The Challenge to States: Preserving College Access and Affordability in a Time of Crisis

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This quick-fire SCUP–44 session, The College Funding Crisis: Five Ways Planning Can Help, will present five areas where financial, academic, and physical planning can make a major difference, and will highlight opportunities for leadership, middle management, and faculty to turn the economic downturn to advantage. Be sure to be there in Portland, July 18–22 for Values and Vision Create the Future.

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This statement (PDF) was developed with the guidance of a distinguished group of higher education leaders whose names you will realize. It's a dense, 2-page document that you should definitely read and have available as a reference. Under "Productivity,"the bullet points begin thus:

Develop measurable expectations for productivity increases by all institutions, and strategies for reinvesting the resulting savings in efforts to maintain and expand undergraduate access and affordability, particularly for low- and middle-income students. Institutions can meet productivity expectations by such measures as: Increasing teaching loads for full-time faculty; Freezing or reducing graduate and professional enrollments; Streamlining administrative functions; Incorporating technology into instruction; and Closing low-demand, high-cost programs that are not distinguished and cannot be justified by economic or labor market needs. Require institutions and systems to begin or continue reporting data on the performance of all undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs (costs, enrollments, degree attainment levels, and completion and attrition rates), and develop plans to increase the productivity of or suspend support for low-performing programs that are not strategically required for the future. Reduce student demands on the system by expanding dual enrollment and other accelerated learning options, assuring course availability for on-time completion, and by limiting credit requirements for degree programs and accumulation of excess credits. Review state policies and regulations in areas such as procurement, human resources, and information technology, revamping or eliminating policies and procedures when cost exceeds benefit.