In his Jan. 19, 2010 State of the State address, Gov. Joe Manchin described what he called eye-opening statistics on the state of higher education in West Virginia.
“Amazingly, the United States and Germany are the only western democracies in which parents are more likely to have earned a college degree than their children,” Manchin said. “And in West Virginia, for every 100 ninth graders in school today, statistics tell us only 16 will graduate from college.”
While discussing many of the problems West Virginia is facing in education, Manchin offered little, if any, ideas for resolving the problems of retention in higher education institutions. Manchin’s only direct advice to technical, four-year colleges and universities was to freeze tuition rates.
“Learning additional skills beyond high school is more critical than ever for West Virginians,” he said. “That is why I am asking all of our technical and four-year colleges and universities to freeze their tuition rates for the coming school year.”
The more times I read this statement, the more it confuses and confounds me. So, I ask, what is the goal with this request?
While this may be a small relief for many students’ wallets, it is yet to be seen if keeping the tuition rates at their current level would do anything to help the retention rates of West Virginia’s universities, four-year colleges and technical schools. It could be argued that the difference between a few hundred dollars will do little to encourage or dissuade current students from completing their educations.
As in previous State of the State addresses, Manchin has once again figuratively patted the state on the back for a job well done and told West Virginians to roll up their sleeves and work with what is available. Manchin said he recently required state agencies, including universities, four-year colleges and technical schools, to cut their budgets by 3.4 percent.
According to an article in The State Journal, university officials blame recent tuition increases on declining state funding for higher education. When the universities lose expected funds with budget cuts, they are forced to find the funds elsewhere, and tuition hikes can be a solution to the problem. With budget cuts and a tuition freeze, Marshall University will have fewer options to expand and grow the university to attract and retain students.
As a senior at Marshall University, I have noticed fewer and fewer options of courses. In my search for courses this semester I noticed courses filling up faster and fewer options in upper division courses fitting my schedule and requirements. There were over 25 English 101 courses available. This illustrates that there is a great difference between the number of first-year students and junior and seniors. Though most of the English 101 courses are full, this also shows the university has been able to provide more than enough of the 101 classes required by everyone to incoming students. But, for those trying to fill their requirements to graduate, classes seem to be growing scarcer.
Further budgetary cuts and the tuition freeze could prevent Marshall from giving students options. Even if a tuition freeze helped with retention, which I doubt, adding more students to the full upper-level courses would make it even more difficult for students to get into the courses needed to meet requirements.
While this example is one of many negative effects of budgetary cuts, it epitomizes the problems the university may face with fewer funds available than necessary to operate the university. It is also one reason why freezing tuition will not help with retention. Students need more course options, not fewer, to have a more fulfilling education. Students may become discouraged if they are forced to take a certain course simply because it meets the requirements and is the only one that will fit into a semester’s schedule.
If retention rates are a concern for the governor, perhaps working with universities, technical schools and four-year colleges to come up with coherent plans and offering incentives for retention rate improvement would be more beneficial than freezing tuition rates and saying it is to help retention.
No comments:
Post a Comment