The academic year at UB began in an exalted fashion last week, when President Barack Obama addressed a crowd of 7,200 people in Alumni Arena, as he announced his federal initiative to combat the rising cost of higher education in America.
It has long been the tradition of magazines and various publications to annually release updated rankings of colleges and universities throughout the United States; it has also been the tradition of middle- and upper-class families to use these rankings as data to navigate through the grinding process of college selection.
President Obama introduced a plan for his administration to evaluate schools with a new measuring rubric - average tuition, enrollment of lower-income students and effectiveness at helping students graduate with less debt. He expects to begin releasing these rankings by 2015.
The purpose of the new ranking system seems to be clear: to provide a new lens for looking at what schools deserve more federal funding.
While it goes without saying it will be difficult for the president to convince Congress to cooperate with him on anything, let alone an educational reform initiative that will require an increase in spending, the impact of a new set of rankings could alter the perceptions of our higher educational institutions.
The current prominent ranking systems (U.S. News and World Report, Forbes and The Princeton Review, among others) have created a disincentive for schools to reduce cost, as spikes in tuition have coincided with rise in rankings. Only five of the top 25 rated schools by U.S. News offer tuitions less than $30,000 (most wind up costing over $50,000), and those exceptions are only the in-state tuitions for public institutions (UNC Chapel Hill, University of Michigan, UCLA, UC Berkeley and the University of Virginia). The out-of-state tuitions of all those schools closely resemble the cost of the private institutions.
The median household income in the United States is $46,326, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. How many students from families earning that level of income can afford to pay the exorbitant fees of the elite institutions that have established themselves high in these rankings?
It seems perfectly obvious that the current ranking system facilitates the most affluent Americans receiving the highest material value of their educations; it becomes a luxury that disproportionately benefits the wealthiest among us.
An important component of our American democracy, conceptually, is that it supports upward mobility - where citizens are able to advance socially and economically.
In order for this to be possible, every student needs to have access to high-quality education. The president has taken an important first step in introducing reforms to a system that diminishes support for the education of our more vulnerable populations.
The student loan debt - which has topped $1.1 trillion - has burdened recent graduates with enormously high monthly payments, making it harder to find a job and begin their adult lives.
And even more ominous, these tuitions keep rising, leaving students unable to predict the amount their college education will actually cost.
What's important in the president's proposal is that a new ranking system could give the schools with lower tuitions that aren't adding to the national student loan debt crisis greater material value with more promise for life after graduation; it incentivizes schools to reduce costs and make college more affordable; and schools costing less money will enable more students to feel comfortable pursuing a degree in a challenging market.
President Obama's executive power will allow him to assemble and share data. But he will need congressional approval for funding to go anywhere. Many of the institutions that have benefited from previous rankings will oppose anything that may lessen their market share; and the Republican base will inevitably resist any endeavor to expand the federal government's role in American life.
The in-state cost of UB is $8,426 a year - a very reasonable amount. The university has developed programs - such as Finish in Four - to help students make the most of their college experience with the least amount of financial strain. And as an institution embroiled in the predicament the president addressed (certainly a reason he chose the university as a forum to unveil his plan), there are discernible ways that government intervention can improve people's lives, and increasing access to and advancing the quality of higher education seems to be an exemplification of that.
Obama wants federal funding to go to schools to help them avoid tuition increases and control costs.
With the promise of UB 2020, however, comes the indication of a tuition increase - the amount of which remains to be seen. So the question becomes: Are we truly in line with President Obama's vision?
And if not, should UB's higher-ups be reconsidering the rationale of UB 2020, given the proposition of this recent proposal?
Email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
