LITTLE ROCK — Creating more public colleges would overextend an already inadequate pool of state funding, diminishing the quality of higher education in Arkansas, officials supporting a ban said.
Department of Higher Education administrators will ask the Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday to extend an existing 10-year moratorium on new college and university campuses for 10 more years.
The measure would prevent the construction of new campuses and the conversion of colleges’ satellite units into independent stand-alone institutions, Deputy Director Stanley Williams said.
“The same conditions exist today that existed when they adopted that moratorium,” he said. “When you add a campus, you dilute the funding of others.”
Supporters of the moratorium argue its extension would allow more funding to go to student programs and prevent the costs of administration and facilities associated with new campuses. Many say the state already has too many colleges and universities.
Supporters of previous college expansions have said that improving access by locating campuses in rural areas will help improve the state’s rate of students going to college.
The state’s existing 11 four-year public universities and 22 two-year public colleges must compete for their share of about $800 million in state appropriations for fiscal 2011, which started July 1.
When the moratorium was originally adopted, Arkansas’ colleges and universities split $560 million.
Appropriations haven’t grown to match enrollment growth. That combined with inflation means Arkansas’ higher-education institutions have about 30 percent of the purchasing power per full time student that they did 10 years ago, Williams said.
The department calculates full-time students by dividing the total number of hours taught on campus during a given semester by 15, the course load in hours for the average.
The bulk of a college’s budget comes from its Educational and General Fund, made up of tuition and fees, and state appropriations.
The board in May changed the formula it uses for appropriation requests, shifting tuition and fees from 25 percent to 30 percent of the total cost at a four-year university up to 40 percent to 45 percent. At two-year colleges, it increased from 30 percent of the total cost to 35 percent.
When satellite campuses seek independent status, they establish their own administrative staffs and receive separate appropriations, further stretching dollars, Williams said.
The moratorium defines a stand-alone college as one with separate administration and a comprehensive course plan that allows a student to obtain a degree entirely onsite.
Arkansas’ college system has grown dramatically through conversion of existing campuses into independent schools.
The state added 14 independent two-year colleges in 1991, when Act 1244 converted a network of vocational schools into two-year technical colleges.
Supporters of the state’s smaller schools argue that Arkansas needs a healthy number of institutions to provide access to students, particularly in poor and rural areas where would-be students may be less likely to travel to colleges far from their homes.
Higher-education leaders have long sought to increase the number of degree holders in the state.
The Department of Higher Education reports that 68.7 percent of 2009 graduating high school seniors enrolled in post-secondary education the following fall semester. But if past trends hold true, many of those students will not earn a degree.
Statistics from the past five years show about 30 percent of those attending college in Arkansas leave by the end of their first year.
The average age of a two year college student in Arkansas is 27, which creates a different set of challenges from those a younger, more traditional student may face, said Edward L. Franklin, director of the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges.
The large number of campuses has helped boost attendance by these students, he said.
The moratorium proposal notes that “the present configuration has an institution within 30 miles of most counties, and, in most instances, there are off-campus operations in the counties without an institution.”
“We really need to be as accessible as possible, and that hasn’t always been a part of our culture per se,” Franklin said. “Most of our students are going to school part time, working full or part time, raising a family and trying to get an education.”
During the moratorium, most schools have met the need for accessibility by building satellite units, teaching some classes out of their coverage area to reach more students, he said.
It costs about $3 million to start a new, independent campus, excluding facilities, Franklin said. Satellite units, which offer only some courses necessary for a degree, have lower startup costs.
Education leaders are cautious about finances after lower-than-expected state revenue forced two midyear budget cuts in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Many campuses instituted hiring freezes and across-the-board cuts to balance budgets.
“I don’t think that situation is going to change much in the next five or six years,” University of Arkansas System President B. Alan Sugg said.
Colleges agreed to a June request by Gov. Mike Beebe to cancel already-approved raises for faculty and staff after state Finance and Administration Department Director Richard Weiss predicted another year of fiscal difficulty and noted that Beebe’s budget didn’t include funds for raises for other state employees.
“Right now, we need to take a deep breath and pause and see what the economic situation is in the future,” Sugg said. “The higher-education community seems to be in one mindset almost that the state of Arkansas is adequately covered by higher education.”
The original moratorium provided exceptions to Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University at Heber Springs, allowing them to become standalone campuses if they could meet enrollment and administrative criteria set by the board.
Phillips achieved the status, while the Heber Springs school - which failed to maintain a minimum enrollment of 500 full-time-equivalent students for three consecutive years - remains under the authority of Arkansas State University’s Beebe campus.
ASU System interim President Robert Potts said he supported the moratorium’s extension. Distance learning and Internet courses have helped eliminate some of the need for new campuses, he said.
“The reasoning and rationale when this was adopted applies even more today,” Potts said. “But the board should reserve the flexibility to consider special cases as time goes on.”
Arkansas, Pages 19 on 07/25/2010