Higher education in uncertain times:
one insider's view

These are uncertain times for higher education in Illinois. Money is short. Universities, both public and private, find themselves trapped between demands for new courses and resentment over rising costs. Tuition payers complain. Taxpayers complain.

Illinois public universities have their unique problems. State lawmakers are pushing to impose reorganization of the governance system. At the same time the new chairman of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, Arthur F. Quern, is urging universities to examine their own productivity and to take more responsibility for managing their operations.

Quern's call for PQP (priorities, quality and productivity) recognizes changes in public finance that preclude a higher education boom like that in the 1960s and 1970s and presumes higher education in the 1990s will face stagnant resources and increased demands. Quern argues that Illinois public universities must decide what they want to do well and then reallocate resources to those programs at the expense of others. (See "Chairman Quern to higher ed: Reallocate resources," May 1992 Illinois Issues, pages 11-13.)

Quern's push and state lawmakers' activities have sparked anxieties within the higher education community. Changing governance could cost some their jobs. The results of reallocations that Quern is championing will cost still others their jobs.

One "insider" who need not worry about his job is James M. Brown, chancellor of the Southern Illinois University system. Brown came out of retirement last September to assume the chancellorship on an interim basis after Lawrence K. Pettit resigned. Brown expects to resume retirement later this year, when he will return to writing a book on China and traveling to spots more exotic than Springfield committee hearings rooms. In the meantime he is heading up a system whose board is committed to Quern's PQP program.

Brown argues that none of the problems facing higher education in Illinois are unique. Nationally there is too little money, and there are too many demands, he says. He does not believe that changing higher education governance will change anything: "I don't think that Illinois itself has any significant uniquely characteristic problems in higher education that any system of organization is going to resolve."

Brown accepts Quern's view that changes in public finance will reduce money for higher education. He sees the PQP initiative as a way of forcing public universities to make decisions about what they want to do. And he expects that universities will have to continue to make those difficult decisions for some time: "Maybe it will pass, but I suspect it's my grandchildren who are going to see it pass and not my children."

Once the universities are convinced that PQP is more than austerity sloganeering. Brown sees the real problem as dealing with fear of change. Finding the funds to reallocate means that some people are going to lose their jobs. "I think the statement that change is grievous is a very accurate one, and we're going to have to be dealing with that in the best way that we can because we're going to have to do some changing," he says.

An example of the emotions that must be confronted has arisen from a proposal to eliminate the religious studies program at the SIU Carbondale campus. Brown says the

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Brown says that within the SIU system the board and the chancellor are committed to the PQP program. He believes the top administrators at the two campuses will support it, but that there will be doubters among the faculty. And he believes that other portions of higher education have not accepted the initiative. "I think what I've seen essentially within the whole higher education community is a sense that 'Yeah, this stuff is the current hoopla. All you have to do is a little token stuff, and it'll go away.' "

James M. Brown James M. Brown, 71, has been chancellor of the Southern Illinois University system on an interim basis since last September. Previously he was vice chancellor of the system, but he twice served as acting chancellor, in 1979 and in 1986. In 1989 Brown retired, both as an administrator and an English professor on the faculty at SlU-Edwardsville. Brown has a B.A. in chemistry from Rice University, an M.S. in meteorology from the California Institute of Technology, an M.A. in English from State University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from State University of Iowa. He taught in Montana and Texas before coming to the Edwardsville campus in 1965. A down-to-earth person with nothing to win or lose, Brown offers his thoughts on the issues facing higher education today. On why higher education should get on with reallocating resources: You know the old Mark Twain story about the guy who had gangrene in his toe and wouldn't do anything about it. When it got to his knee, he cut off his foot. And when it got to his hip, he cut off his knee. In time he died because he refused to take action in good time. And I think that's what we're going to face. On conditions facing higher education: I think the world is not going to go back to what we look upon as normal. I think the world is going to assume a much bleaker stance, and that will be normal. And if we can be normal, we'll be doing good. On reallocation within higher education: Don Wilson, the vice chancellor for finance and business affairs in my office, has a very troublesome way of pointing out how you can give a 5 percent salary increase to faculty members. For every 20 you fire one of them, and the other 19 get a 5 percent raise. That's probably, bluntly, going to be the way we do it. On higher education's position in the nation: It's part of the American mystique. Everybody knows that the more education you have, the better off you are and all that. On politicians and higher education: Sometimes I think higher education is simply a helpless victim because it is not equipped to play the game the way the politicians are and should not be faulted for being a lousy skater when there's no ice where they live. On deemphasis of higher education: The troublesome elements like all this emphasis on work force preparation tend to emphasize the classes in our society. Michael D. Klemens

But Brown is an educator first, and he wants to see emphasis on education at the same time that universities are trying to save money. At some point when universities try to do more with less, they end up not doing what they should. "That's why the Q is in PQP, and that's a necessity."

Although Brown supports the PQP initiative, he disagrees with many of the suggestions coming out of Springfield for higher education. He rejects the notion that higher course loads for professors are the answer to productivity, but he acknowledges that faculty members will probably end up teaching more students. "I think the matter of load is an attempt to quantify something that is not that easily quantified," he says.

Teaching, he says, is as hard as you make it. He never recalls coming out of a class saying he did a superlative job but rather that he always knew he could have done better. More classes will mean less preparation for most faculty members. "Those who are loafers are going to loaf and those who are goldbricks are going to goldbrick and those who are true faculty members are going to do the job."

Likewise, Brown sees shortcomings in the call for universities to put more resources into instruction. When universities pay faculty more, they put more resources into instruction, and then lawmakers complain that faculty salaries are too high. "It's a sloganeering matter; it's not a factual matter. We put as much resources in instruction as is necessary to do the instruction we say we're doing," Brown claims.

Brown makes a spirited defense of tuition increases at SlU-Carbondale that have drawn criticism this year. Tuition at Carbondale was increased 10 percent. At the same time, full-time students who paid for 12 hours of instruction but were allowed to receive up to 15 hours at no additional cost saw that benefit eliminated, effectively raising tuition 37 percent for the student taking 15 hours per semester. Brown maintains the increase is simply an equity factor. Students who took 12 hours or less of classes were subsidizing those who took more than 12 hours. Brown says that only about 17 percent of students at Carbondale graduate within four years anyway, and that many who work take one course or two at a time. Brown says the change was suggested by a faculty, staff and student committee: "It was not a big railroading of the student body."

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Brown believes that higher education has suffered at the hands of politicians who think they are doing the right thing. His example is the requirement that professors be able to speak English, an imposition that state lawmakers thrust upon universities. Brown said he had instructors who spoke broken English, but he says he learned how to listen in those courses. "Requiring a teacher to speak colloquial idiomatic Midwest English is a pretty parochial kind of attitude to have, but we suffered under it."

Brown rejects conventional wisdom that says that citizen support for public higher education is on the decline. His evidence is a 25 percent increase in applications for admission to SlU-Carbondale next year. "I think there is a built-in reverence almost for higher education that was manifested when they established Harvard back whenever."

Brown also rejects the notion that society cannot afford to educate everyone and that not everyone needs an education. He is critical of policies pushing work force preparation because it reinforces the separation of society into classes. "I think this emphasis upon the idea that not everybody needs an education is an insidious matter," Brown says.

Brown's biggest concern with the PQP initiative is whether universities will be given the time necessary to react. "We are dealing with a glacially slow process even when it's fast on the academic campus about assessment and decisions about priorities," he says. "I hope Mr. Quern's patience holds."

Task force recommends two options for higher ed governance Realignment of public universities is recommended in a preliminary report of the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education. The study was promised by Gov. Jim Edgar in his budget address to respond to calls for elimination of the Board of Governors and the Board of Regents. Edgar released the report June 19, but he did not push for action, saying that he believed there should be a change in governance but that there was too little time for full review and debate in the two weeks remaining of the spring session. The task force, chaired jointly by Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra and Arthur F. Quern, chairman of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, held a public hearing in Springfield June 9. It will continue reviewing issues related to governance and provide a second report by January 1. At issue is the "System of Systems" organizational structure for Illinois public higher education. Under the arrangement 12 campuses are organized under four governing boards. • The University of Illinois, with its elected Board of Trustees, governs the University of Illinois campuses at Urbana-Champaign and at Chicago. • The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees, who are appointed by the governor as are the other current boards, oversees campuses at both Carbondale and Edwardsville. • The Board of Regents governs three universities. Northern Illinois in DeKalb, Illinois State in Bloomington-Normal and Sangamon State in Springfield. • The Board of Governors of State Universities oversees five universities: Eastern Illinois in Charleston; Western Illinois in Macomb; Northeastern Illinois and Chicago State, both in Chicago; and Governors State in University Park in northern Will County. The task force proposed two options, both placing Sangamon State University under the University of Illinois board. The first option would reorganize institutions by similar type and mission. The University of Illinois with its two campuses plus Sangamon State would have one board. A second board would govern all other doctoral-granting institutions: both campuses of Southern Illinois University plus Illinois State and Northern Illinois universities. A third board would govern the other five universities: Chicago State, Eastern, Governors State, Northeastern and Western. The second option emphasizes decentralization, with seven boards over 12 campuses. The present Southern Illinois University system would remain as is. The University of Illinois system plus Sangamon State would be under one board. A new board would oversee three Chicago universities: Chicago State, Governors State and Northeastern Illinois. The other four universities would each get a separate governing board. "Nationally, there is not one option or model which has proven to be the most effective or representative," according to the task force report. The task force further recommended that if lawmakers and Edgar chose not to make structural changes, that the current governing boards' offices be trimmed and that more responsibility be given to the individual universities and to the Board of Higher Education. The task force recommended no structural changes for the Illinois Community College Board and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which are parts of the current system. The task force also identified four issues separate from its two specific reorganization options. 1. Put Sangamon State University in a different system. The task force reported that the Springfield university could be combined with either the University of Illinois or Southern Illinois University, but it recommended, based on academic mission, that Sangamon State be joined to the University of Illinois. 2. Make the University of Illinois Board of Trustees appointive instead of elective. The change would not alter the structure of the university, according to the task force, but "provides consistency with the other governing boards and removes the selection from a political environment in which selection is based on voter turnout instead of knowledge of the institution." 3. Strengthen the Board of Higher Education's oversight role. The task force suggested specifics for further review: more control over tuition increases, a strengthened hand in training members of all boards, a leadership role in presidential searches, and the authority to eliminate programs not academically or economically justified. 4. Change the membership of the Board of Higher Education so none directly represent the other boards. Currently, 10 members are appointed by the governor; six directly represent the system interests (University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, Board of Regents, Board of Governors, Community College Board and Student Assistance Commission). Michael D. Klemens

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