Access and Excellence for Public Universities

Public universities across the nation are being confronted by progressive disinvestment by the state in public education.  The economic crisis has resulted in devastating cuts in some states, such as California, and given the slow economic recovery, any restoration that may happen will be gradual.  State funding of universities is unlikely to return to the high levels of the past.  At the same time, our nation’s need for a highly educated workforce is growing, pushed by the ever increasing speed of technological change in a globally-linked economy.  
Our public universities teach large numbers of students and substantially help shape our nation by opening the door to mainstream society for a huge number of highly talented people from financially disadvantaged backgrounds and an increasingly better life for the middle class.
Our nation faces a challenge in keeping our public research and teaching universities excellent and accessible to the vast majority of Americans.  It is unreasonable to expect public universities to continue to educate more students with drastically reduced resources and sustain the level of excellence that has produced our great public universities.Clearly, we must find new models for supporting our great teaching and research public universities that recognize that these are not just state but national resources. It is unrealistic to expect either state or federal funding alone to rescue public universities, while private funding must not be allowed to change the public character of America’s public universities.  The solution lies in being creative in seeking out new models for public-private partnerships.  This presentation will look a model for federal-state-private partnerships that would increase funding for public higher education while preserving the public character of American’s great public teaching and research universities.