Just as we feel the first pinch of winter Arctic cold, the temperature in the debate over the state's budget problems is rising to new levels. The University of Wyoming, which gets a quarter of a billion dollars annually from the state, is working on a strategic plan that could turn into a plea to shield the university from further budget cuts in the coming legislative session. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle has the story:
University of Wyoming instructors and alumni asked president Laurie Nichols to protect their programs in the face of dwindling state funds during a listening session Monday at Casper College. The meeting was the sixth of 10 such events Nichols and various UW officials will hold as the university looks to draft a strategic plan for its next five years. The university officials did not answer questions but listened to comments and concerns from some of the roughly 80 attendees. Those perspectives will be taken into account as UW makes its strategic plan, Nichols said. The majority were related to state budget cuts. UW’s board approved $10 million in cuts and adjustments in November, on top of $19.3 million in reductions rolling into effect this fiscal year. The budget cuts are necessary because of the university’s declining state block grant: The university has lost $41 million in state funding in the two-year budget cycle that began July 1.
Indeed, a trio of men, including state veterinarian Jim Logan and college of agriculture adviser Bob Kidd, quickly defended the ag school. “The agriculture industry relies a great deal on the University of Wyoming to survive,” Logan said, pointing out that agriculture is the third-largest economic factor in the state. “Please, as you consider this strategic plan and these budgets, please remember the land-grant university programs.” He also urged Nichols to protect and enhance the school’s agriculture extensions across the state. Should the “world-class scientists” working in the vet labs retire and not be replaced, it would be a blow, Logan said, because of the reliance the agriculture industry has on veterinarians. UW has been eliminating staff and faculty positions through attrition recently, with a new round of buyouts announced in November. A rancher, Kidd told Nichols that the budget cuts had sliced through the fat already. “We’re starting to cut into bone,” he said.
Again, the University of Wyoming is essential to many parts of the Wyoming economy, from agriculture to the practice of law. That, however, still does not mean the school should be protected from budget cuts, especially since that would mean more of the burden for reducing the state's deficit would fall on the shoulders of taxpayers.
Does that mean I want the university to suffer under the budget slicer? No. Any claim that the university only has two options - pleading for special status or accepting budget cuts - is to misrepresent available alternatives.
There is a third one: privatize the university.
I realize that any suggestion that UW should become a private school is like cursing in church. Nevertheless, with a runaway budget deficit, and no end in sight to deficits unless we do something drastic about it, we have already run out of conventionally accepted measures. To paraphrase the great fictional character Sherlock Holmes: when all acceptable solutions to a problem have been exhausted, only the unacceptable ones remain.
By deeply rooted conventional wisdom, privatizing the University of Wyoming is entirely unacceptable. Yet, if we set aside conventional wisdom for a moment, we will see that the idea is not as outrageous as it first may seem to be. In fact, we have good reasons to believe that the UW would fare better as a private school than if it continues as a public university.
Academic performance is at the epicenter of the private-vs-public issue. Again, I am sure the faculty at UW is doing a fine job educating their students, and the Wyoming workforce is full of UW graduates who excel in their professions of choice. Nevertheless, good can always become better: private universities consistently rank higher than public universities. Of the top-20 ranked universities in the country, only one is a public school, namely University of California at Berkeley, which is tied for 20th place with Georgetown and Emory.
The University of Wyoming is ranked 171st.
It is an unfortunate fact that academic performance of a school as a whole - not necessarily individual faculty members - is linked to its status as a public or private institution. Having worked as a college professor in three different countries, at both private and public colleges, I have first-hand experience of this: there is no doubt that the less financial influence politics has over a university, the stronger the school tends to be academically. The reason is not that politicians exercise political influence over academia (although I have seen that happen abroad) but rather that public universities do not have the same pressure on them to compete for academic excellence as private schools do. By attracting academic excellence, especially on the research side, universities can raise more money and attract even more high-performing students.
As a university rises academically, it becomes increasingly selective in what students it attracts. This allows for higher tuitions, further securing the school's financial future.
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