TERRE HAUTE — Keeping college affordable is a major topic of discussion in higher education, and on Friday, Indiana State University’s president had an opportunity to take some of his concerns to the White House.
ISU President Dan Bradley was part of a 25-member delegation from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The delegation spent 90 minutes in a roundtable discussion with senior Obama administration officials.
AASCU representatives included college and university presidents and chancellors and AASCU staff.
“The meeting went well,” Bradley said. One of the major points AASCU tried to make was that all interested parties must work together to keep college affordable so that more Americans can complete a four-year degree.
“For us to be successful, it will take everyone stepping up,” Bradley said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon.
It must involve cooperation between the state and federal governments, higher education, parents and students, Bradley said. Even K-12 education has a role to play by improving the college readiness of high school students.
In Indiana, the state has to make higher education funding a priority, and the public colleges must work hard to keep expenses down. The federal government must maintain its financial aid role and provide incentives for states to continue funding levels.
The AASCU representatives had another message for the Obama administration. “We want to make sure that the discussion becomes more substantive than ‘you guys are the bad guys,’ meaning campuses raise tuition,” Bradley said.
In the majority of states, tuition decisions aren’t even made by the campus; they are made at the state level, Bradley said. He and others in the AASCU delegation believe “too much rhetoric is being used to point fingers at universities rather than making people understand it is not just a university problem.”
White House officials “definitely agree” all stakeholders must work together, Bradley said. At the same time, “They’re very frustrated because they see significant new federal dollars going into higher education and then most of the money is eaten up by tuition.”
AASCU emphasized that much of the increase in tuition is a direct result of enrollment growth and decreasing state appropriations.
Nationally, on average, increases in college expenditures over the last 20 years only slightly have exceeded the Consumer Price Index, Bradley said.
Last fall, Bradley appointed an affordability task force at ISU, and some of the recommendations proposed by his administration affecting textbooks, course requirements and academic department size are causing controversy.
Maintaining affordability “is going to be very difficult … there will be some gnashing of teeth as we proceed. People don’t like to change” and may feel the way they are doing things is the best way, Bradley said. “But sometimes we have to do things differently.”
It’s a time of change and uncertainty “and that means there will be conflict, but not all conflict is bad,” he said. “We are much more likely to come up with optimal solutions when a lot of people are talking and offering suggestions … I think discussion and controversy are more likely to lead to good results.”
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