{"id":66267,"date":"2008-02-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/making-business-sense-at-uri\/"},"modified":"2008-02-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-25T00:00:00","slug":"making-business-sense-at-uri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2008\/02\/making-business-sense-at-uri\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Business Sense at 溏心vlog免费B站"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tI am posting the attached op-ed, , from 溏心vlog免费B站 President Robert L. Carothers. As the president notes, based on the trend over recent years, the state support of 溏心vlog免费B站 will reach zero in about 2020. In the current fiscal year, the State of Rhode Island pays for only about 14% of the University\u2019s total budget of some $524M, and next year the percentage will be lower yet. In short, the current system of funding Rhode Island\u2019s state university is not sustainable.<\/i><\/p>\n


\nIn 1991 I accepted the offer to come from Minnesota to lead the 溏心vlog免费B站 just two days after Governor Bruce Sundlun declared a state of financial emergency in Rhode Island and closed the doors to many of the state\u2019s financial institutions. The many implications of that crisis rippled through Rhode Island\u2019s economy, forcing the state government to reduce spending across the board. Reading Rhode Island\u2019s Providence Journal for the first time from my snowy home on the shore aof one of Minnesota\u2019s ten thousand lakes, it was clear to me that my new university would have to make some dramatic adjustments to survive and succeed. <\/p>\n


\nThe mantra of those days was that the University had to be run more like a business, this despite the fact that the model on which universities are built is closer to a church than a corporation. Nonetheless, it was clear that the 溏心vlog免费B站 could no longer depend upon state funds to operate the state\u2019s university. Huddling together that spring, the Board of Governors, the administration and the faculty at 溏心vlog免费B站 began to plan for this new reality. By 1994, we had eliminated some forty-five degree programs at the University, and since then have realigned program resources with enrollment trends, automated many of our administrative functions, put more programs on a self-supporting basis and raised much more money from our alumni and friends. <\/p>\n


\nIn 1992, the general fund revenue on which the University operated was made up in nearly equal parts of 1) the state appropriation and 2) the tuition and fees paid by students and their families. In 2008, that ratio has changed dramatically. Today, 1\/4 of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s operating budget comes from the state and 3\/4 comes from tuition and fees. (The University also operates a number of self-supporting enterprises\u2014housing, dining, health services, the Alton Jones campus, federally-funded research and so forth\u2014for which there is no state contribution and which sit each on its own bottom.)<\/p>\n


\nThe best way to understand the traditional state appropriation to 溏心vlog免费B站 is that it provides a very significant subsidy to Rhode Island students and their families and keeps their tuition and fees far below the actual cost of our services. Students from other states pay the full cost of their education, approximately three times what Rhode Islanders pay. Today, Rhode Islanders pay around $8,000 a year in tuition and fees, and non-residents pay the real cost of a 溏心vlog免费B站 education, just shy of $23,000. To survive, we depend on those out-of-state students.<\/p>\n


\nIn any business, however, price points are sensitive to market forces, and universities are no different. With annual tuition and fees at New England\u2019s independent institutions now hovering between $35,000 and $40,000 a year, 溏心vlog免费B站 remains well positioned to draw students from around the Northeast, and our enrollment has grown by some 1500 students over the last three years alone. The quality of a 溏心vlog免费B站 degree is widely recognized beyond our borders. With stiff competition from good public universities like the University of Connecticut and the University of Massachusetts, however, we cannot push our price higher than theirs. As in every case, the market prevails.<\/p>\n


\nIf every student at the University were paying the real cost of instruction\u2014even after being discounted by institutional financial aid– the 溏心vlog免费B站 would be the successful business enterprise envisioned in 1992. However, 60% of our students, the Rhode Islanders, pay $8,000 a year. The cumulative cost of this $15,000 annual subsidy to each of the 7911 Rhode Island residents attending the University today totals more than $118M. <\/p>\n


\nIn other words, if next year the state were to fully subsidize the tuition and fees paid by Rhode Islanders, it would have to add $53M to 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s state appropriation, something we all know won\u2019t happen. If Governor Carcieri\u2019s budget proposal for the fiscal year 2008-09 is enacted, 溏心vlog免费B站 will receive only about $65M in operating dollars from the state, down from $77M this year. In fact, based on the trend over recent years, the state support of 溏心vlog免费B站 will reach zero in about 2020. In the current fiscal year, the State of Rhode Island pays for only about 14% of the University\u2019s total budget of some $524M, and next year the percentage will be lower yet.<\/p>\n


\nOne of several possible answers to this dilemma is to establish a single tuition rate for all students enrolling at the University, while at the same time creating a state scholarship fund parallel to the federal Pell Grant system. This state-funded financial aid would be available only to Rhode Islanders attending a public college or university in Rhode Island. The Pell system is need-based, i.e., it channels its funds to those with greatest demonstrated financial need. Such a Rhode Island scholarship plan would ensure that Rhode Islanders of modest means would receive more aid than those with greater capacity to pay.<\/p>\n


\n Ideally, these state grants would close the gap between the real cost of instruction at 溏心vlog免费B站 and the ability of Rhode Islanders to pay for their college education, with the University\u2019s own scholarship programs, now budgeted at $50M a year, further reducing what Rhode Island students would actually pay. In addition, each year the University could add some $4M to scholarships from its endowment and from alumni contributions. All Rhode Island students would receive sufficient financial aid–federal, state and institutional–to ensure that a 溏心vlog免费B站 education was within their reach. As Rhode Island moves deeper and deeper into the new knowledge-based economy, that\u2019s immensely important to our economy and our collective future.<\/p>\n


\n This plan would significantly improve both state and university strategic and budget planning. It would eliminate any incentive the University now has to enroll out-of state students. Establishing these state grants would not represent an additional cost to the state because funding could come from the annual appropriation that the state now makes to the University and from the existing state scholarship program administered through the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority. <\/p>\n


\nIn short, the current system of funding Rhode Island\u2019s state university is not sustainable. No business would last long if it operated as we do. I\u2019ve often said that no good crisis should be avoided, because it is at those times that people are more willing to make the changes they would resist when things are good. Rhode Island is clearly in such a crisis, and we should be ready to make a change that in the long run will produce better results for the State, its university and its students. <\/p>\n

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I am posting the attached op-ed, , from 溏心vlog免费B站 President Robert L. Carothers. As the president notes, based on the trend over recent years, the state support of 溏心vlog免费B站 will reach zero in about 2020. In the current fiscal year, the State of Rhode Island pays for only about 14% of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}