Poll: Voters Value College Quality, Access

Voters give high marks to Georgia’s four-year colleges and universities, and they believe higher education budget cuts should be minimized even in difficult economic times, according to a public opinion poll released today by ARCHE, the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education.

The poll documents that Georgia voters recognize the importance of public and private colleges and universities to economic development and to Georgia’s national reputation. They also recognize the importance of scientific research to the state. And they support funding – even from their own pockets – for enhanced quality of education and financial aid for students who need it.

The online poll of 600 registered Georgia voters was conducted in late November and early December 2008. At the 95 percent confidence level, the margin of error is +/- 4.0 percent for questions reporting the full sample. The poll is available in full on the ARCHE Web site at http://www.atlantahighered.org/Portals/12/UploadFiles/ARCHEpoll09web.pdf.

“Voters value great colleges and universities in Georgia, they want them to be even better, and they’re willing to pay for increased quality and access,” said ARCHE President Michael A. Gerber. “They want Georgia to be a national higher ed leader, although they’re not quite sure we’re there yet.”

Quality: Almost eight out of 10 Georgia voters rate the quality of the state’s four-year public and private colleges and universities as excellent or good (79 percent for the public institutions and 78 percent for the private institutions).

Leadership: Ninety-three percent say it is very or somewhat important for Georgia to be a national leader in the quality of its colleges. Forty-nine percent agree that Georgia is currently a national leader; 37 percent disagree; and 14 percent don’t know.

Importance to Georgians: Nearly all voters think higher education is important in shaping individual success, economic growth and quality of life in Georgia. For example, 96 percent rate Georgia’s colleges and universities very or somewhat important to economic growth in the state.

Funding quality: Eighty percent of voters believe that state budget cuts to public colleges and universities should be minimized, even during today’s economic downturn. Almost two thirds (65 percent) are willing to pay $1 more a week in taxes if the money goes to enhance the quality of education for college students.

Tuition: A majority (56 percent) favor increasing tuition at public institutions if it supports academic programs and need-based student financial aid. About half (49 percent) would suspend the state’s “fixed for four” tuition program for public colleges to avoid cutting programs and lowering quality.

Financial aid and college cost: Nearly eight in 10 Georgia voters support using lottery surplus funds for new financial aid for students who need it (78 percent support such a program). More than half (56 percent) would pay $1 more per week in taxes to fund additional low- and middle-income student aid in the state.

More than half (59 percent) say a college education is somewhat or very unaffordable without a HOPE scholarship.

Plans for college: Ninety-five percent of parents believe it’s very or somewhat likely that their school-age child will enroll in a four-year college. Of these, 94 percent say it is very or somewhat likely their child would attend a college or university in Georgia.

Research: A large majority (88 percent) think research is very or somewhat important to the state’s economy. Eighty-nine percent believe it very or somewhat important that the state invest in research to create new jobs, and 79 percent agree the state should offer financial incentives to attract new scientific research labs and companies.

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Chancellor Davis: State of University System Strong but Challenged

In his annual “State of the University System” address today, Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. noted that in tough economic times, it was important to send the message that the University System of Georgia (USG) is not a cost to, but an investment in, the state of Georgia and its future.

“We are an answer, not a question; a solution, not a problem; a part of state government where the decisions made today have the capacity to demonstrably improve the future we, our children, and our children’s children, will all live,” Davis said in his remarks to the Board of Regents. “We must not sacrifice the important for the urgent. We must preserve the historic legacy in this state of public higher education as a clear public good that adds value to the lives of all residents across Georgia.”

Reviewing the University System, Davis noted a number of strengths, including strong leadership at the board and presidential level, outstanding faculty and staff and a growing student enrollment, which hit a record high of 283,000 in fall 2008.

Davis cited both Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia’s continuing presence on U.S. News and World Report’s annual list of the top 20 public universities in the nation and growing recognition of the USG’s other institutions as independent measures of the excellence of leadership, faculty and students in the System. “The core mission of our institutions – teaching, research, and public service – not only endures, but thrives, thanks to our faculty and staff,” he said.

But the System’s strengths are being tested and challenged, Davis noted, “perhaps as never before.” He cited five key challenges: the academic preparation of entering students, faculty salaries, institutional missions, access versus quality, and public support.

While enrollment is at a record high, Davis said, too many students still enroll who are academically unprepared for college. He cited USG figures that the percentage of first-time, full-time freshmen requiring learning support, while dropping from 30.5 percent in 1995 to a low of 20.9 percent in 2001, has steadily increased to a current percentage rate of 25 percent. “This trend line is headed in the wrong direction,” Davis said.

The challenge is to continue to align guidelines and requirements between the University System and the State Department of Education to better prepare K-12 students for college. “This is a long-term process, and while all of us recognize that the current situation is very tough, hard times do not absolve us from our responsibility to plan for the future,” he said.

Another challenge Davis cited is to remain competitive regionally and nationally in terms of recruiting and retaining needed faculty. While on a pure percentage basis USG faculty salaries have increased since 2000, when held constant in 2000 dollars, the average faculty salary in the University System’s four-year institutions has decreased 3.7 percent since 2000, compared to a 4.4 percent increase in the 16-member Southern Regional Education Board states (SREB). At Georgia’s two-year colleges, the decrease in constant 2000 dollars for faculty salaries since 2000 is even more marked, Davis said, falling 16 percent, compared to a 6.1 percent increase in the other SREB states.

Today, Georgia ranks 8th among the 16 SREB states in average faculty salaries for four-year institutions, falling from 6th place in Fiscal Year 2007, and the state ranks 10th in faculty salaries at two-year colleges, the lowest level since data started being collected in 1989. “We cannot maintain our competitiveness and our core academic quality indefinitely unless we can address some of these salary challenges,” Davis said.

Another challenge to the System, Davis noted, relates to calls for mergers of some USG institutions. “We are not a cookie-cutter system; all our institutions do not look alike,” Davis said.

Davis cited the System’s response to the call for greater efficiencies through its Shared Services project, which is combining back office operations throughout the System. “This (shared services) is preferable to blurring the missions of distinct institutions,” Davis said. “Students do not choose to attend a generic college or university; rather, they choose a USG brand name, which offers the program they need and the environment in which they can excel.”

One of the biggest challenges to the System is maintaining the balance between access and quality, Davis said. To date, Davis said, in general enrollment caps have not been needed in order to preserve academic quality, thanks in large part to the strong stewardship of college and university presidents. But Davis warned that a continuing trend of rising enrollment and falling resources would challenge the System’s ability to continue to maintain both access and quality. “We will not allow this to happen – if necessary, we will restrict access first before we degrade quality,” Davis said.

Turning from specific challenges to more general attitudes concerning the overall benefit and value of public higher education, Davis noted the increase in “national voices questioning whether higher education is a public good, worthy of public support.” Davis said that the University System and its supporters must be vocal in countering fears given credence by tight budgets that public higher education is a private gain and thus public support should be reduced. “This is a classic – and potentially dangerous – example of sacrificing the important for the urgent,” Davis said.

The University System of Georgia enrolls more than 283,000 students, employs 40,200 faculty and staff, serves more than one million Georgians through public service, administers the state’s 61-member public library system, and contributes annually more than $11 billion to the state’s economy – all on current fiscal year appropriation of $2.3 billion that has been reduced by 8 percent, or $182 million, since August 2008.

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