Coming of Age in America - Higher Education as a Troubled Giant, 1970 to 2000

1. Research and Reports
   1. National Student Marketing Corporation

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      • Picked by the 1970 Institutional Investor Conference as their "predicition stock of the year." It then fell from $170 to $4 over the next year.
   2. Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education 1974-1979

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      • Concluded that higher education was the on the brink of a "new depression". Universities were overextending their budgets and not equipped with managers who knew how to adapt to change.
   3. Carnegie Classifications

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      • Attempted to distinguish between different types of institutions for data gathering purposes. Ended up creating more chaos than it solved.
   4. The Newman Report

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      • 1971 - pushed for universities to have more of a "social justice" stance than just promoting business as usual. Students were changing and higher education needed to change the way it did things as well.
2. External Crises
   1. "Stagflation"

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      • The price of goods was going up, but college revenues were not. Trying to cut costs backfired as students and parents were put off by the unkempt campuses.
   2. Demographics

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      • Birth rate went down. Mandatory draft ended. Families moved South and West, leaving the colleges in the North and Midwest with low enrollments.
      1. So many students were coming from less wealthy families - attending public community colleges
3. Learning from Adversity

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   • Universities moved from a "managerial revolution" to an "enterprising evolution".
   1. New Income

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      • States awarded donors by matching their donations to large institutions with a tax deduction in the same amount.
      • Renewed emphasis on gaining grants from the Govt. Many institutions even added the new position of "vice president of governmental relations" to their boards.

1. The Pell Grant

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   • Created by an ammendment to the Higher Education Act of 1964 - guaranteed federal aid to anyone who applied for it and met the requirements.
   1. Federal Regulations

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      • With the ability to accept federal money (in the form of grants), institutions were also then subject to federal regulations.
2. The Power of Students

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   • Although there were groups in higher ed who were pushing for portable federal government student aid, it was groups of students themselves lobbying in D.C. that actually turned the tables.
3. The Guaranteed Student Loan Act

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   • 1978 - transformed federal aid. More of an emphasis on student loans instead of just grants. Extended who was eligible for federal aid. However, it caused a crisis in future decades with the amount of debt that students left college with.

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• The type of students filling institutions of higher ed changed and those institutions had to acknowledge that. Their students weren't always 18-22 year old, residential students anymore.
• The term "non-traditional" student came about during this time.

1. Student Trustees

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   • Schools saw the student activism of past decades and created these positions. They also tried to get students more involved in politics off campus, but with little success.
2. Transfer Students

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   • Although many 4 year colleges had agreements with 2 year colleges, not everything transferred. So, universities had to figure out a way to get students from the community colleges to join their ranks. They even started having classes outside of the university in locations more convenient for those students.
3. Changes in Campus Offerings

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   • Schools began to offer things like career services, large health centers, suite style and co-ed dorms, etc.
   • Because of the concern with retention and degree completion, campuses began offering professional advising, teaching and learning centers, expanded students services, and other tools to help students succeed.
   • Internships, field experiences, and study abroad all became known as part of the undergraduate experience.
4. Unprepared Freshmen

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   • Universities began to notice that their students were not entering prepared. Even if the they had received an A in Calc in HS, they may not be up to a college level math class. Students began to drop out or fail and retake classes. All of this led to wasted money on the part of university.

1. Oversaturation

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   • The huge hiring boom of the 1960's had filled all of the positions. By the mid-70's there were few positions available for the large applicants.
2. Power Shift

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   • The over-saturation of the market gave the power back to administration. They had the ability to hire much more qualified professors than in the past because of the lack of available jobs.
3. Adjunct Faculty

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   • The appearance of part-time, non-tenure track faculty became commonplace in institutions during this time. 

1. Diverse Offerings

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   • Academic transfer, vocational courses, certification courses, community interest courses, and even remedial courses for people who already have bachelor's or master's degrees.
   • Without a focus on 4 year college prep classes, universities started to see transfer students becoming less prepared by community colleges than in the past. 
2. Finances and Student Success

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   • Some courses were not really fit for the community colleges. However, they received govt funds per student enrolled in any course.
   • With state funds shrinking, the questions about whether or not community colleges should be held accountable for student success in order to gain funds became a hot topic.

1. Education Coordinating Agencies

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   • Third party groups in each state in charge of making recommendations for long range planning for federal govt funds.
2. Rising Tensions

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   • Many state flagship institutions did not like these agencies. They were simply a roadblock to the usual lobbying they had done in the state govt.

1. Federal Funds

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   • Most established colleges and universities fought against for profit institutions having the ability to accept govt funds in the form of grants and student loans. They often sited the high default rate of for-profit students. It was like the for-profit institutions were taking advantage of students who had no other options.
2. COPA

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   • The growing lack of trust in accrediting bodies led to the dissolution of COPA, the Council on Post-secondary Accreditation.
3. Higher Ed Inc.

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   • The huge increase in the for-profit sector could no longer be ignored. They fought to keep their place by pointing out that many "regular" colleges were not meeting standards as well. They also lobbied in Washington and made large donations to congress members in turn for their support.

1. The Rebound

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   • As the economy picked back up, so did higher ed. Many candidates for governor ran on platforms of improvement in higher ed. There was an emphasis on technology as well.
2. Generous Spending

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   • Institutions spent generously in the mid 1980's. In order to attract the best students, they had to have the best of everything else. This continued until the stock market crash in 1987. 

1. Doing "The Right Thing"

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   • Universities grew tired of the amount of meddling the federal govt was doing. They believed they should be trusted to "do the right thing" without so much oversight. Funds were also decreasing which made these feelings even stronger. 
   • Although many institutes of higher ed were liberal in their outward thinking, their inward practices remained fairly conservative. Govt regulations were really needed in order to help them along in terms of social justice issues.
2. Out with the Old

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   • In the past, higher ed institutions has been largely exempt from federal oversight. Hiring and firing were completely up to them. They were not required to provide employees with even clean water to drink, let alone benefits. They did not have to reveal student records to even the students themselves. They could basically do whatever they wanted in the name of academic freedom.
3. In with the New

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   • By the 1980's, higher ed institutions were held much more accountable. Courts began to try cases brought by disgruntled members of the institutions. Although they still held a great deal of autonomy, they also had to answer for their actions quite a bit more.

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• In sheer statistics, women advanced during this time period in both undergraduate and graduate education. However, their chance of being hired on past being a lecturer was very low.

1. "Steering"

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   • At this point, women were still being steered out of mathematics and science courses even as young as high school aged, even when they were excelling. This created a disparity in their ability to pass high level math classes in undergrad, causing a lack of women applying for doctoral programs in engineering and science fields.
2. The Shift to Co-Education

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   • Both historically women's and men's colleges moved towards being co-ed.  "My daughter goes to West Point and my son goes to Vassar."
3. Title IX

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   • It's language prohibited discrimination in education programs. In reality, it was a bit more confusing. It took some time for them to clearly establish which parts of the university were affected and how they could comply.
4. Affirmative Action

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   • Not only were universities required to comply with affirmative action when hiring professors, but they had to also comply when admitting students. It was decided that although race could not be the only factor determining a students admission, it could be considered along with a list of other factors.
5. HBCU's

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   • Although HBCUs did have to compete with institutions like Harvard recruiting black students, many black students did not have the desire to attend white flagship state universities. They simply did not trust them. So, HBCUs continued to play a large role in educating the black community, even after desegregation.

1. Private vs Public

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   • New research showed that the "cost" of educating students at both types of was mostly the same. Sometimes public institutions even spent more. 
   • It also showed that the idea of the rich elite going to private schools was false, as the public schools were educating a majority of them. So it begged the question why public universities were getting subsidies which allowed them to lower tuition for students who were certainly able to pay on their own.
2. HEPI

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   • The Higher Education Price Index - Made in response to comparisons with the Consumer Price Index, explaining why costs in higher ed rose faster than inflation.
   • From 1975-1980 tuition costs had raised slower than inflation, but with a backup of costs (deferred maintenance, etc), prices rose quickly after 1980 making it seems as though it was unrealistic.

1. Liberal Arts

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   • Internal wars about curriculum in the liberal arts led to new multidisciplinary approaches in things like women's studies, African American studies, and Hispanic studies. These were then integrated in existing departments.
2. Conservativism

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   • The wars in liberal arts led to the creation of conservative young alumni groups growing, stating that the curriculum had gone too far to the left.
3. Employable Fields

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   • As much change as these wars brought about, they did little to change federal policy and funding for fields that were more employable. This was partly because the students as consumers voted for the advancement of these fields with their tuition.

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• Federal Research Grant Dollars:  $7.5 Trillion in 1960 $8.9 Trillion in 1980 Although the amount of increase per year had tapered off, the amount being given did not decrease.

1. Social Justice in Funding

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   • New programs were developed to make sure that federal funds were evenly distributed - They focused on previously underserved states, as well as HBCUs and programs devoted to educating women in the sciences.
2. Use of Federal Funds

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   • There were probes into how federal funds were being used at research universities - Awarded grants came with additional funds to cover "overhead costs" by the universities. When working with federal govt contractors and timelines, this extra money usually didn't even cover the additional costs. However, the idea of them getting extra money that wasn't aimed directly at research stuck with the public and made a bad impression.
3. New Rankings

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   • Graham and Diamond created a new ranking system in where they ranked universities based on research grants, published articles, etc per professors instead of as a university whole. This took away the advantage from the larger universities and brought to light many smaller newcomer institutions who were giving the elite universities a run for their money in terms of research.
4. Research and Tenure

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   • The emphasis on research and publishing for professors worked it's way into the tenure requirements during this period.
   • Brought up the question - should research and publishing really be a requirement for professors outside of the research and doctoral granting institutions?

1. Property Taxes

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   • Universities had long been exempted from property taxes because of their nonprofit status. However, questions began to arise about why they did not pay for land used for non-education purpose. For example, student unions where computers were being sold or arenas being used for concerts and basketball games.
   • In some "college towns" universities owned a large portion of the town's land. This created a problem for them with a lack of property taxes. It also caused an underfunding of other govt projects like public schools systems. 
2. Appearing "Poor"

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   • Because of their "non-profit" status and avoidance of taxes, universities had to be very careful about how they presented their financial status. Even universities like Harvard with huge endowments used sly accounting practices to appear like they were operating in the red or "barely making it by".
3. Primary Purpose

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   • The theme of this period has been expansion of universities often without a proper mission or vision. This creates institutions operating on thin budgets with administrative bloat and often overlapping programs with other local colleges and universities.