Campus CFO

Rep. Gene Pelowski has released details on what he calls the most intensive hearings on higher education funding and spending in more than a decade. Pelowski, DFL-Winona and chair of the House Higher Education Finance and Policy committee, said the proposed topics and questions are extensive.

Hasty actions almost never solve a problem intelligently, and they quite often create new hurdles to a reasoned resolution. That scenario describes the pickle our legislature has created over the Guaranteed Education Tuition Plan (GET) and funding for higher education.

The majority of the American public agrees higher education institutions should reduce their tuition rates and award students credit for competency instead of time, according to a poll released last week.

The head of one New York family cited complained recently: ‘In a two-week period, I had notices that tuition for my three children at private schools is rising between 15 percent and 30 percent.’” Sound familiar?

Officials estimate it will take tens of millions of dollars to repair damage caused by Sunday’s tornado at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. The College Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to allow the higher education commissioner, Hank M. Bounds, to sign contracts and take other actions without board approval to help the 16,000-student university recover.

Needy U.S. borrowers are defaulting on almost $1 billion in federal student loans earmarked for the poor, leaving schools such as Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania with little choice except to sue their graduates.

Obama's State of the Union address was much the same as last year’s, focusing intensely on college affordability and putting institutions on notice that the gravy train of public support for rising prices would have to end.

Vermont customarily ranks near the bottom in its fiscal support for public higher education. The state’s public higher education chiefs sometimes remind legislators of that fact, even as they express gratitude for what they do get from state government, when they make their annual appearance before the House Appropriations Committee.

At present, the institutions producing MOOCs (MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and others) have relatively healthy balance sheets, sizeable endowments, and minimal competition. There is no business model that clearly indicates a viable revenue stream for these institutions or the companies that offer the courses. Yet we believe there is a business model that can work for institutions that intend to benefit financially by offering large-enrollment online courses.

With families’ growing concerns about financing higher education, and the federal government’s increasing involvement in recommending and/or requiring certain communications regarding institutional costs, every institution should be taking a step back to review all of the tools currently being used to present affordability, explain the aid application process, and communicate the awards themselves.