Higher Education and the Future of Georgia
President Dorothy Leland
Feb. 10, 2011
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to join President Cox today – two women serving as the leaders of prestigious private and public universities respectively -- in addressing the role of higher education in Georgia’s future. To speak in front of this distinguished group of executives and professional leaders is an honor. As citizens and leaders, I know we share common concerns about the financial issues affecting higher education and the pressing need to effectively prepare our young people to live, work, and lead in an increasingly complex and truly global environment.
Will Higher Education Make or Break Georgia’s Future? What measures are we to use? My answer is a resounding “yes”—higher education is critically important to Georgia’s future -- and the measures we will use include the quality of life enjoyed by Georgia’s citizens and the economic prosperity of our state and nation.
Let’s start with quality of life. In 2008, the median earnings of full-time workers with bachelor’s degrees – the products of institutions like Young Harris and Georgia College – were almost $22,000 more than the earnings of workers who finished only high school. This earnings gap is accelerating and is even larger for younger age groups. For younger workers — those in the 25 to 34 age category -- women with college degrees earned 79% percent more than those with high school diplomas, and men, 74% more. Clearly, the glass ceiling is cracking open for women with a college education, but educational attainment has a significant impact on income level for both women and men.
Surveys also show that college graduates get more out of life and they put more into their communities and their professions. As stronger wage earners, college graduates pay more taxes and engage in more philanthropy. As college graduates, they are less likely to become unemployed and they will draw less from government support programs. College graduates are under-represented in prison populations — and in this case, underrepresentation is a good thing! In short, college graduates are a net benefit, and not a cost, to the state.
But the benefits to the state of higher education go much deeper than this. In a knowledge-based economy, where there is greater dependence on knowledge, information, and high levels of intellectual skills, Georgia’s colleges and universities are also vital to the state’s economic future. The businesses that will drive Georgia’s future economic prosperity need workers who can assimilate new information quickly and sort through this information with an arsenal of critical and creative skills; these businesses need workers who are globally aware and who can work collaboratively across disciplinary and cultural boundaries; these businesses need workers who are capable of communicating effectively with others and who can understand and interpret quantitative information. And that’s the educational focus of a liberal arts education at institutions such as Young Harris and Georgia College, where students not only learn the content knowledge of their chosen fields of study but also master the analytic, critical, creative, communicative, integrative, and collaborative skills that will keep Georgia competitive in the rapidly changing, globally interconnected economy of the 21st century.
It will come as no surprise to you that we think Georgia College is a jewel in Georgia’s higher education landscape. This past year, we conducted focus groups with our students to learn more of their opinions about Georgia College. The consulting company was absolutely amazed at the students’ comments. They boiled the comments down to one simple phrase – Almost Perfect.
Georgia College meets students’ ideas of the almost perfect university for many reasons:
- Its commitment to a liberal arts education that also extends the learning experience outside the classroom and into real life.
- Its smaller size, which promotes meaningful interactions between faculty and students and among the students themselves.
- Its commitment to service learning and to community engagement that not only benefit our regional communities but predispose our students to a lifetime of civic involvement and professional leadership.
Our students find Georgia College almost perfect because it embodies all the best elements of the most esteemed private liberal arts colleges while also offering the affordability and the resources of a public university. And that is a good thing because it reflects our special mission within the University System of Georgia.
Georgia College was designated as the state’s Public Liberal Arts University in 1995 – just more than 15 years ago. The idea was to provide an alternative to the huge public universities for academically talented students seeking a smaller college learning environment — and to provide this to students at a public university price. This idea was part of the same public policy imperative that gave birth to the HOPE scholarship, which was to strengthen the competitiveness of the state’s public universities by providing academically talented students with scholarship support. The aim was not only to reward students and help their families but also to stop the brain drain out of the state of Georgia.
Today, after 15 years of change and transformation thanks to the support of the State of Georgia, Georgia College has succeeded in becoming an affordable alternative that helps keep Georgia’s most academically talented students right here in Georgia. We are retaining Georgia’s best students within the state at a remarkably high rate; we are providing them with a liberal arts education that engages them in the broader community and global society, and sparks their ability to think outside the box, to make connections, and to move thoughtfully and innovatively in a rapidly changing world. These are the skills – the competencies -- that Georgia’s corporate and governmental leaders have told us are most needed for the future. These are the abilities that corporate and governmental leaders are seeking in the individuals they hire to lead their enterprises. In this role, we truly are truly contributing to a more prosperous Georgia.
As a public liberal arts institution, Georgia College also exemplifies through its programs, scholarship, and service, a strong commitment to our communities and to promoting the public good. We view our communities as learning laboratories — as places where students can apply, test, expand and explore more deeply the knowledge they learn in the classroom. For instance, our marketing students worked with the Warner-Robins Chamber of Commerce to develop a new name and branding campaign for that organization. Our students also assist nonprofit agencies, governmental units, and corporations by taking on special projects or providing interns. These initiatives also bring genuine, lasting improvements to our community partners -- corporate, government, educational and nonprofit alike. We invest our resources in our communities and our state.
That investment includes reaching out globally. We attract about 130 international students to Georgia College every year. Those international students and their families brought $3.1 million last year into the middle Georgia economy – an economy that recently has seen 17% unemployment. The influx of that money alone benefits our region, but Georgia College’s commitment is much deeper.
Recently, a Georgia College delegation traveled to India to build alliances with higher education officials there. In a few weeks, I will lead a second visit that will include a representative of our local economic development authority. Our intent not only is to increase interest in Georgia College as a destination for international students but to increase interest in middle Georgia as a site for branch offices of Indian companies. The presence of a public liberal arts university as a major resource for those companies will anchor our presentation. If successful, we could stimulate new jobs and new revenue for the region and the state.
But that’s enough bragging — which, as you know, is a habit of college and university presidents. President Cox and I also were asked to talk about the impact of the state’s economic circumstances on higher education and actions we are taking to keep our institutions strong.
It should come as absolutely no surprise that this is a time of significant financial challenge for the entire University System of Georgia. By the beginning of the next fiscal year, it is likely that Georgia College will have suffered the loss of over 20% of the state-funded portion of its budget. That’s a fairly staggering number, and institutional stakeholders have grappled with its impacts, ranging from increased costs to students and their families, to our ability to offer the class sections that our students need to graduate. We are also struggling to maintain our buildings, laboratories and classrooms, and to secure the up-to-date equipment that ensures that students’ education is meaningful and current in today’s environment.
Despite this economic distress, Georgia College has continued to thrive, thanks to the dedication and ingenuity of its faculty, staff, and students. We’ve made substantial gains in student success, as measured by steadily increasing student retention and graduation rates. We enjoyed our largest fundraising year in university history, against all odds, in the midst of a deep economic recession. And we have creatively found ways to deliver services despite a 17% reduction in our administrative and support staff. Like other industries in the state, we’ve focused on our core mission -- which is educating students — and we have continued to support that core mission through cost reduction, new efficiencies, and innovations in both instruction and business operations. We’ve become aggressive in pursuing strategies for becoming less reliant on state support and for building alternative revenue streams to support our institution and its students.
Historically, declines in state support are at least partially offset by increases in tuition and fees. And that regrettably has been the case in the University System of Georgia, where deep funding cuts have been partially offset by tuition increases. Don’t get me wrong — Georgia College and University System of Georgia institutions are still a bargain, with tuition rates well below our national peers. But a prolonged trend of declining state support offset by rising tuition is ultimately unsustainable for public higher education, which is deeply committed to maintaining affordable access for the citizens of Georgia.
Georgia has benefitted enormously from the diverse range of higher education institutions in the state — public and private. I was reminded of this recently in conversations with Georgia’s new first lady. As you know, Governor Deal is a graduate of one of Georgia’s fine private universities; while Sandra Deal and her sister, mother, and mother-in-law are graduates of Georgia College. Each of these wonderful people was able to attain a first-class education thanks to the diversity of educational opportunities available to the citizens of Georgia. The challenge that Georgia faces now—in this economic climate-- is to find ways to maintain the vitality and public purposes of its public sector institutions.
There are no easy answers, but as the state cures its current structural budget deficit, re-investing in public higher education must again become a priority. Public higher education will do its part by continuing to find new efficiencies and by tapping into alternative revenue streams. But we also need our state as a strong funding partner if we are to maintain public higher education’s commitment to affordable access to educational opportunities of the very highest quality.
The current discussions about the HOPE Scholarship also can make a difference to the future of public higher education in Georgia. I can tell you that the HOPE scholarship has been a key factor in the competitive success of Georgia College along with other institutions in the University System of Georgia. The impact of HOPE on stopping the brain drain of Georgia’s most academically talented students has been demonstrated—for example, since the inception of HOPE, more and more of the top 10% of high school graduates have elected to remain in the state and enjoy the benefits of Georgia public higher education. These students are more likely to also remain in Georgia to become the future leaders who will drive the state’s economic prosperity. This is a grow-and-nurture-your-own talent strategy that works and, in fact, is the envy of many other states across the nation.
I am confident that our state leaders will find an equitable solution to the funding challenges that public higher education currently faces. Like you, they understand the value of public higher education; they understand that the state’s investment in public higher education is an investment in the quality of life of its citizens and the future economic vitality of the state and nation. We may not always agree on the solutions, but if we keep our eye on the prize, we can negotiate our way toward strategies that will benefit Georgia for the long run. I am so very proud of Georgia College — and I am also so very proud of being in a state that was visionary enough to create and support the special educational niche that we enjoy and share with so many of the bright, motivated, articulate, and engaging students who will positively impact our state’s future.
