Governor’s Advisory Commission fumbles over recommendations

In a dimly lit auditorium Downtown, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and a slew of other high-profile… In a dimly lit auditorium Downtown, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and a slew of other high-profile college presidents and business CEOs met to discuss the role of the state government in funding higher education.

The Governor’s Advisory Commission on Postsecondary Education met on Thursday morning at 11 Stanwix St. Downtown for a two and a half hour discussion on the role of the state government in funding higher education and the ways that government, business and institutions of higher education can more efficiently collaborate to create “greater accessibility, affordability and employability.”

Gov. Tom Corbett appointed the new Advisory Commission on Postsecondary Education in February and tasked the 31 members with developing recommendations for higher education in Pennsylvania. The commission is composed of officials in public education, private education and corporations.

Corbett did not attend the meeting on Thursday.

Rob Wonderling, the chairman of the committee, said this discussion was the third in a process that will deliver some type of report to Corbett’s office by Nov. 15, but exactly what that report will look like is still an enigma.

“We don’t know. Not at this stage,” Wonderling said in response to a professor’s question about what the committee plans to deliver to governor. “We are putting a heightened level of listening to all perspectives.”

The first half of the meeting was largely composed of speakers from various institutions taking turns delivering ideas and rhetorical questions to the group about what they thought needed to be done by their respective institutions and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The ideas presented all revolved around the main topic of postsecondary education.

Nordenberg was one of the four commission working group leaders that convened at a previous session, and he delivered a testimony that was a result of a single session. He focused his testimony on the impact that higher education — particularly Pitt — has on the Pennsylvania commonwealth and the role of the state government in supporting that system.

“Pennsylvania can neither remain competitive in the innovation economy of the 21st century nor meet its obligations to the next generation of citizens and workers unless this trend is reversed,” Nordenberg said, referring to the two years of state higher education funding cuts and proposals before calling for more “robust investments” in the higher educational system.

In Corbett’s proposed budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, three out of the four Pennsylvania state-related universities — Pitt, Penn State and Temple — stand to lose 30 percent of state funding from the previous year. Lincoln University, the fourth state-related school, doesn’t face a funding cut.

Last year, Corbett proposed a 50 percent decrease in funding toward the state-related universities but settled for 19 percent when the budget was finally passed. Pitt’s tuition went up 8.5 percent for in-state students and 4 percent for out-of-state students that year.

After the meeting, Nordenberg said that the gathering was a “good open discussion” that was primarily an “exchange of ideas.” He added that he had “nothing concrete” that he would take from the meeting and implement at the University at this point.

Other important players in the region followed Nordenberg to give their views on the needs of higher education and the business community.

Constance Nichols, a member of the collaboration working group, spoke about the need for cooperation and collaboration between members of the higher education, business and governmental communities.

Chris Allison, the former CEO of Tollgrade Communications Inc., stressed that colleges and universities need to reduce the level of grade inflation and that some students are more suited for the trades and skills professions.

“I think we’ve devalued the skills profession in this country,” Allison said. “I think that there are a lot of students who are in college who probably shouldn’t be there because they’re not motivated to be there.”

He added that he believed in following a more German model, where students are tested early on in their academic careers to determine if they should follow a technical track or a college track. Furthermore, he emphasized the high unemployment rate and the need for people with technical skills.

Jared Cohon, the president of Carnegie Mellon, stressed the importance of the 200 to 300 research universities in the world. He noted that there is a distinction between private and public research universities.

“I don’t think Pittsburgh or the commonwealth of PA appreciates what an incredible asset — national asset, global asset — we have here in the University of Pittsburgh,” Cohon said. “Without Pitt, without CMU, Pittsburgh would not be what it is today,” he said, citing the creation of hundreds of companies and thousands of jobs as a result of the two universities.

Furthermore, he hoped for a shift in the discussion on funding for higher education in Pennsylvania.

“Our mindset is, ‘How much less money can Pitt get by on?’ That is totally the wrong question,” Cohon said. “If you accept my point about what an asset they are — what they represent for us — the questions should be, ‘How do we make this even better?’”

After the meeting, Wonderling restated that the commission is in the early stages of development and that he did not yet know what recommendations it would give to the governor. He reiterated that the commission is still in the listening stage and plans to eventually reach a point of organizing the data into “something actionable.”