Sanders wants to rob wall-street and cut military spending. 

When asking current college students about spending money on their education, the majority of them don't understand debt or else have no problem borrowing for their education. Those that have the highest understanding of student debt are less likely to find that education is a worthwhile investment (Nonis, Hudson, Philhours and Hu, 2015). If this is the case, if we are losing groups of people because they feel a college education isn't worth the burden of debt, we may lose tomorrow's leaders. We may lose integrity in our education system and replace it with the belief that only the economically elite deserve an education. I understand that my argument may seem biased towards the Democratic party, but as far as I can see, these are the only people who are taking shots at a sustainable solution. 

References

Nonis, S. A., Hudson, G. I., Philhours, M. J., & Hu, X. (2015). Thinking Patterns: An Exploratory Investigation of Student Perceptions of Costs and Benefits of College Loan Debt.Journal Of Financial Education, 41(2), 24-48

The Rising Cost of College (n.d.). In coursesmart.com
The White House. (2015, January 8). President Obama Announces Free Community College Plan [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-QDfEMXAgk

Financial Burdens on Higher Ed

 

The Great Recession that lasted from 2007 t0 2009 has left a lasting impact on the U.S. economy to this day. Many state governments are cutting the funding they allocate to public universities, and the federal government has cut the funding of grants that both public and private institutions rely on as well (Norton, 2013). Although I do not currently work in a university setting I have noticed decreased funding to state-funded grant programs in my profession. As a manager of a town, I have learned that the numerous grant opportunities that existed pre Great Recession. State Governments have begun to reduce the funding to Higher Education as attendance rises. This has compounded the problem the situation for universities and made it even more difficult to allocate funding. With the cost of attendance rising, however, financial aid budgets are stretched because universities invest heavily in students who use financial aid (Barr & McClellan, pg. 9).

 

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin found himself in the news frequently when he proposed a $300 million dollar budget cut to the University of Wisconsin system, leading employees in the system to believe over half of them would lose their jobs because of the cuts (John Conley, 2015). The following video covers the proposed budget cuts by the Governor:  The proposal from the Gov. Walker slashes support for the university system by 13% and, more importantly, it includes a 25% cut to essential educational functions which includes such things as advising and instruction (Conley, 2015). Cutting these functions has the potential to negatively effect students. Many, including myself, fear this will ultimately effect the quality of graduates entering the workforce (Myers, 2012).

 

The following graft shows that Gov. Walker wants to cut funding to the Higher Ed. system as student tuition has risen to 50% of total educational revenue. In the past, tuition revenue hovered around 35% to 40% of total revenue, which ultimately pushes the burden of cost onto the students. This comes at a time when costs are already at an all-time high.   Many students are now coming to college and finding higher fees and fewer services for the money they do pay (Cox, Mathews & Associates, 2003).

 

This leads me to believe that the financial crisis that began in 2007 is still having an impact of how political leaders in our country make monetary decisions. As I have seen from personal experience and through the aforementioned research, states are forcing students to take on the economic hardship that has carried over from the Great Recession by cutting funding and forcing universities to raise tuition costs. As an administrator it is difficult to implement these cuts and decide where the cuts will  take place. Although regulations and laws pertaining to funding do outline how and where cuts can be made, it is still difficult to implement those cuts in a leadership position, and those decisions should not be taken lightly.

 

Sources

 

Barr, M., & McClellan, G. (2011). The Fiscal Context and the Role of the Budget Manager. In Budgets and Financial Management in Higher Education (p. 9). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

 

Myers, Jimmy. "Higher Education Budget Cuts Likely to Hurt Programs." McClatchy - Tribune Business News (2012). Print.

 

Conley, John. "This Is What Wisconsin's 2.5% Budget Cut Looks Like." The Chronicle (2015). Print.

 

Norton, Andrew. "With Tighter Budgets, Universities Must Change Course." Crikey.com. 15 Apr. 2013. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.

 

UW budget cuts reduced, tenure eliminated from law [Motion picture]. (2015). United States: Channel3000.com.

College Athletes being Paid?

As we start to look at budgets and finances in universities and community colleges a piece of finance and budgets that stick out to me are whether college athletes should be paid. This goes with the VoiceThread we did for this week and how the economy can withstand the ability to pay student-athletes. As we all know college football and men's basketball brings in the most revenue for universities. With the amount of money those players bring in to their respective universities there is now more of a reason or push to pay the student-athletes. With the "Power Five" conferences taking it upon themselves and not letting the courts decide their fate, they will be giving each student-athlete a stipend of $2,000-$6,000 a year for expenses above a full scholarship. One big name that is leading this pay for play initiative is Jay Bilas, former Duke men's basketball player and coach, who is now a ESPN analyst. The problem is many people already believe that student-athletes are already getting a great deal if they are receiving a full scholarship. Student-athletes on full scholarships receive tuition, room and board, and books free of cost already. Why would they need to be given an extra stipend? The problem arises for other men’s nonrevenue sports like wresting, swimming because federal guidelines require offering women’s sports equal opportunity-could disappear from campuses. The other dilemma is with college football and men’s basketball players leaving school to enter the NFL and NBA draft. Most do this because the come from a “very poor” family and want to help out because if they enter the draft and are picked pretty high know they will make millions of dollars while being a teenager. This whole issue will continue to be on going for a while. As of right now most of the “Power-Five Conferences” are paying their student-athletes the “Cost of attendance” which is resulting in a $2,000-$6,000 a year stipend. This issues pertains to what we read about and have done in some of the activities this week because of how will the economy, but most importantly the universities afford to pay student-athletes this amount of money with the state of our economy?

Fowler, S. (2014). Paying College Athletes: An idea that's gaining traction. The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved from http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/scott-fowler/article9201047.html (Sept. 6, 2015).