Larry D. Lauer

This week I attended a meeting of higher education leaders hosted by our state senator. These leaders were from institutions  in her district, and I must admit she presented a meaningful topic agenda. She was there to listen, and I applaud her for taking the initiative.

The Texas legislature will be off and running again this coming spring. But once we all meet in Austin, political polarization will likely combine with serious state budget problems to produce the same kind of bickering that has been paralyzing Washington.

For higher education, the overall situation quickly becomes circular and contradictory: 

We will begin with a budget deficit, and so there will be loud calls to cut spending.  But, simultaneously there will also be those legislators arguing to expand college access to more people. Then, with the same breath they will insist that we keep tuition low.  And there will also be assertions that university’s are managed poorly, and so there will be new calls for more regulations and reports. 

For the institution all this adds administrative work and people, and tuition goes up again. So in this very bad economy, where one in ten is out of work, it will be very likely that public universities will have an even greater percertage tuition increase than privates.

We simply must find new ways to address these problems. I suggest that thoughtful, experienced professionals from the legislature, government, education agencies, and universities be invited to meet together in a nonpartisan atmosphere away from the Capitol. It should be a retreat-like location where a “getting down to business” tone can be created. And to get the ball rolling, the initial charge should be to only talk about doable solutions, even if they are partial.  Perfect solutions will not be possible, from either party.

Any plan will require fine tuning along the way, and so all participants should be asked to acknowledge that reality publicly. First, it should be acknowledged that each insitution wants to keep prices as low as possible, deliver high quality, be accessible to more people, and manage everything more efficiently. So, needed improvements must be put in priority order and then matched with available resources. Simple action steps are added at the conclusion, including realistic timeframes for results.

Whether we are talking about communicating an institution’s brand identity, dealing with sensitive issues, handling crises, or finding legislative solutions, the most valuable talent to have in our profession is to be able to see complex problems in more simple terms, as well as to be able to articulate clear and comprehensible steps forward.

In politics, we call this talent statesmanship, and we definitely need a good dose of  it now.  Putting good sense back in our legislative processes simply must be our top national and state priority.  We simply can’t continue the nonsense any longer.