Discouraging a College Education: “Unconscionable”

NAICU’s letter to the editor in response to Ramesh Ponnuru’s “The Case Against College Education” didn't make it past the gatekeepers at Time, so here it is in its entirety. With the job market in the dumps and college tuition (although not net tuition) rising faster than inflation, the naysayer message on college attendance will likely echo for a while, despite overwhelming statistical evidence of the value of a college degree.

Letters to the Editor
Time

February 25, 2010

To the Editor:

Re: "The Case Against College Education"

One has to wonder how many Ivy League-educated magazine columnists will encourage their own children to forgo a college degree, under the theory that it won't bear on their future professional success and quality of life.

Ramesh Ponnuru's call to discourage more students and adults from earning a college degree is a prescription for a de facto American socio-economic caste system and unmet national economic potential. Such advice inevitably is targeted to students from blue-collar and low-income families. Because of cultural and financial hurdles, these students are already less likely than their wealthy peers to consider college, even when academically prepared for it. In a nation that prides itself on unlimited opportunity for those who set high goals and work hard, promoting low educational expectations is un-American and unconscionable.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers with a bachelor's degree outearned workers with just a high school-diploma by 64 percent in 2008. They also were half as likely to be unemployed during the recession. The BLS reports that over the next 10 years, jobs in the U.S. economy requiring a college degree or higher will grow faster than those requiring just postsecondary vocational training. With data like this, it's easy to understand why American elites let their children know from an early age that they are on the college track.

The real issue isn't that too many people are enrolling in college, but that not enough of them earn a degree. Private, nonprofit institutions, which already have the nation's highest graduation rates, are taking on President Obama’s challenge to increase college completion by 2020, by expanding access and completion support programs at a rapid rate. At the same time, private colleges are redoubling efforts to stay affordable, by boosting student aid and cutting institutional costs. Our colleges have actually lowered inflation-adjusted net tuition (list tuition minus grant aid and federal tax credits) by 8.6 percent over the past five years, according to the College Board.

A highly educated workforce is the foundation for America’s continued economic strength and global leadership. The challenges facing the nation and its workers and families call for raising the national bar for educational achievement -- not lowering it.

Sincerely,

David Warren
President
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities

"Coming Clean" on Student Access and Success

Over the holidays, the editorial page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch took up the cause of student unit databases, endorsing the idea of state-run systems that would track individual students from elementary school to the post-collegiate workplace. The P-D called for private colleges and universities to "come clean" on student access and performance.

Here's NAICU's response, as published in the paper on Jan. 2. 

To the Editor:

Let me make two key points regarding the poorly informed and acerbic comments on private colleges and universities in the editorial "Scoring higher ed" (Dec. 28): 

First, private colleges' concerns about release of student data relate to broad-brush proposals now being considered, and having the potential to make public every aspect of an individual student's academic record — course-by-course grades, teacher recommendations, disciplinary actions and more. That dossier would be maintained, updated and accessed by state governments, following the person into the workplace and throughout his career. We see that as a violation of individual privacy that is unwise and unnecessary in documenting the performance of colleges and universities.

The fact is that the U.S. Department of Education already collects the data necessary for determining individual college completion rates for low-income students through the student-specific records of those receiving federal aid, such as Pell Grants, whether they attend public or private institutions.

Second, existing data already prove that private colleges have nothing to be embarrassed about in meeting the needs of low- and moderate-income students. U.S. Department of Education statistics show that, nationally, 22 percent of four-year private college students have annual family incomes below $25,000, just four points below four-year public institutions. For those with family incomes of $25,000 to $100,000, there is only 1 percentage point difference between public and private institutions.

It is in graduating students, however, that private colleges shine. 

Of those undergraduate students receiving a baccalaureate degree within six years, Education Department data show that 79 percent of private college students earned their bachelor's degree in four years, compared to 49 percent of those at public institutions. Of those who are first in their family to attend college, 61 percent attain their degree in six years from a private college, while only 44 percent do so at public colleges.

For examples of private colleges' role in accessibility, you need have looked no farther than St. Louis itself. Washington University in St. Louis replaced all loans with university grants for students with family incomes under $60,000. And at other local private institutions — Maryville, Missouri Baptist and Webster universities, for example — the student bodies include approximately 20 percent to 30 percent low-income students.

All of these institutions deserve better than they received in the editorial.

David L. Warren
President, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
Washington, D.C.

More Accolades for U-CAN

U-CAN, NAICU's college information Web site, continues to draw praise from experts on the college search process.

CollegeExplorations.com reports that U-CAN was named one of the top college search sites during a recent gathering of independent college consultants. Participants considered "accuracy, ease of use, breadth of information, and currency of data sources" in choosing their six favorite Web resources. A day earlier, AdmissionsAdvice.com wrote that U-CAN "is a terrific resource for quickly comparing facts and data in standardized form." Since its launch in 2007, U-CAN has generated accolades from admissions experts, consumers, and policymakers.

U-CAN, which features more than 800 college and university profiles, is close to completing its 2009 data update. Make sure to visit the site in mid-December for the most recent institutional information.

Honoring -- and Supporting -- Those Who Have Served

Private colleges and universities across the nation marked Veterans Day in a variety of ways. In addition to campus observances, several announced new student veteran support services and others got word out about the opportunities provided by the new GI Bill.

Here's a quick, far-from-exhaustive sampling of what's happening on private college campuses. 

• Today Boston College dedicated a memorial wall in honor of 209 alumni who died while serving in a war zone, while Harvard University, with the U.S. Army Chief of Staff in attendance, honored its 16 alumni who have received the Medal of Honor. (Boston Globe)
• Drexel University yesterday dedicated a new veterans office. Veteran enrollment at the institution is up 15 percent over last year. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• During a campus reception for military veterans today, Pacific University recognized a 2009 graduate who escaped harm last week during the shooting at Fort Hood, where she is preparing to be deployed. (Oregonian)
• Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management just announced that it is expanding its free entrepreneurship "boot camp" for disabled veterans to a sixth institution. (Syracuse Post-Dispatch)
• Xavier University yesterday announced the formation of a new veterans affairs office, to attract and support the growing number of military veterans returning to college. (University news release)
• Saint Leo University held an observance and a free lunch for veterans and their families today, followed by a day of community service in the afternoon. (Tampa Tribune)

In recent days, a number of newspapers have published pieces by college and university officials -- including those at Le Moyne College, Marist College, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Saint Leo University -- that highlight the new higher ed opportunities that now exist for veterans.  Across the nation, hundreds of private, nonprofit colleges and universities are participating in the new GI Bill Yellow Ribbon program.  

In addition, the American Council on Education launched a Web site two days ago to help educate veterans about the new GI Bill and encourage them to take advantage of its benefits. Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor published an editorial yesterday that noted the difficulties facing many student veterans who are still waiting for their stipends to arrive from the VA. The editorial encouraged the agency and colleges to "do right by student vets," while recognizing the efforts being made by institutions to serve the veteran population. 

Presidential Compensation: "Paying the Smart Money"

The Los Angeles Times' editorial page follows up two days of heavy national media coverage of the Chronicle's presidential compensation report with a defense of executive salaries at private colleges (while imploring them to better control overall institutional costs).

From the editorial: 

We agree that colleges and universities could do more to contain costs. The academic arms race for prestige names has kept tuition costs on an inexorable, family-budget-crushing trajectory upward, regardless of the pain in the rest of the economy. ...

But excellent college leadership is necessary, now more than ever, and that costs. University presidents usually are respected scholars in their own right who must combine a broad grasp of academic issues with administrative and public relations skills -- and perhaps above all, a knack for fundraising. Great university management draw great faculty, who in turn attract top students, fellowships, and grants."

The piece also provides some important context for the Chronicle's figures: 

"[B]efore you start yelling "excesses of the financial industry all over again," it's worth noting that this elite club [of million-dollar packages] is still tiny -- 23 college presidents among the 419 reviewed by the publication. ... As the economy spiraled downward in 2008, many college leaders took no raises or volunteered for pay cuts.

The total number of private, nonprofit colleges and universities in the U.S. is approximately 1,600. For the most part, the Chronicle looked only at institutions that reported expenditures of at least $50 million on their 2007-08 Form 990s. 

For a sense of what NAICU has been saying about presidential compensation, see U.S. News' and Bloomberg's coverage.

Inflation-Adjusted Net Tuition at Private Colleges Drops 8.6 Percent in Past Five Years

Missed in most of the coverage of the College Board's just-released annual tuition and student aid trends reports is this important piece of information:

Net tuition at private, nonprofit four-year colleges declined 8.6 percent ($1,120) between 2004-05 and 2009-10, in constant 2009 dollars. Inflation-adjusted net tuition this year is also lower than what it was 10 years ago -- $11,870 vs $12,150, respectively, in constant 2009 dollars. (See figure 7 in Trends in College Pricing 2009.)

Students at private colleges have seen healthy increases in grant aid from their institutions and the federal government in recent years. In addition, the College Board reports that average annual percentage increases in inflation-adjusted published ("sticker") prices at private colleges rose at a smaller rate over the last 10 years (2.6 percent) than in either the '90s (2.9 percent) or '80s (4.7 percent). (See figure 4 in Trends.)

This isn't to say that private colleges and universities are satisfied with the current state of college affordability. They aren't. They will continue to work to ensure they remain accessible and affordable to students from all backgrounds. Nevertheless, this new net tuition data is a reminder of the very real efforts they have already taken.