Higher education is under siege, with many students and parents balking at high costs. In a series of op-eds, university leaders lay out their efforts to keep college affordable. This is the second in the series.
Here are some recent conclusions about higher education that are drawing national attention: College is unaffordable and overpriced, highly selective and inequitable, biased and conformist.
A recent Yale report highlights these as some of the main public perceptions and concerns driving declining trust in higher education.
And yet, as the report correctly notes, elite private institutions like Yale represent only a sliver of American colleges and universities. America’s regional public universities (RPUs) — which we represent — enroll 70 percent of the nation’s 7 million undergraduates at public four-year institutions and produce two-thirds of the baccalaureate and master’s degrees earned at those schools, according to our analysis of federal data. Our institutions tell a very different story of higher education than elite schools do — and it is a story we believe must be told.
Yale deserves credit for addressing the issue of trust. Although it and other elite schools hold an outsized place in the public imagination of what college is and who it serves, some of the concerns the report raises are well-founded and broadly felt: Cost is a real barrier to enrollment and completion for many students. And skepticism about the value of a degree is understandable as recent graduates try to launch their careers amid a tough entry-level job market.
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The reality of RPUs, however, challenges other aspects of the Yale report’s conclusions.
Take affordability. Families understandably question whether college is within reach when they hear about tuition topping $70,000 a year at elite universities. According to an AASCU analysis of the College Scorecard and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, however, the average in-state tuition and fees at RPUs are about $10,000 a year, and 97 percent of our financially dependent students graduate with a median debt below $20,000.
Cost is a key reason we disproportionately enroll Pell Grant recipients and low-income students. Regional public universities are often an affordable gateway to a college degree.
Related: How much will that college cost you? Good luck figuring it out
RPUs focus on ensuring that every student has an opportunity to succeed. We extend opportunity by making access, not exclusion, core to our mission. Our admissions policies are designed not to earn prestige but to improve lives. We make transferring from community colleges easy by establishing close relationships with those institutions. We also offer flexible degree pathways, including part-time and online programs, because many of our students commute and are balancing work and family responsibilities. As a result, RPUs are more reflective of the broader public that higher education is meant to serve, enrolling larger shares of students of color, first-generation students, working adults, transfer students and veterans than non-RPUs.
And, although our institutions are not immune to challenges around free speech, conformity and self-censorship, the breadth of RPU students’ experiences often supports viewpoint diversity, and RPUs recognize the need to do more to embed the principles of civil discourse and free expression in campus life.
THE LATEST IN THE SERIES
In Michigan, for example, Grand Valley State University has a Center for Civil Discourse, while Oakland University has expanded opportunities for students to engage across differences through its Center for Civic Engagement. Another such effort is a recently launched pilot program at Oakland University, where students read “The Civility Book” by journalists Nolan Finley (a conservative) and Stephen Henderson (a progressive). Through facilitated dialogue, these students learn to question their assumptions, listen more carefully and return to difficult conversations with greater openness and empathy.
Like many RPUs, Oakland University delivers strong outcomes: OU graduates have median earnings 27 percent higher than those of alumni from comparable Michigan public institutions and 32 percent higher than those of workers without a college degree. Graduates build meaningful careers in fields ranging from health care to teaching to the local automotive industry.
The Yale report highlights widespread uncertainty about the fundamental mission of higher education. But that mission comes into clearer focus when we turn to the universities that educate and uplift far more students.
RPUs keep faith with the American dream by offering affordable and accessible pathways to lives of purpose, success and engaged citizenship.
That is a mission worthy of the public’s trust.
Charles L. Welch is president and CEO of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and a first-generation student.
Ora Hirsch Pescovitz is president of Oakland University and chair of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Board of Directors.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
This story about regional public universities was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.
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