THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 12, 1997 TAG: 9701110022
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 71 lines
It's the time of year when state colleges and universities approach the General Assembly on bended knee, begging alms.
To that end, Old Dominion University has compiled a reasonable wish list that includes money to make faculty pay more competitive and to fund more student aid. But at the top of the list is a more unusual request - to keep $1.4 million that it risks losing because of a combination of its own conservative enrollment estimates and the state's bureaucratic rules.
Some time ago, ODU modestly estimated that its fall 1996 enrollment would be 17,300. On the basis of that forecast, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) now argues - and Gov. George F. Allen agrees - that ODU should get $1.4 million less than previously allocated. But wait a minute.
In actual fact, ODU enrollment came in at 17,800. So it's in danger of being penalized for two sins: attracting students and not indulging in inflated forecasts. That's absurd. ODU ought to be rewarded. The General Assembly must let ODU retain the $1.4 million that simply reflects enrollment reality.
In fact, ODU officials argue persuasively that the school will be undercompensated even if it retains the $1.4 million. That's because a larger percentage of ODU students attend part time than at comparable schools.
On paper, two part-timers may add up to a single full-time equivalent student (an FTE), but they impose more administrative costs on the school than a single full-timer. The state's funding formula fails to take that into account. In effect, it shortchanges schools like ODU that attract older students. But that is just the sort of people whose improved educational attainments Virginia has a huge economic interest in.
Furthermore, as the attached chart demonstrates, ODU begins the race already behind. It receives significantly less funding per FTE than other Virginia universities in its category - doctoral-granting institutions.
The average funding per FTE at such schools is $5,786. To reach that average, ODU would need an additional $12.4 million from the general fund. Given its above-average performance in attracting students, educating them, managing its resources and sponsoring innovative programs, ODU hardly deserves below-average funding.
In Richmond, ODU is seeking from the General Assembly:
To retain the $1.4 million that more accurately reflects enrollment.
Increased financial aid resources. It would cost $24 million just to meet 50 percent of calculated need.
A 6 percent increase for faculty pay under a formula all the university presidents have agreed to. ODU hopes eventually to increase faculty pay to the 60th percentile level of peer institutions. It now languishes at the 30th percentile, increasing the chances of a brain drain.
$1 million each to (a) support the applied research center to be housed at the Thomas Jefferson Lab (formerly CEBAF) and (b) continue developing commercial applications of the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC). The Hampton Roads Partnership sees the funding of these two high-tech drawing cards as an important spur to regional economic development.
$200,000 to double the size of one of the nation's few programs in Maritime Management.
ODU plays a key role in promoting the prosperity of Hampton Roads through the students it trains, the high-tech ventures it can help to attract, the resources of its labs and faculty. Underfunding ODU is tantamount to undercutting the future of Hampton Roads. If our end of Virginia is to stay open for business, the General Assembly and Governor Allen must get behind ODU and more adequately fund its programs. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
VP
COLLEGE FUNDING
SOURCE: Department of Planning and Budget and SCHEV
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]