Public Universities

Rick Santorum called the president "a snob" for wanting everyone to get a college education. (In fact, President Barack Obama never actually called for universal college education but only for a year or more of training after high school.) Mr. Santorum needn't worry. America is already making it harder for young people of modest means to attend college. Public higher education is being starved, and the middle class will shrink even more as a result. Over the last year, 41 states have cut spending for public higher education.

Four presidents at public research universities made a collective $9.2 million in fiscal year 2012, with the top earner of the group making much of his money because he was fired, according to a report released Sunday by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Graham B. Spanier, who was terminated from Pennsylvania State University in late 2011 for his handling of a child-molestation scandal, was paid $2.9 million - $1.2 million of it in severance. This was the first fiscal year that four presidents topped the million mark in compensation.

EVERYONE who loves college sports applauds the opportunity afforded athletes who get scholarships to big time programs. Competition, travel and the challenges of university life in the NCAA's Division I surely broaden and educate. The joy of victory and the agony of defeat are lessons for life.The growth of international basketball leagues -- with many more jobs for players -- represent another reason to nurture hoop dreams.But the name of the game is still education -- and not just because the athlete will need another source of income some day. The nation's colleges and universities need to be held accountable for the bargains they make -- and too often break.

By dumping $300,000 in taxpayer funds on Towson University's baseball team, Gov. Martin O'Malley has temporarily solved one problem and created a multitude of others. The frustration that led Mr. O'Malley to intervene is understandable. But his proposal to use a supplemental appropriation to buy the team two more years sets a dangerous precedent while failing to address any of the problems in Towson's athletics department that got the university into the unwelcome position of cutting two men's sports in the first place.

REP. THOMAS M. Davis III of Virginia first floated the idea of charging Washington, D.C. college students in-state tuition at Maryland and Virginia public colleges last month.The idea is a good one. So good, in fact, that before the Republican congressman could fine-tune his proposal, President Clinton included it in his budget request to Congress last week.Never mind that the $17 million the president requested was $10 million more than Mr. Davis had envisioned in the program's first year.

The moment registration opens, Michele D. Hannah dives for courses with the fury of a fifth-year college student vexed by a constant riddle. "When will I get the classes I need to graduate?" said Hannah, Class of "I have no idea" at the University of Iowa. Classes have gotten so tight, or so scarce, that Hannah says she trolls the university's Web site like a day-trader, checking every few hours for the stray course opening that might suddenly appear. But it probably will not. Many public universities - after whittling away at staff, coaxing faculty members to juggle more classes, stripping sports teams and trusting aging roofs to hold out a few years longer - have reluctantly begun chopping away at academics, making it harder for students to graduate on schedule.

Many public colleges and universities around the country are caught in financial crunches, prompting midyear tuition increases and belt-tightening measures such as enrollment limits and faculty cuts. The financial problems stem from strains on state budgets because of the slow economy over the past year and a bulge in the number of youths reaching college age. "This is the first time in the modern history of higher education that we've had enrollment pressure and a bad economy at the same time," said Patrick M. Callan, president of the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose, Calif.

The University of Maryland, College Park received further validation yesterday of its growing national reputation as it jumped into the top 20 of U.S. News & World Report's ranking of public universities. The university moved from 21st to 18th among public universities, tied with the University of Georgia and one notch behind the University of Florida. It moved ahead of Texas A&M University, the University of Minnesota, Purdue University and Ohio State University. The rise can be attributed in large part to an increase in the key measurement of "peer assessment," the reputation of its academic programs among presidents and college admissions officials at other universities.

As students return to college this fall, parents and taxpayers are probably wondering ‎where all of the money we give to universities actually goes. They may be ‎disappointed to discover that administration is consuming a large and rapidly growing ‎portion of university resources. Funds devoted to instruction, research and ‎service — the primary functions of a university — are growing much more slowly.‎ In a recently released report for the Goldwater Institute, we examined data collected by ‎the federal government from the country's leading 198 public and private universities.

Maryland is attempting to renege on its obligation to provide sufficient funding to make its historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) comparable and competitive with other public universities in Maryland in terms of mission, academic program offerings, library services, information technology infrastructure, and other facets of their operations. For five years, the state has vigorously opposed a lawsuit by HBCU students and alumni that seeks to dismantle remnants of the formerly segregated higher education system.

A Morgan State University alumnus who is leading a coalition suing the state over discrimination at historically black colleges and universities has criticized the university's embattled president for showing "minimal interest and involvement in the lawsuit. " David J. Burton, president of the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, wrote in a letter to Dallas R. Evans, chair of Morgan's Board of Regents, saying university president David J. Wilson's actions could "be interpreted as his being against rather than in support of the Coalition's case.

When some University of Maryland, College Park students return to class for the spring semester, they could be attending lectures, taking quizzes and completing group projects without leaving their dorm rooms. The university is participating in a pilot program that combines massive open online courses with traditional classroom instruction. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded $1.4 million to nonprofit research group Ithaka S+R to study how the state's university system could incorporate the increasingly popular online courses "There are two things we're seeking: new strategies that will improve learning outcomes and lower costs," said University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan.

A former leader of a national group of public universities has been named the interim president of Coppin State University, the state university system announced Wednesday. Mortimer H. Neufville, who until June had served as the interim president of University of Maryland Eastern Shore, will become the interim president Jan. 23 when the current president, Reginald S. Avery, steps down. Avery received a vote of no confidence from the faculty last year. He pledged to increase the university's low graduation rate when he arrived in 2008, only to see it continue to fall.

The University of Maryland University College named Javier Miyares as its president Monday, effective immediately. Miyares, 65, has been a member of the UMUC management team for 10 years and its acting president since February, when he took over for Susan Aldridge, who stepped down amid circumstances that remain unclear. Miyares most recently served as the university's senior vice president for institutional effectiveness. The Adelphi institution, the nation's largest online-focused public university, has more than 95,000 students, including U.S. troops serving overseas, and has locations in 27 countries.

Rick Santorum called the president "a snob" for wanting everyone to get a college education. (In fact, President Barack Obama never actually called for universal college education but only for a year or more of training after high school.) Mr. Santorum needn't worry. America is already making it harder for young people of modest means to attend college. Public higher education is being starved, and the middle class will shrink even more as a result. Over the last year, 41 states have cut spending for public higher education.

In Virginia, the attorney general, skeptical of global warming, tried to use his subpoena powers to build a fraud case against a climatology professor. In Wisconsin, Republican Party officials sought the emails of a history professor, trying to demonstrate that he had misused his public account to stir political unrest during the state's highly publicized battles over organized labor. Maryland Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat, has cited these controversies, which garnered national attention, as he vows to prevent a similar situation from arising here.

A Morgan State University alumnus who is leading a coalition suing the state over discrimination at historically black colleges and universities has criticized the university's embattled president for showing "minimal interest and involvement in the lawsuit. " David J. Burton, president of the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, wrote in a letter to Dallas R. Evans, chair of Morgan's Board of Regents, saying university president David J. Wilson's actions could "be interpreted as his being against rather than in support of the Coalition's case.

As high school seniors across the country spend this month choosing where to enroll next fall, Maryland's top two public research universities are enjoying an applicant pool that is deeper and more talented than ever. Applications at the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County were up again this year, and the two state universities also report increased grade point averages and SAT scores among the thousands of students who were mailed thick letters this spring offering admission.

The leaders of Maryland's university system say they're grateful that Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed another increase in higher-education spending for 2012-2013 at a time when many states are slashing support for public universities. University officials were in Annapolis on Wednesday to testify on behalf of the governor's proposed budget, which includes a 0.8 percent increase in operating funds and $215 million in capital projects for the state system. As in previous years, O'Malley chose to "buy down" a systemwide tuition increase, adding $9 million to the budget to limit the increase to 3 percent for a third straight year.

Meryl Streep's eerie reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady" brings to mind Ms. Thatcher's most famous quip, "There is no such thing as 'society.'" None of the dwindling herd of Republican candidates has quoted her yet, but they might as well, considering their unremitting bashing of everything public. A society is embodied most visibly in public institutions -- public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreation, public universities, and so on. But much of what's called "public" today is increasingly private.