Realizing that the budgetary woes colleges and universities have suffered the past decade may be permanent, higher education officials are coming up with more substantive strategies to deal with the long-range crisis, according to an annual report.
The report by the American Council on Education (ACE), “Campus Trends, 1996,” found that “daunting financial challenges and a changing environment over the past decade have forced the nation’s higher education institutions to become more focused, re-examine their missions, and set new priorities.”
While most colleges and universities reported slight increases in their 1995-96 budgets compared to the previous year, some two-thirds of all public colleges and universities receive less state financial support than they did ten years ago. Many are balancing the difference with private assistance, with more than 80 percent reporting more support from local business and industry. Such support has included donated equipment, course offerings for employees, scholarships, loans and economic development partnerships.
“None of the results surprised me,” said Edward J. Liston, president of the Community College of Rhode Island who served on the Campus Trends Advisory Committee. “The whole notion of the fact of enrollment increases over the past 10 years coupled with the almost complete dismantling of state support…we really have just had to do a strong management job to keep the ship afloat and maintain access.”
The study, based on survey responses from senior administrators at 403 two-year and four-year public and private institutions and weighted statistically to reflect all of higher education, includes a 10-year retrospective on trends observed by ACE.
Only one-third of respondents felt student financial aid offerings were adequate and 21 percent reported improved academic support. Institutions have also hired more adjunct faculty to save money.
Serving more students with less state support is only part of the picture, according to Elaine El Khawas, ACE’s vice president for policy analysis and research who wrote the report with research analyst Linda Knopp.
