THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER · PDF fileTHE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD...

Inside: • Rethinking Federal Higher Education Policy• Quest for the Best College President• The Overlooked Nonprofit Workforce• New England’s Edu-Economy

CONNECTION

VOLUME XVIII

NUMBER 2

FALL 2003

THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

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Volume XVIII, No. 2Fall 2003CONNECTION

THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

C O V E R S T O R I E S

11 Making College AffordableFive Ways to Overcome Financial Barriers to CollegeAnn Coles

13 Federal TriangleCongress Focuses on Access, Affordability and Accountability

(Part I of a special CONNECTION series on

reauthorization of the federal Higher Education Act)

Terry Hartle and Chris Simmons

15 Earn, Learn … Serve?Federal Work-Study Program Confronts Midlife Crisesas it Nears 40Abbey Marzick

19 Sticking It to StudentsA New Losing Formula for Financial Aid Eligibility?Chuck O’Toole

C O M M E N T A R Y & A N A L Y S I S

20 Searching Highs and LowsThe Quest for the Best Fit in a College PresidentSheri Qualters

22 New England’s Overlooked Nonprofit WorkforceAn Economic Driver IgnoredDavid Garvey and Stephen Pratt

24 The Edu-EconomyNew England Private Colleges Add Jobs Despite RecessionRoss Gittell

D E P A R T M E N T S

5 Editor’s MemoRegionalism and AffordabilityJohn O. Harney

7 Short Courses

9 Message from the PresidentAn Integrated Approach to AffordabilityRobert A. Weygand

27 BooksThe Big Picture The Future of the Public University in America reviewed by Theodora J. Kalikow

DEC’d Out DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC reviewed by Alan R. Earls

30 Campus: News Briefly Noted

32 Data Connection

CONNECTION FALL 2003 3

Cover photo by John O. Harney. Treatment by tpgcreative.

The answer is YES!

But don’t take our word for it. Read for yourself about the valuable contributions afterschool programsmake to children’s performance in school.

Commissioned by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, a new report, Critical Hours:AfterschoolPrograms and Educational Success, by noted researcher Dr. Beth M. Miller, examines evaluation data fromstudies of afterschool programs across the nation and offers a comprehensive array of conclusionsbased on that analysis.

Among Dr. Miller’s findings:• Students who lack adult supervision after school are at greater risk.• Students who attend afterschool programs are more engaged in learning.• Increased engagement in learning does result in higher academic performance.• Afterschool programs do have a special role to play in reducing racial and income

achievement gaps.

To download a copy of the Critical Hours executive summary or the full report, visit the Nellie MaeEducation Foundation website: www.nmefdn.org.

1250 Hancock Street, Suite 205N • Quincy, MA 02169-4331Tel. 781-348-4200 • Fax 781-348-4299

Do Afterschool ProgramsReally Make a Difference?

Do Afterschool ProgramsReally Make a Difference?


E D I T O R ’ S M E M O

CONNECTION: THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD

OF HIGHER EDUCATION is published five times a year by the New England Board of Higher Education, 45 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111-1325 Phone: 617.357.9620 Fax: 617.338.1577Email: [email protected]

Vol. XVIII, No. 2 Fall 2003 ISSN 0895-6405Copyright © 2003 by the New England Board of Higher Education.

Publisher: Robert A. WeygandExecutive Editor: John O. HarneySenior Director of Communications:

Charlotte StrattonNEBHE/CONNECTION Intern: Abbey MarzickDesign and Production: tpgcreative, Boston, MA

Director of Advertising Sales and Marketing: Myha Nguyen

Back Issues: Regular issues $3.95 each; annual directory issue $20.

Advertising rates are available upon request.

CONNECTION is printed in New England.

CONNECTION is indexed and abstracted in EBSCOhost’sAcademic Search Elite, Academic Search Premier andProfessional Development Collection, and indexed inPAIS International and ERIC’s Current Index to Journalsin Education. A cumulative index of CONNECTION

articles and abstracts of recent articles are also accessible on the World Wide Web at www.nebhe.org.

The New England Boardof Higher Education is anonprofit, congressionallyauthorized, interstateagency whose mission is to promote greater educational opportunitiesand services for the residents of New England. NEBHE was established by the New England Higher Education Compact, a 1955 agreement among the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Chair: Carole Cowan, President, Middlesex Community College

President: Robert A. Weygand

CONNECTION Editorial Advisory Board

Katherine SloanPresident, Massachusetts College of Art

Robert WhitcombVice President and Editorial Pages Editor, Providence Journal

Ralph Whitehead Jr.Public Service Professor, University of Massachusetts

Robert L. WoodburyFormer Chancellor, University of Maine System

CONNECTIONTHE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

John O. Harney is executive editor of CONNECTION.

Regionalism and Affordability

Afew years back, we published a particularly rich issue of CONNECTION,titled “The State of New England,” which featured the results of a majorsurvey on the region’s future and the proceedings of a mock debate

among candidates for the fictitious position of Governor of New England. Forthe cover, we commissioned an illustration of a finned hot rod parked in theforeground of the Old Man of the Mountain. That hot rod’s “New England”license plate carried the motto “Live Regionally or Die” and, with apologies toAbbey Road, the clue, “NE 6R1.”

Few regionalists, and for that matter, few geologists, could have guessed atthe time that this cryptic bit of regional sentiment would outlive the reveredgranite profile in the background. But Evan Richert might have.

In an essay published this summer by the Maine Center for EconomicPolicy, the former Maine state planning director turned University of SouthernMaine professor, observes, “Shortfalls in state revenues in New England arereviving a word that is spoken freely only in difficult times: regionalism.”

Richert’s focus is on Maine Gov. John Baldacci’s proposed “municipal ser-vice districts,” designed to encourage regional cooperation among adjoiningtowns. Without them, Richert notes: “The signal in one town might be ‘moreyoung children moving in,’ and in the next town over, it might be ‘surplusschool capacity.’ But there isn’t a mechanism to quickly and easily engender acoordinated response.”

To further illustrate the pitfalls of individualism, Richert points out that theadjacent but proudly independent communities of South Portland and CapeElizabeth, Maine, recently built separate new public safety buildings locatedjust five miles apart.

As it happens, colleges and universities plan their growth with the samepride of institution that well-intentioned town elders do. And as they indepen-dently launch new programs and build new centers—their version of publicsafety buildings—costs for students go up.

Fortunately, there is a nearly half-century old interstate analogue toBaldacci’s municipal service districts idea, which readers should bear in mindas they consider this issue of CONNECTION’S discussion of college affordability.

The New England Board of Higher Education’s Regional Student Program(RSP) gives New England residents a substantial tuition break at out-of-state

public colleges and universities within the six-state region when they enroll incertain degree programs that are not offered by the public institutions in theirhome states. More than 8,000 New England residents are enrolled through the RSP this academic year. Full-time students in the program are saving anaverage of $5,800 on their annual tuition bills.

Perhaps as importantly, the six states save untold millions of dollars annu-ally through the RSP because they don’t have to start up and run high-costacademic programs that are available in other New England states.

In September, when New England’s real governors urged the Bush adminis-tration not to allow Midwestern power plants to delay pollution controls, aMassachusetts State House News Service reporter observed: “A classic trans-boundary topic, air pollution tends to unite the region’s governors.”

Guess what? Citizens migrate as freely across our compact state lines as sulfur emissions do. If ever there were a trans-boundary issue facing slow-growing New England, it is the development of an educated citizenry. So,by extension, it is college affordability. That topic united New England’s governors 50 years ago when they planted the seeds of the New England Boardof Higher Education and the RSP. It should unite them today.

5

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The Everyday Story of a College Town“Lose yourself in the society of upstate Massachusetts’ venerable ClareCollege, as you accompany ‘Hi’ and ‘Tig’ through the hallowed halls andprofessors’ homes to uncover the murderer of the stunning, enigmatic andnotoriously unfaithful wife of archeologist Cornelius Vanderlyn.”

—Publicity pitch for “Grave Circle,” a novel by Massachusetts College of Art historian David D. Nolta. The “first of the ‘Ivory Tower Mysteries’

featuring the brother and sister team of Hiawatha and Antigone Musing,”was published in September 2003 by Quality Words in Print Books.

Strong-Armed“SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. SUPPORT OUR PROFESSORS.”

—Banners carried by University of Massachusetts Boston students and faculty protesting the alleged assault by campus police

on African-American professor Tony Van Der Meer who had intervened in a campus dispute between National Guard recruiters and students.

Snippets

S H O R T C O U R S E S


Grazie!After years of lobbying by Italiangroups ranging from the Sons of Italyto the government in Rome, theCollege Board has agreed to offerAdvanced Placement (AP) coursesand exams in Italian language, beginning in the fall of 2005.

The College Board’s AP programsallow students to take college-levelcourses while they are in high school.AP programs are currently offered inFrench, German, Spanish and Latin.

Enrollment in Italian courses atU.S. high schools is small but growing,according to data from the AmericanCouncil on the Teaching of ForeignLanguages. Between 1994 and 2000,enrollment in Italian courses grew by 46 percent to about 64,000. By contrast, enrollment in Spanishcourses grew by 26 percent (to morethan 4 million) while French andGerman enrollment declined.

Comings and GoingsFormer Cambridge College ProvostMahesh Sharma became presidentof the college focused on workingadults, succeeding Eileen Moran

Brown, who was named to the newposition of chancellor/founder. …Former Dean College Vice Presidentand Chief Marketing Officer Linda

Edmonds Turner was named president of Urban College of Boston,the two-year college associated withAction for Boston CommunityDevelopment, Boston’s officialantipoverty agency. … Lynn Alan

Brooks, former Connecticut Collegesenior vice president and independenthigher consultant, became presidentof Briarwood College, after servingseveral months as provost.

Talk to UsCONNECTION welcomes letters to theeditor. Please address letters to: Editor, CONNECTION, 45 Temple Place,Boston, MA 02111, or email to [email protected].

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How much states invest in public higher education, howmuch public colleges and uni-

versities charge in tuition and fees andhow much states provide in need-basedstudent financial aid are three legs of aproverbial stool. But you would neverknow that from the way these highereducation policies are pursued in theNew England states. Forging an inte-grated approach to these three policieswould be a sensible first step in makingcollege affordable in New England.

New England’s public collegetuition and fees—like its private col-lege tuition and fees—are the highestin the United States. And in the pasttwo years, public college charges haverisen faster in New England than inother regions. In Massachusetts lastyear, charges at some public institu-tions rose by 25 percent or more.

Yet no New England state increasedfunding of need-based student scholar-ships at even half the rate that tuitionand fees rose, until Rhode Island dou-bled its state aid program this year.Meanwhile, tuition discounting andincreasingly popular merit-based aidprograms may direct dollars awayfrom the students who need it most.

As Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for HigherEducation Management Systems,recently warned higher educationleaders in Massachusetts, states oftenmake decisions about tuition and deci-sions about student aid as if they havenothing to do with each other.

The result is predictable yet pro-found. While overall college enrollments

rise—as they usually do in a downeconomy—many qualified, lower- andmiddle-income students are priced outof public higher education. All ourrhetoric about the democratization ofhigher education in the six decadessince the G.I. Bill is suddenly in grave doubt.

New England state legislaturesdevote fewer tax dollars per capita topublic higher education, both institu-tions and state aid programs, thanother Americans do—$169, comparedwith $221. Expressed another way,New Englanders invest less than $5per $1,000 of their incomes in publiccampuses and state student aid pro-grams, while taxpayers nationallydirect $7 of every $1,000 of theirincomes to these purposes.

This underinvestment is easily rationalized by New England’s policy-makers, because Harvard, Yale,Dartmouth and their famous private kinare there to shoulder New England’shigher education reputation. Spendingon public higher education is “discre-tionary.” Unlike health care and K-12, forexample, higher education appropria-tions can be conveniently shifted: a pairof student shoulders is always waiting.

Or is it?

The National Center for PublicPolicy and Higher Education foundrecently that American families spendnearly a quarter of their incomes onaverage to send one child to a four-yearpublic campus; in New England, theshare of income devoted to higher education is substantially higher. Agroup of higher education leaders convened last year by the nationalSociety for College and UniversityPlanning acknowledged that “we don’thave sufficient information about whatfee levels can be tolerated before individuals get priced out.”

Meanwhile, we’re beginning to seestories in the popular press about college students who are unable toreturn to classes because of rising costs.And we know the message is going outto families, especially immigrant andminority families, that college costs toomuch—that it is not for them.

This is more than a lost opportunityfor New England. The wage premiumassociated with higher education isbecoming familiar to everyone—themore years you go to college, the moremoney you earn over your lifetime. But acollege education promises much morethan earnings power. People who go tocollege vote more than those who don’t.They are more likely to serve on civicboards or otherwise participate fully inpublic life. It’s time to re-commit NewEngland to the ideal of college access.It’s time to make college affordable.

Robert A. Weygand is president

and CEO of the New England Board

of Higher Education and publisher

of Connection.

An Integrated Approach to AffordabilityROBERT A. WEYGAND

M E S S A G E F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T

All our rhetoric about the democratization of highereducation in the six decadessince the G.I. Bill is suddenly

in grave doubt.

ANN COLES

College affordability is a greater challenge forstudents and families today than at any timein the past decade. College tuition and fee

hikes averaging 10 percent in the public sector and 6 percent at private colleges are causing deep concern about how low- and middle-income familiescan pay for college.

This situation is exacerbated by stagnant familyincomes and recent job losses. During the 1990s, while public and private college tuitions increased by 38 percent, median family income grew by only 8 percent. While higher-income families saw theirincomes keep pace with tuition increases over the past decade, affordability has become a much greaterproblem for lower-income families. In 2002, public college prices amounted to 60 percent, and private college prices 160 percent, of the yearly income of low-income families, according to the College Board.

Except for loans, financial aid has not kept pace with increasing college prices. The federal AdvisoryCommittee on Student Financial Assistance reportsthat low-income students at four-year public collegesface $3,800 in “unmet need” after loans, Federal Work-Study funds and family contributions.

Lower-income students also are more price-sensitivethan middle- and upper-income students when makingdecisions about college. Tuition increases that are notoffset by increases in need-based financial aid result in reduced enrollment of low-income students. Financialbarriers prevent an estimated 48 percent of college-qual-ified, low-income high school graduates from attendinga four-year college and 22 percent from attending anycollege within two years of graduation, according to theAdvisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.Among those low-income students who do go to college,many encounter difficulties as a result of the financialpressures they face. Some work long hours and compro-mise their academic performance. Others borrow heavilyand report feeling more burdened by their debt than domiddle-income students. Ultimately, less than 10 percentof low-income students earn bachelor’s degrees by age25, compared with more than 50 percent of upper-income students, according to an analysis by Thomas G.

Mortenson, an independent higher education analyst andsenior scholar at the Pell Institute in Washington, D.C.

Many students who start college without sufficientresources see their college dreams become financialnightmares. Recent interviews with nine graduates ofBoston-area college outreach programs for low-incomeand first-generation students tell a sad story. Eight borrowed $4,000 or more a year, and would have accu-mulated $16,000 to $20,000 in debt by the time theygraduated. Seven of the nine worked while in college.Five students had unmet need after the other aid theyreceived, including loans and Work Study. This unmetneed was covered by “credit” extended by the colleges(on top of the loans the students had taken).

Of the nine, four left college after their first year, allfor financial reasons. They could not pay the outstandingbalances they owed their colleges. They could not trans-fer to a lower-cost institution, thereby deferring theirloans, because with an outstanding balance due, the colleges would not release their transcripts. Their student loans went into repayment within six monthsbecause they were no longer in school. Three of the four eventually defaulted on their student loans becausethey were not earning enough to make the payments.Starting, but not completing college, compromised thesestudents’ futures.

Student financial difficulties also negatively affect thestanding of individual colleges. Because degree completionis among key criteria on which publications like U.S.

News & World Report rank colleges, colleges with higherattrition rates get lower rankings. Dropouts default on student loans at higher rates than other students, so negatively impact college loan default rates, which, inturn, can jeopardize an institution’s eligibility for federalstudent aid. Dropouts also result in loss of the financialinvestment that institutions make in students’ educationbeyond the costs students pay directly. Finally, dropoutsrequire institutions to spend money bringing in new students to replace those who leave before graduating.

Five strategies to make college affordableWhile reducing college costs and increasing student aid are the obvious ways of making college more affordable, they are not options in times of severe fiscalconstraints. Instead, policymakers and education leaders need to consider other alternatives.


Making College AffordableFive Ways to Overcome

Financial Barriers to College

1

2 4

3

The following options reduce college costs without substantial new resources.

Reduce the time it takes for students to earn

a college degree. Expand opportunities for students to earn college credits while in high school throughAdvanced Placement (AP) courses. Federal funds are available through state departments of education tosupport school district efforts to expand AP offeringsand improve the success rates of disadvantaged students on AP examinations. The College Board’sCollege Level Examination Program (CLEP) providesanother option for students to earn college credits byexamination. Originally designed for adults returning to school, high school students increasingly are takingCLEP exams as a way to reduce college costs.

Dual-enrollment programs such as Tech Prep provide another way for students to earn college credits while in high school, as do “early college highschools,” which allow students to earn up to two yearsof college credit concurrently with completing theirhighs school graduation requirements. The state of Utahand Bard College have successfully piloted early collegehigh schools, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationis supporting a major initiative to create 70 additionalschools nationwide.

Another option for reducing time to degree is toreduce the time that students spend taking non-gradua-tion credit in early college years. Currently, nearly halfof students who begin college must take remedial courses in order to develop basic skills that they did not develop in high school, according to research byU.S. Education Department analyst Clifford Adelman.This problem could be remedied by assessing students’college readiness early in high school and aligning highschool curricula with the first-year expectations of col-leges. The College Board’s PSAT score reports provideindividualized information regarding students’ academicpreparedness for college that schools could use foralignment purposes, but many do not. In addition, somecommunity colleges, such as Cape Cod CommunityCollege, administer placement tests designed for fresh-men to students in feeder high schools to give both stu-dents and teachers a concrete picture of where studentsneed to develop skills in order to be ready for regularfirst-year college courses.

Provide families with better information and

guidance before students enroll in college.

Honestly inform students and families about collegeaffordability and how much of total college charges arelikely to be covered by financial aid. Help familiesunderstand the negative impact on academic perfor-mance (and progress toward a degree) of working morethan 15 hours a week while enrolled. Help studentsunderstand how borrowing can help them graduatefaster and accrue the financial benefits of entering theeducated workforce sooner. Explain to families the roleof being well-prepared academically for college in help-

ing students qualify for more financial aid and avoidremedial college courses, and the options for studentsto earn college credits before enrolling.

Working collaboratively, colleges and universities,state financial aid agencies and student loan organiza-tions can design and communicate clear and consistentmessages for students and families in their printedinformation, on web sites and through financial aidworkshops and high school financial aid nights. Highschool counselors, TRIO and GEAR UP programs, andcommunity organizations that help students plan for college also play an important role. Boston’s HigherEducation Information Center and the Vermont StudentAssistance Corp. are two examples of organizationsworking extensively on financial aid information issueswith students and families.

Facilitate movement of students between lower-

cost and higher-cost colleges. Create policies andinter-institutional partnerships that encourage studentsto fill general education requirements at lower-cost pub-lic institutions and complete their majors at institutions,perhaps higher-cost, that offer the best academic programfor their interests. This would reduce costs to studentsand families while preserving choice. The former direc-tor of a special admissions program at Emerson Collegehelped students having problems with tuition makearrangements to spend several semesters at a communitycollege completing their general education require-ments. He advised students on which courses Emersonwould accept for transfer and helped them transitionfrom one institution to another. An additional exampleis the Rhode Island Baccalaureate Bound Program, inwhich Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) students enroll in special honors classes, participate inenrichment activities and receive personal assurance intransferring to one of 75 colleges and universities withwhich CCRI has agreements.

Making the transfer process less cumbersome andmore transparent also would facilitate students attend-ing several different institutions as a cost-saving mea-sure. One approach is to guarantee students admissionto a four-year college at the time they are admitted to a community college. Massachusetts public four-yearcolleges and universities provide a 33 percent tuitiondiscount for Massachusetts community college studentsenrolled in a designated transfer program who earn 60 credits and a 3.0 grade point average (GPA).

Reward college readiness and college persistence.

Provide pre-college incentives to encourage students totake a full complement of college-preparatory coursesand earn a GPA of 2.5 or better. The Rhode IslandChildren’s Crusade offers last-dollar scholarships up tothe amount of the in-state tuition at a Rhode Island pub-lic college to low-income students who sign a pledge towork hard in school, get good grades and attend a post-secondary program full-time within a year of graduatinghigh school. Provide differential aid to reward students

12 NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION

5

who progress steadily toward degrees. Massachusettsawards a Performance Bonus Grant of $350 to $500 tostate scholarship recipients enrolled in a Massachusettspostsecondary program full-time who have earned 24college credits with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Integrate state financial aid policies and

higher education financing policies to protect

low-income students from cost increases. Recentstudies by Jane Wellman of the Washington, D.C.-basedInstitute for Higher Education Policy and others haveshown that students who can least afford college do notreceive the state support they need in part because stu-dent aid is managed as a supplemental, categorical pro-gram rather than being integrated with state highereducation financing policies. These studies call for inte-grating tuition, appropriations and financial aid policiesto maximize student participation and success. TheWestern Interstate Commission for Higher Education(WICHE) recently completed case studies describingthe experiences of five states (Arizona, Connecticut,Florida, Missouri and Oregon) that have committed tomaking such changes. The case studies are available onthe Internet at www.wiche.org.

Evaluate policies regularly to determine their effec-tiveness in maintaining affordability for those studentswith the greatest financial need. Currently, evaluationsof state aid are apt to be narrow accounts of fund use,rather than analyses of aid effectiveness in ensuringaccess and affordability.

Many innovative ways to help students overcomefinancial barriers to college do not require major infu-sions of new resources. Instead, some involve strength-ening partnerships between high schools and highereducation institutions and among public and private,two and four-year institutions. Others require reallocat-ing resources, with funds targeting the same studentsin ways that increase incentives for academic achieve-ment, college readiness and degree completion.Everyone has a stake in enabling students from allbackgrounds to succeed in college.

Ann Coles is senior vice president of The Education

Resources Institute (TERI) and director of the

Pathways to College Network, an alliance of 32 national

organizations and funders, including the U.S.

Department of Education, working together to improve

college access and success for underserved youth.


TERRY HARTLE AND CHRIS SIMMONS

Federal TriangleCongress Focuses on Access, Affordability

and Accountability

Congress has begun to rewrite (or in the technical parlance, “reauthorize”) the HigherEducation Act, the federal law that authorizes

student aid programs like Pell Grants, student loans,Federal Work-Study, TRIO and GEAR UP. This will markthe eighth time that the law has been formally revisitedsince it was enacted in 1965. It is a long and complexprocess that usually takes two full years to complete.

It’s still early in the process and predicting whatCongress will do is likely to prove foolhardy. Still, in anyreauthorization cycle, there are a handful of issues withsignificant implications for the relationship between thefederal government and higher education institutions.

At this point, it appears that three issues should be on

the radar screen of every senior campus administratorand trustee in the country: access to college for low- andmiddle-income students, the affordability of a collegedegree and the accountability of colleges and universities.

Access. Equalizing college participation by low- andupper-income students has always been the primarygoal of federal student aid programs. But despite the billions of dollars spent on federal aid over the last 30 years, low-income students remain seriously under-represented at America’s colleges relative to middle-and high-income students. While the percentage of low-income high-school graduates who attend collegehas grown in recent decades, so has the percentage of their more affluent peers who do. The “participationgap” between students from high and low incomes isexactly the same as it was before the federal student

Part I of a special CONNECTION series on reauthorization of the federal Higher Education Act


Federal Student Aid ProgramsFY 2004 FY 2004

Program FY 2002 FY 2003 Bush Request House Approved

Pell Grant $11.314 billion $11.365 billion $12.715 billion* $12.250 billion

Maximum Pell $4,000 $4,050 $4,000 $4,050

FSEOG $725 million $760 million $725 million $760 million

Federal Work-Study $1.011 billion $1.004 billion $1.011 billion $1.004 billion

Perkins Loans $100 million $99.35 million -0- $99.35 million(Capital Contributions)

LEAP $67 million $66.56 million -0- $66.56 million

TRIO Programs $802.5 million $827.09 million $802.5 million $835 million

GEAR-UP $285 million $293.08 million $285 million $300 million

*Includes funding to pay off the 2002-03 shortfall. Source: National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

aid programs were created. Why? Some analysts believe that low-income students lack

information about the benefits of higher education andthe availability of student aid. Others think that manylow-income students didn’t receive the academic prepara-tion in high school to succeed in college. Still others focuson the absence of financial resources. But analysts do notagree about which factor is the most important barrier tocollege participation, and the re-emergence of a federalbudget deficit makes it impossible for Congress to fund allthe new initiatives that policymakers (and we) might like.

Obviously, the federal government could play a rolein any of these areas. A national advertising campaigncould boost student awareness about college and studentaid. High-quality early intervention programs, like TRIOand GEAR UP, could increase the number of academi-cally prepared low-income students. Improving the quality of secondary school—as the federal govern-ment’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) seeks to do—would also improve academic readiness. Andsubstantially boosting the amount of available studentaid would surely reduce financial barriers to participation.

Even more worrisome, perhaps, is the assumption by some federal officials that increases in federal studentaid will just be consumed by tuition increases and wouldtherefore not make a significant difference in student participation. Which brings us to the second concern.

Affordability. It’s no secret that college prices haveincreased sharply in recent years, especially at publiccolleges and universities Many members of Congressbelieve these increases have made it impossible for students—especially from low-income families—to goto college. Some believe the problem could be solved ifcolleges were simply “more efficient.” Others havebegun to discuss more draconian ways to deal with theissue. For example, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-California), the influential chairman of the HouseSubcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness thatwill write the reauthorization in the House, has pro-posed barring schools from the federal student aid

programs if their tuition increases exceed a level set bythe federal government. This amounts to federal pricecontrols on colleges.

Congressional action on affordability is problematic. For one thing, tuition-setting at public institutions relatesdirectly to how much campuses are supported by stategovernments. In recent years, many states have conscious-ly cut operating support to colleges, knowing tuition wouldrise to make up the difference. It doesn’t make sense toblame colleges for actions taken by state legislatures.

In addition, almost all federal student aid is given to students, in effect, as a voucher that can be used atany college the student chooses. In theory, student aidrecipients who find tuition too high at one college cango to another, less expensive one. Since the federal government gives very little money directly to colleges,it has few ways to influence institutional behavior—unless it uses a heavy club.

At a minimum, Congress is likely to impose newreporting requirements on colleges related to tuitionand will search for “incentives” to help minimize tuitionincreases. Whether Congress eventually settles on someform of price controls remains to be seen.

Accountability. This term means different things todifferent people. It could mean that there is not enoughgood consumer information available to help studentsand families select a college. But this is simply not true.As a trip through any local bookstore will reveal, con-sumers have a dizzying array of information available tohelp them select a college. In addition, colleges providea plethora of data to the federal government on almostevery aspect of their operations.

“Accountability” also means that colleges and univer-sities lack an open and transparent process for ensuringthe academic quality of institutions. This is true. Theprinciple means of quality control in higher education isaccreditation, which was never intended to be a publicprocess. Rather, accreditation is designed to promoteinstitutional review and self-improvement; a functionthat it continues to serve very well. Ironically, turning


accreditation into a more public process may actuallyundermine it if the confidentiality that is now a hallmarkof the process is lost or diminished.

Other federal officials use “accountability” in a verygeneral way to suggest that some students are notacquiring a sufficient level of knowledge in basic areassuch as history, English and mathematics. Again, thereis little evidence to support this view, but it remains apersistent concern to the point that one witness at acongressional hearing called on Congress to develop atest that could be given to all students between theirfirst and second years of college. The difficulties ofdesigning and implementing such a test are, of course,overwhelming and, for now, there appears to be littlesupport for such an idea.

Ultimately, the basic goal in reauthorizing the HigherEducation Act for colleges and universities is always thesame: to revitalize this venerable legislation to meetcurrent and emerging student needs without the imposi-tion of costly new mandates or requirements that wouldsignificantly alter the relationship between the federalgovernment and colleges. Changes in public policy as aresult of this process are necessary and desirable. Butit’s a thin line between good and important changes andmodifications that shift control of higher educationfrom the campus to a Washington (or state) bureaucracy.

If the landmark No Child Left Behind law enacted in2001 is a guide, the possibility of inappropriate interven-tion is greater this time around than it has been in pastreauthorizations. While few observers think that the qual-

ity of higher education warrants the dramatic change thatthe NCLB aims to bring to elementary and secondaryschools, the NCLB precedent suggests that some federalpolicymakers are perfectly willing to bring Washington’sheavy hand to the college campus. Stay tuned.

Watch the Winter 2004 CONNECTION for Part II of this

series exploring how reauthorization will impact

New England institutions.

Terry Hartle is senior vice president of

government and public affairs at the Washington,

D.C.-based American Council on Education.

Chris Simmons is the council’s assistant director

of government relations.

Operating Support for Public Collegesand Universitites

1980 2000

46%41%

13%

34%

48%

18%StateTuitionOther Source: American Council on Education.

Marcia Boi’s “office” is a table stationed in thehallway of a small New Haven elementaryschool. Here this Quinnipiac University junior

helps second-graders with reading, spelling, math andwriting through the America Reads Challenge.

Despite the lack of accoutrements, Boi says the jobis by far the most rewarding position she has ever held.She helps kids who need help … and she is paid $12 anhour through a Federal Work-Study (FWS) grant award-ed to her based on financial need.

The nearly 40-year-old FWS program helps more than70,000 New Englanders pay for college each year, and inmany cases, provides invaluable work experience. In addi-tion, research shows FWS students get better grades and

manage their time more effectively than college studentswho work regular jobs or don’t work at all.

With consensus emerging that integrating work experi-ence with school is a key workforce development strategy,one might think this Great Society program would be riding high. Instead, lawmakers in Washington are level-funding the program and questioning its mission.

Created in 1964, FWS provides campuses with match-ing funds to support part-time jobs for financially needycollege students. The program allows students to earnmoney to help pay for tuition or other college expensesthrough on-campus or community service positions. As state and federal student aid is increasingly used toreward merit, FWS remains a critical need-based pro-gram. More than half its recipients come from families

Earn, Learn … Serve?Federal Work-Study Program

Confronts Midlife Crises as it Nears 40ABBEY MARZICK


with annual incomes of less than $30,000, according tothe Student Aid Alliance, a coalition of Washington-based higher education groups.

FWS students are usually paid by the hour and mustreceive at least the federal minimum wage. The govern-ment picks up approximately 75 percent of a student’spay while the employer, often the host campus, paysabout 25 percent.

The government subsidy appeals to employers on andoff campus. “I was hired not only because I was quali-fied, but also because the ‘Work-Study’ label made mevery attractive to employers because they don’t have to pay me solely out of pocket,” says Melissa Grier, anFWS student who worked this past summer as an officeassistant at Boston University School of Law.

The federal government last year allocated morethan $1 billion to campuses to support part-time jobsfor one million college students. Identified with thewholesome value of working one’s way through school,FWS has largely escaped the frequent assaults on otherso-called “campus based” financial aid programs suchas Perkins Loans and Supplemental EducationalOpportunity Grants. “Everyone likes the self-helpaspect of Work-Study,” says Jamie Merisotis, presidentof the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

The FWS budget increased by $60 million during theClinton administration. But Bush has proposed level-funding the program for two years straight, and HouseBudget Committee Chair John Boehner (R-Ohio) hassignaled that student aid programs including FWS canexpect no new funding in the upcoming reauthorizationof the Higher Education Act.

The particular fate of FWS funding in New Englandis also uncertain. New England members of Congress inthe 1980s managed to write a stipulation into the lawguaranteeing that individual colleges receive at least asmuch as they did in 1985-86; the base year was subse-quently revised to 1999. This helped New England main-tain a disproportionate share of FWS funds even as itsenrollment declined relative to other regions. In 1990,New England colleges enrolled 6.2 percent of U.S. col-lege students but captured 10.2 percent of FWS funds.In 2001, the region’s colleges enrolled just 5.4 percent of students, but snared a disproportionate 8.7 percent of FWS funds.

Question of service Historically, FWS students like Boi have earned moneywhile performing community service at places like home-less shelters, elementary schools and literacy centers.“Serve-study” is still popular among some students partlybecause community service agencies usually offer higherpay than jobs on campus. (See figure.) But some inWashington say FWS has drifted from its service mission.

In 1992, the government mandated that at least 5 percent of each college’s FWS funds go toward jobs incommunity service, defined as services designed to“improve the quality of life for community residents,particularly low-income individuals, or to solve particu-

lar problems relating to their needs.” In 1998, Congressincreased this minimum to 7 percent, though there is noclear penalty for noncompliance. Now, Sens. JohnMcCain (R-Arizona) and Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) propose to raise the minimum to 25 percent as part oftheir “Call to Service Act of 2001.” Bush wants to raisethe minimum to 50 percent.

DilemmasThe community service issue raises difficult questions.Some worry that it places a disproportionate burden forservice on students who are financially needy.

In addition, the more students who work in communityservice positions, the more service organizations are vulnerable to inconsistencies in FWS funding. “CuttingWork-Study now translates to cutting services to sensitiveareas that have come to depend on Work-Study studentsto keep things running,” says Dominic Yoia, senior direc-tor of financial aid at Quinnipiac.

But the same may be true for some colleges forwhom FWS has become an important source of cheaplabor for dining halls, libraries and administrative offices.In a 2001 op-ed in the Yale Herald, Grace Rollins callsFWS “a strategy to keep a large number of jobs alreadyessential to the running of the university in a perma-nently low-cost and casualized state.”

Academic linkMeanwhile, a growing body of research links FWS jobsto strong academic performance. An American Councilon Education study shows that “students who work part-time (and particularly those who work on the campus)are more connected to the institution, manage their timemore effectively, and are more focused on their academicwork than students who don’t work at all.”

“Having a Work-Study job gives me more structure to my schedule,” says BU senior Mara Weinraub.“Sometimes I work up to 17 hours a week and I don’thave time to waste sitting around in front of a TV. The jobforces me to be more organized and get my work done.”

Abbey Marzick served as NEBHE/CONNECTION intern

during the summer of 2003. She is a senior majoring

in journalism at Boston University.

FWS Pay at Boston University: Campus Jobs vs. Community Service Jobs

Campus Community Service

Tutor/Teaching Assistant $7.65 $10.00

Research $9.00 $11.00

Office/Admin. $7.60 $11.50

Arts $7.00 $8.00

Communications $7.00 $11.00

Library $7.20 $8.00Source: Boston University.

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Thanks to some quiet accounting this past springby the Bush administration, recession-crunchedfamilies across the country suddenly could have

more money to spend on education and less need forfinancial aid. At least on paper.

The minor miracle took shape in May when the U.S.Department of Education proposed its annual revision ofthe Expected Family Contribution (EFC) formula. TheEFC is a complex calculation that determines a family’seligibility for federal financial aid.

Much like the federal income tax, the EFC calculationincludes an exemption to allow for state and local taxespaid. This exemption varies by state. This year, for thefirst time in almost a decade, the department proposedreducing that exemption nearly across the board—in somestates, by 50 percent or more. Consequently, parents filingfor aid for September 2004 would appear to have higherafter-tax incomes than they would have had a year earlier.

Why the proposed changes now? Federal law man-dates a periodic re-evaluation of the state tax exemptionusing “the most recent reliable data available” accordingto Education Department spokeswoman Jane Glickman.This year, she says, the most recent reliable data on statetax rates came from fiscal year 2000, the peak of theInternet boom and state tax-cut enthusiasm. The lowerexemptions reflect the lower taxes of that period—andignore the subsequent economic downturn.

The trouble is that many states are now raising taxesto cover budget shortfalls. If current trends continue, mostfamilies will pay more in taxes, have less money to puttoward education and need more financial assistance tosend their kids to college than they did before. But that aidmay not be coming under a new EFC formula.

A study released in July by the Congressional ResearchService projects that the revision could render 84,000 stu-dents ineligible for Pell Grants and other types of need-based aid. Nearly 1 million more would see reductions ingrant awards.

As CONNECTION went to press, the Senate passed anamendment to a large appropriations bill that would effec-tively block the formula change. But no similar provisionwas included in the House version of the bill. And theBush administration was expected to lobby House-Senate conferees to keep the formula change intact, in partbecause the Education Department has already repro-grammed computers and reprinted forms to reflect thenew formula; doing that over again could delay the entirestudent aid process.

Glickman says the reductions would mostly affect middle-class students who receive the minimum assistance. “This program is intended for the pooreststudents,” she says. By limiting eligibility for aid,Glickman argues that the changes would refocus federalaid on the lowest-income groups. Furthermore, thedepartment will pay out more money overall in grants and loans as the college-age population swells in the nextseveral years.

But anyone who pays state taxes would feel the effect of a re-jiggering, and as always, the college aspirations oflow-income students would be most threatened. “It’salready difficult for [low-income] students to piece togetherenough resources to pay for college,” says Arturo Iriarte,executive director of the Higher Education InformationCenter, a nonprofit college awareness program housed in the basement of the Boston Public Library. “A lot of students who would like to attend a particular institutionwind up strapped with thousands of dollars in loans.”

The changes would cut upwards of $270 million ingovernment spending on student aid. Given the enormoustax cuts and military expenditures of the past threeyears, some education observers feel the cuts reflect thedeeper priorities of the Bush administration.

“This administration is not particularly interested in higher education,” says Thomas G. Mortenson, an independent higher education analyst and senior scholar at the Pell Institute in Washington, D.C.

Mortenson sees the proposed changes as part of a longpattern of broken promises and neglect of need-basedfinancial aid programs. For example, Bush promised inthe 2000 campaign to increase the maximum Pell Grantaward from its limit then of $3,125 to $5,100, and toincrease that maximum still further for high-achievingstudents. But since taking office, Bush has opposed muchmore modest increases proposed by Congress. Relative totuition, the grants are worth less than half what they werewhen the program started in 1972.

Seen from that perspective, the EFC changes mayamount to salt in the real wound, which Mortenson saysis the long-term public divestment from financial aid for low-income students. “A growing share of the future population in higher education is coming fromlow-income populations,” says Mortenson, “but on alllevels—federal, state and private—we are moving awayfrom need-based aid for these groups”.

Chuck O’Toole is a writer and member of the

NEBHE staff.

Sticking It to StudentsA New Losing Formula for Financial Aid Eligibility?

CHUCK O’TOOLE


Like a marriage, the college presidential selection process begins with the excitementof dating several prospects, the euphoria

of courtship, the bliss of the commitment ceremony, or inauguration, and sometimes,an untimely divorce. Unlike their counter-parts for most of the 20th century, today’scollege presidents rarely serve for an entire generation.

Indeed, the average tenure of current presi-dents was 6.6 years in 2001, just about where it has hovered since 1986, according to theWashington, D.C.-based American Council onEducation (ACE). Thirty percent of the nearly2,600 chief executives surveyed by the ACE in2002 were hired between 1999 and 2001.

True, it’s not unusual for New Englandpresidents to serve a decade or more. RichardGustafson left the University of Southern NewHampshire recently after 16 years. JamesCraiglow left Antioch New England GraduateSchool after 16 years. Donald Harward leftBates after 13. Dale Rogers Marshall willsoon leave Wheaton after 12. But bringingdown the average are academia’s equivalentof one-termers. Former Bentley CollegePresident Joseph Cronin, now dean of LesleyUniversity’s School of Education, says suddendepartures “happen more than people realize.”

Trinity College in Hartford faced just such achallenge after the departure in August of RichardHersch, after about 18 months on the job.

As president of Hobart and William SmithCollege in New York, Hersch oversaw afundraising campaign that tripled the endow-ment and bankrolled several new facilities. At Trinity, however, he was perceived as combative and aggressive.

It didn’t help that Hersch succeeded one of the nation’s highest-profile presidents.Evan Dobelle’s commitment to neighborhood revitalization during his 1995-2001 tenure won him national renown.

The discord surrounding Hersch reached a flashpoint last spring when the studentnewspaper published an open letter totrustees exhorting the board to weigh a voteof no confidence in him. Trinity Tripod

Editor-in-Chief Abigail Thomas scoldedHersch for “publicly airing problems or con-cerns” to the Hartford Courant, belittling thefaculty and individual members and for nottaking the time to understand the school.

In his resignation letter to trustees, Herschnoted that faculty and students have “experi-enced my leadership style in a way that hasresulted in my becoming too much the focus of attention.”

Search partyTrinity officials declined to discuss the searchprocess that led to Hersch’s selection (or theproblems that led to his resignation). Butexperts in the field suggest that a higher educa-tion institution can increase its odds of findinga good match by clearly articulating theschool’s goals before the search begins.

The first step is hiring a search committeeand developing a list of at least five candidatesthat the institution would be comfortable withas president, according to William Farrell, theformer University System of New Hampshirechancellor who now serves as the first maleand the first lay president of Rivier College, aCatholic institution in Nashua, N.H. Farrellfilled the Rivier post first on an interim basis,then was asked to become a candidate for thepermanent job. Despite the Rivier experience,Farrell says using a search firm is the surestway to identify the strongest candidates. Abouthalf of the searches conducted between 1999and 2001 involved search consultants, com-pared with less than 16 percent of searchesbetween 1968 and 1984, according to the ACE study.

One trap search committees stumble intois focusing on luring individual candidates,particularly academic or business stars,before goals are outlined and disseminated to campus constituencies. “When people startthinking about doing a search, they thinkabout doing it backwards,” says NancyArcher-Martin, a Nantucket-based search con-sultant with Witt/Kieffer, an Illinois executivesearch firm. “They think about who are wegoing to get rather than thinking about theagenda.” The first job of any institution in the

Searching Highs and LowsThe Quest for the Best Fit in a College President

SHERI QUALTERS

The first job of anyinstitution in the market for a newleader is figuring out what the schoolwants to be good at.


market for a new leader is figuring outwhat the school wants to be good atand what qualities or programs it wantsoutsiders to associate with the institu-tion, she says.

Judith Block McLaughlin, a lecturerat the Harvard Graduate School ofEducation and educational chair of theHarvard seminar for new presidents,warns against unrealistic expecta-tions. “Trying to find someone toshake up the place … is unrealisticand may be inappropriate,” she says.“Institutions don’t change quickly.They can get disrupted easily, but theydon’t change.”

Presidents leaveYet even successful relationshipssometimes end suddenly. Consider theapproximately two-year tenure of E.Gordon Gee at Brown University.Despite an apparently flourishing pres-idency, Gee left Brown in 2000 for ajob at Vanderbilt University inNashville, Tenn. He was ultimatelyreplaced at Brown by Ruth Simmons,who had previously served as presi-dent of Smith College and in a seniorpost at Princeton University. Gee, in

contrast, had built a career in largepublic higher education systems, mostrecently as president of Ohio StateUniversity. Simmons was “more of anatural fit” due to her experience atEast Coast private schools, accordingto Laura Freid, Brown’s executive vicepresident of public affairs and universi-ty relations. “The learning curve wassteeper and the Ivy League cultureless familiar for Gee.”

Gee’s departure provided Brown withan opportunity to re-evaluate its searchprocess. The search that resulted in theSimmons appointment was “much moreinclusive” because it allowed faculty,students, administrators and trustees to“share experiences and opinions as theywere happening,” Freid explains.

Best practicesSearch committees usually work bestwhen their membership is capped inthe high teens. In groups with morethan 20 members, “everyone isinvolved, but no one is responsible,”says Ted Marchese, senior consultantof the Washington, D.C.-basedAcademic Search ConsultationService. “You want the group to feel

like a group, doing something impor-tant on behalf of the college.”

Once the candidate is chosen, col-leges need to spend more time helpingtheir new presidents through the tran-sition process. “People get droppedinto these jobs and are expected tosink or swim,” says Archer-Martin.

Successful transition plans typicallypostpone presidential fundraisingtrips, for example, for several monthsto immerse the new president in theschool’s culture, according to Archer-Martin. Before going on the road, thepresident needs time to “to get the culture down and get the history andthe stories of the place and get toknow the faculty really well,” Archer-Martin says.

Institutionalizing the transitionshould be a goal of every search com-mittee in this era of fleeting presiden-tial commitment. “There is not just the person of the president, there’s apresidency,” Marchese says. “You wantthat to succeed in the long term.”

Sheri Qualters covers higher educa-

tion for the weekly Boston Business

Journal.


New England’s nonprofit organizationssustain our quality of life and providevalued, often life-critical, products and

services. The nonprofit sector is also a driverof innovation and economic development inNew England. Nationally, the nonprofit sectormanages $1.2 trillion in assets. Yet the work-force development needs of this sector areoften overlooked.

New England’s nonprofits serve as economiccatalysts in four ways:

They create jobs. Nationally, nonprofitorganizations employ nearly 11 millionAmericans—more than 7 percent of the U.S.workforce. The sector’s impact is greater inNew England, accounting for 9 percent to 12 percent of the workforce in each NewEngland state, according to research conducted at Johns Hopkins University.

“Nonprofits are a vital sector of our economy,” Massachusetts state Sen. Jack Hartof South Boston recently said at a Beacon Hillhearing. “They are the sustainable employmentfactor we can count on. They are not going topack up and leave for another state at the dropof a hat (or tax rate).”

In fact, a University of Rhode Island studyfound that the stability of employment ofRhode Island’s nonprofit sector actuallyhelped mitigate business cycle fluctuationsrelated to retail trade, tourism and durablegoods production, and helped lessen theseverity of the 2001 recession in the state.

They pave the way for private entre-

preneurship. Nonprofits are usually the first

in and the last out in distressed areas wherecommercial businesses could not survive. TheCodman Square Health Center, for example,has been a dramatic economic catalyst forthe Dorchester section of Boston. Founded as a grassroots provider of health care services in the 1970s, by 2000, the centeremployed 252 people, took in $13 million in income and was the anchor for the revital-ization of Codman Square.

In Connecticut, MicroCredit Bridgeportorganized 30 inner-city entrepreneurs into

peer lending groups and funded 10 small business loans in its first year, enabling theseentrepreneurs to begin creating jobs andwealth in Bridgeport—and that with only onefull-time employee.

They create an environment that

attracts employers. The nonprofit sectorsustains the quality of life that attracts newcommercial employers. Employers choose tolocate in New England for its higher educationsystem, cultural offerings, recreation, healthcare, public safety and other barometers ofquality of life. As James Brett, CEO of the NewEngland Council, explains: “A business that islooking to relocate will ask: Do you have atheater in your town? A symphony? An artgallery?” Businesses tell us the quality of lifeis why they locate where they do.

They reinvest 90 percent of earnings in

the local economy. New England nonprofitsspend more than $56 billion annually on goodsand services. A University of Massachusettsstudy found that 90 percent of operating expen-ditures of Lowell, Mass., human service agen-cies were spent in the Lowell region! Thatsuggests that New England nonprofits on thewhole reinvest as much as $50 billion annuallyinto the local New England economy.

Overlooked workforceDespite the size and impact of the nonprofitsector, state and federal workforce develop-ment programs have historically overlookedthe needs of the nonprofit workforce.

Connecticut, for example, has focusedworkforce development efforts on nine impor-tant industry clusters; bioscience, aerospace,software/information technology, tourism,metal manufacturing, maritime, plastics, agri-culture and insurance and financial services.Yet the nonprofit sector accounts for morethan 156,000 Connecticut jobs—more thantourism, software/information technology,metal manufacturing, maritime, plastics,insurance and financial clusters combined—and it’s growing.

To be sure, it has only been in the last

New England’s OverlookedNonprofit WorkforceAn Economic Driver Ignored

DAVID GARVEY AND STEPHEN PRATT

Lack of attention to nonprofit work-force developmentand management capacity reduces the social and economic return on New England’s annual $68 billioninvestment in thenonprofit sector.


decade that the philanthropic worlditself has placed a stronger focus on theworkforce and professional developmentneeds of the nonprofit managers andorganizations through initiatives such asGrantmakers for Effective Organizations.Even the recent New England Board ofHigher Education series on human capi-tal development did not identify nonprof-its as a sectoral workforce priority.

Burnout at ground zeroNational studies such as San Francisco-based CompassPoint’s 2001 “Daring to Lead,” are finally focusing on execu-tive burnout and other workforce chal-lenges facing nonprofit organizations.CompassPoint reports that nearly two-thirds of nonprofit CEOs are in the jobfor the first time. Only one-third ofexecutive directors are recruited frominside their organizations—suggesting alack of organizational leadership devel-opment. And fewer than half of non-profit CEOs say they plan to take on anonprofit CEO role again.

These figures hint at a neglectedmanagement class within the nonprofit

sector. This lack of attention to work-force development needs, managementcapacity building and succession/leader-ship planning reduces the social andeconomic return on New England’sannual $68 billion investment in the non-profit sector.

An exploratory survey by theUniversity of Connecticut’s College of Continuing Studies found only 12 percent of Connecticut nonprofit managers were engaged in any type of professional development. And themajority of activities were short induration—usually half-day programs.

Focus groups and interviews withConnecticut nonprofit managers andstakeholders identified recurringthemes: a lack of learning opportunitiesfor senior management; a lack of nur-turing and development of emergingleaders; a need for strengthened gover-nance education; and a need to raisethe bar of organizational learning.

The study also suggests that work-force development programs targeted tononprofits should combine the power ofacademic, practitioner knowledge and

peer-to-peer learning with strengtheningthe communication and learning infra-structure within the nonprofit sector.The programs should also provide aclearinghouse for best practices and provide a continuum of learning beyondintroductory programs.

More specifically, we need to seenonprofit organizations not as just

charity, but as drivers of economicdevelopment. We need to focus moreresearch on the economic impact of the nonprofit sector on New England’sfuture. And we need to allocate work-force development funds to sustain andstrengthen the management capacity of New England’s nonprofits.

David Garvey is director of market-

ing at the University of Connecticut’s

College of Continuing Studies and the

founding editor of the New England

Nonprofit Quarterly, now known

nationally as the Nonprofit Quarterly.

Stephen Pratt is executive director

of Eureka-Boston, a “learning com-

munity” for executive directors of

community nonprofits.

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During the recent economic downturn,colleges and universities have providedNew England with an important source

of economic stability, and they will play a sig-nificant role in the region’s slow economicrecovery.

New England’s recovery will lag the nation’s.The nonprofit New England Economic Project(NEEP) expects growth in New England’s totalemployment to return in the fourth quarter of2003. The region’s overall economic growth isnot expected to match the U.S. average untilthe second quarter of 2005.

Education sector employment grew by 12percent nationally between 1998 and 2001 andby 9.5 percent in New England.

Most notably, private college and universityemployment in New England has grown about50 percent faster than overall employment,spurred on by steady enrollment growth. Forexample, eight Greater Boston research univer-sities—Boston University, Boston College,Brandeis, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern, Tufts and theUniversity of Massachusetts Boston—added2,000 new jobs between 2000 and 2002, even as overall employment in the region declined,according to a study by the New York econom-ics firm Appleseed.

But the growth in private college and uni-versity employment is not restricted to anyone area of New England. In WorcesterCounty, Massachusetts, home to institutionssuch as Holy Cross, Worcester PolytechnicInstitute and Clark University, private collegeemployment grew by more than 16 percentfrom 1998 to 2001. Middlesex County,Massachusetts, home to Harvard University,MIT, Babson and Bentley colleges and manyothers, added more than 6,600 private collegejobs—growth of more than 15 percent.Private colleges in Providence County, RhodeIsland, home to Brown University, ProvidenceCollege and Bryant College, added more than1,000 jobs for growth of 11 percent. Hartford

County, Connecticut, home of institutionssuch as Trinity College and the University of Hartford, saw private college employmentgrow by 10 percent.

Notably, employment in public colleges anduniversities is not counted under education,but rather under another category, public sec-tor/government employment. This limitationmakes it difficult to truly understand theimportance of all higher education in theregional economy.

NEEP does not provide forecasts for theeducation sector alone, but combined withanother relatively stable (and non-cyclical)service industry: health services. NEEP pro-jects this combined super-sector to grow atan average annual rate of 2.7 percent per yearcompared with the 0.7 percent annual growthforecasted for total employment. This com-bined super-sector has been an important stabilizing force in the regional economyrecently. The combined health and educationsector employs nearly 17 percent of NewEngland’s population, compared with under13 percent nationally. It is the super-sector inwhich the region stands out most in terms ofemployment concentration (percent of total

The Edu-EconomyNew England Private Colleges Add Jobs Despite Recession

ROSS GITTELL

Growth in private college and universityemployment is notrestricted to any onearea of New England.

Private College and University Employment

% of Total Subsector Employment in Employment

State/Region this Subsector in 2001

Massachusetts 3.82% 119,562

Rhode Island 3.00% 12,447

Vermont 2.90% 7,554

New Hampshire 2.64% 14,679

Connecticut 1.82% 28,233

Maine 1.47% 7,338

New England 2.96% 189,813

United States 1.18% 1,357,358

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

employment in a particular sector)compared with other regions and thenational average.

Colleges and universities play aprominent role in the regional economy.All six New England states rank amongthe top 10 nationally in percentage oftotal employment in private colleges anduniversities, and the regional percentageof total employment in this sub-sector is2.5 times the national average (3 percentcompared with 1.2 percent). Indeed,New England private colleges and uni-versities employ about 190,000 work-ers—more than the entire informationsuper-sector. Yet, New England’s slowpopulation growth has kept job growthbelow the U.S. average even in this rela-tively strong sector.

New England’s economic future will depend on continued growth in private as well as public higher educa-tion institutions.

As the 21st century economydemands ever-increasing education,training and university-based research,New England’s strong private collegeand university sector is likely to keepcreating jobs. This will be particularlytrue in fields closely tied to growingindustries such as applied medical sci-ences, pharmaceuticals, biotechnologyand nanotechnology. Moreover, thestrong research and intellectual base ofNew England higher education—alongwith the benefits of having a cluster ofstrong institutions in the region thatcan share and create together newexpertise and knowledge—can help the region counter the negative effect ofrelatively slow population growth andpotential declines in college enrollment.

In these difficult economic times,colleges and universities provide NewEngland with an important source ofeconomic stability. And of course, theyplay a strong role in New England’seconomic recovery, because while theeconomy is weak, colleges and univer-sities are educating the workforce fortomorrow’s key sectors.

Ross Gittell is vice president and

forecast manager with the New

England Economic Project and James

R. Carter Professor at the University

of New Hampshire.


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B O O K S

The Big PictureTheodora J. Kalikow

The Future of the Public University

in America: Beyond the Crossroads,

James J. Duderstadt and Farris W.

Womack, The Johns Hopkins

University Press, 2003, $39.95.

As president and chief financial officer, respectively, of the Universityof Michigan, James J. Duderstadt andFarris W. Womack helped steer the university through a tempestuous period.In Beyond the Crossroads, the twoshare some of what they learned.

Their point of view is shaped by thefact that the University of Michigan is a mega-public university, with tens ofthousands of students, thousands offaculty and staff, several professionalschools and a health center, and areserve account larger than many pub-lic colleges’ entire instructional bud-gets. Readers should keep in mind thatwhen Duderstadt and Womack write“university,” they have this sort of institution in mind. Comprehensivestate universities (medium-sized orsmall), public liberal arts colleges,community colleges or any other formof public higher education institutionaren’t within their experience.

On some topics, this does not matter.For example, the discussion of tuitionpolicy and university financing is excellent. The authors give convincingarguments for the high tuition/high aidstrategy, noting that recent federalpolicies of loans and tax credits skewaid toward the politically influentialmiddle class, as do state programs of merit aid. Both strategies take a disproportionately high amount of taxrevenues from lower-income groupsand do not return tuition benefits tothem in an equitable fashion. Publicpolicymakers should take note of whatshould be obvious: “…educationalaccess and opportunity are achievednot through subsidizing those who canafford to pay but, rather, by providingfinancial assistance to those who can-not.” The authors claim that institutionswill be stronger if they do not “holdtuition levels down to unrealisticallylow levels.” Rather, they should “use

additional tuition revenue to fundstrong financial aid programs.”

Beyond the Crossroads features anexcellent discussion about the nature ofpublic governing boards, the relation-ship of board members to state politics,and the resulting contrast with thebehavior and traditions of boards ofprivate higher education institutions.Duderstadt and Womack do a good jobexplaining why public board memberstend to act as watchdogs rather thanstewards, viewing their responsibilitiesas primarily toward the wider public orthe governor who appointed them, notthe institution itself.

On other topics, however, the authors’experience limits their discussion. Forexample, there is much in this bookabout the difficulty of bringing aboutcampus change, the silo-like nature of faculty and departmental culturesand the difficulty in getting communi-cation to occur across an institution.All true if you are at a huge place. Butif you can bring your entire staff (andsometimes the student body too)together in one big space to discuss anissue or seek views on a topic, you arein a much different realm. Likewise,faculty and staff at smaller institutions,while they share some of the culture oftheir disciplines, are much more likelyto be invested in the institution and actaccordingly. Policies and practices (for

instance, standards for tenure and pro-motion) may more easily be crafted toreward service to the external commu-nity, entrepreneurial activity, directingundergraduate research or whatever fitsthe institution’s mission. Readers whodon’t happen to work at a mega-publicwill recognize the symptoms thatDuderstadt and Womack describe, butthey’ll also know that the picture is notas bleak as the authors suggest.

The authors’ limited viewpoint alsoleads them to ignore the influence thatthe mega-publics have on the rest of thepublic sector. For instance, any consid-eration given to the role of the flagshipinstitution in a larger state universitysystem is limited to dealing with the nui-sance value of having other institutionswhich may try to take your resourcesand push your assumed higher qualitytowards a lowest common denominator.There is no thought—to go to the otherextreme—that the flagship campus mayexhibit symptoms of illness for whichthe other institutions in the system aremade to take the medicine! And whilethere is mention of forming “alliances”with other institutions to deal with thebig changes coming in public higher edu-cation, no convincing details are given.

Further, the mega-publics send outmany new Ph.D.s who will take theirplaces on the faculties of other kinds ofpublic institutions. These new recruitsbring with them up-to-date disciplinaryexpertise but usually not much experi-ence in teaching and little understandingof the kind of college or university inwhich they have landed. This means thereceiving institutions have to do a lot of re-education and acculturation. Some of thisis inevitable and good. But how much?Calling for change in higher education,even change in Ph.D. preparation, whileignoring some of the major “customers”for new faculty, does not compute.

Finally, a major aim of this book isto help readers prepare for the future ofour enterprise. I would say that success ismixed. The overview of where we aretoday is thorough and illuminating, withthe caveats mentioned before. The cur-rent state of the mega-university, thechanges that are taking place in publicfinancing, public opinion, technology,

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B O O K S

the larger society and its need forlearning, are all well-described. Butreaders may wish for more new ideason how to cope with the trends andissues that the authors identify.

For example, the authors mentionthe changing nature of learners: fromtraditional-age students who havegrown up with instant messaging andmultimedia to older learners who needto participate in higher education forthe first or the fifth time for “just intime” new learning. But how publichigher education will or should accom-modate all these learners, the authorsdo not say.

One good strategy is mentioned:“letting 100 flowers bloom,” supportingmany different attempts to deal withemerging issues, and letting the fittestones survive. This approach does needto be watched carefully, especially insmaller institutions where the missionhas already been focused and money isin short supply. Still, the university isabout ideas—incubating a few self-reflective new ones about its own roleand function has to be helpful.

Theodora J. Kalikow is president

of the University of Maine at Farmington.

DEC’d OutAlan R. Earls

DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The

Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment

Corporation, Edgar H. Schein with

Peter S. DeLisi, Paul J. Kampas, and

Michael M. Sonduck, Berrett-Koehler

Publishers, Inc., 2003, $27.95

In a few short years, Digital EquipmentCorporation has faded from the headlinesand the consciousness of New England.But for at least the last half of its 40-oddyear life span, Digital—or DEC, as it wasoften known—was the great exemplar fornew businesses and a symbol of regionalrebirth. Indeed, until its final years, it washeadquartered in a recycled woolen millin Maynard, Mass., that symbolically con-nected it to the faded primordial enter-prises of every New England mill town.And to that humble headquarters, politi-

cians, pundits and an army of customerstrekked—to wonder, to buy and to emu-late the second biggest computer-makerin the world.

DEC’s achievements were legendary.Starting in 1957 with the help of analmost penurious $70,000 investmentfrom pioneer venture fund, AmericanResearch & Development, the companygave life to founder Ken Olsen’s vision ofcomputing for the masses—defined atthat time as almost anyone in engineering, research or education with amodest budget.

Almost from its inception, the company was profitable and growing. Inan era when computer shipments at giant“mainframe” companies such as IBMwere often measured in the single or dou-ble digits, DEC engineers produced handyand affordable machines with unit salesmeasured at first in the hundreds, thenthe thousands and eventually the hun-dreds of thousands. In short, Digital was astar as both a business and as a technicalinnovator, building successes in large parton its pioneering effort to commercializethe academic mode of inquiry, researchand development that Olsen had learnedas a graduate student at MIT.

DEC’s reputation and fortune rose intandem until the mid-1980s when theindustry it had helped create suddenlybounded off in new directions—the personal computer, in particular. Digital’s

response to these new challenges wastypically Digital—with lots of creativityand lots of new products and, alas, a com-plete lack of focus or sense of urgency.

Under a cloud, Olsen departed in 1992.The company struggled to regain momen-tum for a few more years and finally, in1998 succumbed to the seductions of PC-giant, Compaq. Today, what’s left ofDigital is merged deep within California-based Hewlett-Packard, which acquiredCompaq in 2002. To be sure, a fair numberof the old Digital buildings—now sportingHP signs—still dot the landscape ofMassachusetts and New Hampshire, butonly a fraction of the former employeesremain and the magic is gone.

DEC is Dead: Long Live DEC offers anobjective analysis of how this once-tinycompany grew to employ more than125,000 people in a few decades, how itcreated its legendary products, how itspread management across the businessworld and how it ultimately failed.(Disclaimer: I worked as a consultant atDigital in its last years of its independentexistence.)

Edgar H. Schein, the principal authorof DEC is Dead, is an emeritus manage-ment professor at MIT’s Sloan School andfounding editor of Reflections, the journalof the Society for OrganizationalLearning. He consulted for DEC from1966 to 1992. Fellow authors Peter S.DeLisis and Paul J. Kampas are both con-sultants with academic connections, theformer at Santa Clara University and thelatter at Boston College, while Michael M.Sonduck heads a management consultingfirm.

DEC is Dead: Long Live DEC will be ofinterest to students of management, stu-dents of business history and academicssince the story revolves primarily aroundthe creation of a modern, research-basedcorporation inspired by the research uni-versity. DEC, for example, largelyeschewed a hierarchical structure: typicalbusiness functions were submerged in alarger culture where employees weremore or less collegial co-equals.

Unlike most businesses, say theauthors, DEC did not function by com-mand but by consensus among individu-als and between groups, and consensusamong managers. Even the ultimate con-sumers of the company's products were


C A M P U SB O O K S

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.—SpringfieldCollege entered a partnership with theBrazilian Federation of YMCAs and theTechnical Institute for ProfessionalDevelopment in Sorocaba, Brazil, to trainLatin American YMCA professionals atthe institute. Under the agreement,Springfield is helping develop a leader-ship training curriculum and supplyingfaculty members to teach leadershipcourses. In exchange, the institute is pro-viding faculty to Springfield in areas suchas social development, community orga-nization, nonprofit operations and leader-ship. Springfield College was founded in1885 to educate YMCA professionals. TheBrazilian institute’s program is mandato-ry for people who want to become YMCAsecretaries general in Brazil, Uruguay,Paraguay, Chile and Mexico.

SOUTH HADLEY, MASS.—MountHolyoke College created the position ofdirector of global initiatives and tappedeconomics professor Eva Paus to fill thenew post. Working with an advisorycommittee called the InternationalBoard, Paus will coordinate and overseeinternational programming and initia-tives emphasized under the college’snew strategic plan.

DURHAM, N.H.—The University ofNew Hampshire and the nonprofitNational Infrastructure Institute’s (NI2)Center for Infrastructure Expertiserolled out a new web-based library toorganize and archive available informa-tion on protection of the nation’s “built”critical infrastructure. Intended toenhance homeland security, the librarywill offer a one-stop source of informa-tion related to protecting built infra-structure including power and chemicalplants, telecommunication nodes, trans-portation systems, water treatmentfacilities, nuclear reactors and vital gov-ernment buildings. The library will alsodevelop long-term research expertise inthe area and provide resources for pri-vate companies pursuing homelandsecurity work. In a separate develop-ment, UNH unveiled a comprehensiveonline system for research universitiesto manage hazardous materials storedon their campuses. The system wasdeveloped as part of a settlement with

the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency, which five years ago found UNHin violation of federal regulations regard-ing waste disposal in laboratories.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Brown Universityand the Marine Biological Laboratory(MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass., created a joint Brown-MBL Graduate Programin Biological and EnvironmentalSciences, as well as faculty exchangesand research collaborations in fieldssuch as medicine, genomics, ecosys-tems studies, environmental scienceand public health. The affiliation willallow graduate students to work withleading scientists at both institutionsand conduct original research in either institution’s laboratories. The first students are expected to enroll in theprogram in fall 2004.

WEST HARTFORD, CONN.—TheUniversity of Hartford and partnerswere awarded a $400,000 planning grantby the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationto develop an “early-college magnet highschool,” focusing on science, math,engineering and technology. Workingwith the Hartford Public Schools andthe Capital Region Education Council,the university plans to open theUniversity High School of Science andEngineering in fall 2004. The school willenroll 400 students, 70 percent of themfrom Hartford. Students will be able to combine four years of high school withup to two years of college credit in science and engineering. The grant ispart of the Early College Initiative, whichis funded by the Gates Foundation andthe Carnegie Corporation of New Yorkand administered by the WoodrowWilson National Fellowship Foundation.

PLYMOUTH N.H.—Plymouth StateCollege was awarded a three-year,$243,523 grant from the DavisEducational Foundation to implement aprogram aimed at increasing engage-ment in learning among first-year stu-dents who have not decided on majors.The program will bring faculty and stu-dents together to develop meaningfulteaching strategies for first-year studentsand empower students to make earlierand better decisions about majors.

often part of a consensus-reachingprocess. Olsen often acted as an observ-er as much as a manager, occasionallyplaying the Socratic goad to his immedi-ate reports—indirectly pushing them toresolve key points under discussion.

In good times, particularly as Digitalwas pioneering wholly new ways ofdesigning, manufacturing, selling andsupporting computers, this time-consum-ing and rigorous process of arguing outand negotiating every detail yielded goodresults. Where there was no clearroadmap to the future, this tentative,lurching and always fact-based processproved itself valuable. The company'sproducts were widely admired, cus-tomers were fiercely loyal, and DECemployees became a kind of sub-cultwithin the larger fabric of business. Theycame to think differently from others andcame to see no reason to ever change.

In particular, though, says Schein, ifone were to make an analogy to theinherent characteristics of a living thing,Digital lacked “the money gene”—moneywas always a byproduct of doing thingswell, not the primary focus of the organi-zation. Thus, when competition grewred-hot across the spectrum in the 1980sand 1990s, Digital simply couldn’t adapt.

That, alas, is the point of the book andthe key to its title. DEC died. But much ofDEC's culture has lived on. In its heyday,DEC influenced the thinking behindmany other startups and since itsdecline, DEC alumni have made theirpresence felt around the globe. EvenMicrosoft’s ubiquitous Windows NToperating system is said to be largely theproduct of David Cutler, once one ofDEC’s great talents.

Although DEC is Dead does trace thehistory of Digital and some of its “gradu-ates,” it is not entirely a business history.Instead, Schein and his co-authors haveproduced a book about the specific man-agement lessons to be derived from theDEC experiment. For the academicworld, where research, research spinoffsand other for-profit activities are becom-ing ever more common, the Digital expe-rience may be particularly relevant.

Alan R. Earls is a freelance writer

based in Franklin, Mass.

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■ Percentage of last year’s U.S. high school graduates who enrolled in college by theOctober following graduation: 65%

■ Percentage who did so 30 years ago: 49%

■ Percentage of Americans who favor placing federal limits on college tuition tokeep increases in line with inflation: 74%

■ Percentage who favor direct assistance to students over aid to institutions: 73%

■ Percentage who are willing to pay more taxes to increase financial support for college students: 66%

■ Percentage of college students who support a cut in federal income taxes: 51%

■ Percentage who support a cut in federal income taxes even if it results in reducedspending on social programs:18%

■ Percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who voted in the 2000 presidential election: 32%

■ Percentage who report that they “definitely will be voting” in the 2004 election: 59%

■ Number of signed petitions calling for tax increases hand-delivered to theMassachusetts State House is June by the state’s largest teacher’s union: 80,000

■ Minimum amount of revenue Massachusetts lost in 2001 to corporations shelteringincome from full taxation: $400,000,000

■ Percentage of U.S. workers holding two or more jobs: 6%

■ Percentage of Maine workers holding two or more jobs: 9%

■ Number of work-related injuries per 10,000 full-time workers in the United States: 30

■ Number of work-related injuries per 10,000 full-time workers in Maine: 158

■ Chance that one of the 25 largest temporary employment agencies inMassachusetts is headed by a woman: 1 in 3

■ Chance that one of the 21 largest meeting and event planning firms inMassachusetts is headed by a woman: 2 in 3

■ Chance that one of the 25 largest brokerage firms in Massachusetts is headed by a woman: 1 in 25

■ Among 25 largest brokerage firms in Massachusetts, number that were foundedbefore 1900: 11

■ Approximate number of bounty hunters operating in the United States: 13,000

■ Approximate number of arrests they made in 2002: 52,000

■ Percentage of chief housing officers at private four-year colleges who say the “idealundergraduate residence hall” would accommodate more than 250 students: 9%

■ Percentage of chief housing officers at public four-year colleges who say so: 29%

■ Percentage of chief housing officers at private four-year colleges who say the “idealundergraduate residence hall” would have surveillance cameras throughout: 30%

■ Percentage of chief housing officers at public four-year colleges who say so: 53%

Sources: 1,2 Postsecondary Education Opportunity; 3,4,5 Educational Testing Service; 6,7,8,9 Harvard University Institute ofPolitics; 10 State House News Service; 11 Multistate Tax Commission; 12,13 Maine Center for Economic Policy; 14,15 MaineDepartment of Human Services; 16,17,18,19 CONNECTION analysis of Boston Business Journal data; 20,21 National Institute ofBail Enforcement; 22,23,24,25 College Planning & Management

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