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Introduction
It is a pleasure to be with you this morning.
When Governor Gilmore announced the formation of the Blue Ribbon Commission about this time last year, he spoke about Virginia's first blue ribbon commission on higher education - the Rockfish Gap Commission chaired by Thomas Jefferson in 1818. The result of that Commission's work was Virginia's public university - the University of Virginia.
And so the Blue Ribbon Commission has returned to the place where public higher education began. I can think of no place more awe inspiring for this Commission to spend two days discussing and deliberating higher education policy than this room - Mr. Jefferson's Rotunda. Mr. Jefferson would have wanted it this way. In fact, he probably would have drawn the seating chart very similar to the arrangement you have here.
Your Charge
I believe Mr. Jefferson also would have approved of your work to date.
Recall Governor Gilmore's charge to you as you embarked on your work last Summer.
First, to ensure that a college education remains affordable for the families of Virginia.
Second, to make positive recommendations for raising the quality of educational instruction and student academic life at all of our public institutions.
And third, to design an accountability structure for the expenditure of over $3 billion in public resources annually - and to make specific recommendations for empowering boards of visitors to fulfill their fiduciary duties to the people of Virginia.
Affordability, Quality, and Accountability.
All of the reports I hear from Ed Flippen and Maureen Matsen indicate that you are well on your way to fulfilling your charge.
Cost & Affordability
The Governor asked me to deliver his heartfelt congratulations to each of you for the work that produced your Interim Report.
The Commission's Interim Report compiled data never before collected in one discernible place - and that data was startling to those of us who are responsible for ensuring access to a college education:
Tuition and fees increased 110 percent in real dollars at Virginia's four-year doctoral universities in just 15 years - 78 percent at four-year liberal arts colleges - and 53 percent at our community colleges.
Governor Gilmore read the Report with great interest and responded very quickly by devoting $75 million in additional tax revenues to the colleges and universities in order to reduce tuition and mandatory fees by 20 percent.
By reducing tuition 20 percent, Virginia reduced the amount of financial need by parents and students. Before the tuition rollback, Virginia was covering only 34 percent of unmet financial need. After the tuition rollback, Virginia is meeting 45 percent of financial need.
Before the tuition rollback, Virginia's tuition and fees were 30 percent higher than the national average. After the tuition rollback, Virginia's tuition and fees are only 13 percent above the national average.
And in a major accomplishment that went little noticed by comparison to the tuition rollback, Governor Gilmore proposed and signed legislation creating new tax-preferred college savings accounts. Starting this month, parents and grandparents can put money into a savings trust account in their child's name, pay no taxes on the earnings until the child goes to college, and receive a tax credit against their Virginia income taxes. Thousands of parents and grandparents will find saving for college more affordable.
All of these accomplishments came in response to this Commission's findings - and each person on this Commission can claim personal responsibility for making a college education more affordable today than it was a year ago.
In my many years of working in and around government, I can tell you that few Commissions have had such a direct and significant impact on the lives of people in so short a period of time - and you should be proud of that legacy.
Rest assured that affordability will remain the clarion call of higher education policy for the remainder of Governor Gilmore's term - and my political sense is that it will remain so for many governors to come in light of the work of this Commission.
Quality in Academics
At the same time, you have begun to define "quality" in terms of the students we serve instead of the enormity of the institutions we have built.
A rigorous core curriculum, graduation rates, grade inflation, writing skills, assessment of student intellectual development - all complex and difficult issues - all have been illuminated by virtue of your thorough review.
I understand that you will be discussing some of these issues here today.
Governor Gilmore looks forward to receiving your specific recommendations for how we can improve academic rigor and achievement to improve the lives of the students we graduate - across the board - from Norfolk State to George Mason, and from Radford to ODU.
Accountability & Governance
Finally, Governor Gilmore will look to you for specific recommendations on making our boards of visitors as effective as they can be in fulfilling their fiduciary duties to the people of Virginia.
I understand you will take up the issue of governance later in the Fall.
Before you embark on that task, I ask you to be mindful of Governor Gilmore's words on this subject when he announced the formation of this Commission:
"The people of Virginia elect a Governor to serve them. It is in the name of the people that the Governor appoints men and women of distinction to govern our colleges and universities. Boards of Visitors are stewards of public resources and the public trust - they are accountable to the people - and they speak for their institutions."
Ladies and gentlemen, there will come a time when this Commission completes its work, signs its final report, and leaves its recommendations in the hands of the Governor.
After you have completed, most of your recommendations on important policy issues of affordability and quality will be left to individual boards of visitors to implement within their institutions.
Policy after policy - fee increases, core curriculum requirements, writing programs, grade inflation, resource allocations - will rise or fall on the effectiveness of boards of visitors.
That is why Governor Gilmore charged you with "making our college boards true governing bodies - and empowering them to fulfill their fiduciary duties to the people of Virginia."
I have the benefit of having served on a board of visitors before assuming my present responsibilities. I know from first hand experience the personal demands of active and responsible stewardship of an institution that spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
I also know how complex the data can appear when those hundreds of millions of dollars are obtained from over a dozen different revenue sources - tax dollars, tuition payments, fees, room and board payments, bookstore profits, athletic ticket sales, donations from alumni - the sources are many.
And each revenue source comes with special restrictions on its use. Tax funds can be used only for educational purposes. Dorm charges and parking lot fees pay for bonds.
But for most of the institutions in Virginia, millions of dollars each year come from auxiliary enterprises and private donations with no strings attached. Bookstore profits, athletic license revenues, private donations … these revenues can amount to tens of millions of dollars each year at a large university.
Long after this Commission and this Governor have retired, who will decide how each college's discretionary dollars are spent? Who will decide whether a university devotes its discretionary resources to keeping a college education affordable by lowering the fees students pay by using discretionary revenues to offset the costs … or to build more parking lots and office space?
It is incumbent upon you to provide specific advice to the well-intentioned women and men who will serve on college boards how to make those decisions and to institutionalize their roles in the decision-making and policy-setting process.
There are simple strategies for boards …
And there are more complex practices each board needs to adopt for clear and meaningful financial reporting so that boards know precisely how - and why - each dollar is spent in its name. But whether it is involvement in the budget-making process or the review of an institution's curriculum - boards need to be actively and effectively involved for any of this Commission's ideas to take hold and flourish. That is why Governor Gilmore believes your recommendations for making boards effective fiduciaries are the most critical recommendations you will make.
Closing
You are an exceptionally qualified group. The Governor wants your best collective thinking. Sir Thomas Beecham, founder of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, said it best: "There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between."
No doubt this Commission has much discussion and deliberation ahead of it. Hopefully you will start and finish together, even if there's some disagreement in between.
And so, I leave you with the Governor's heartfelt congratulations for your success to date and his highest expectations for the work that lies ahead.
Thank you for your time and efforts in the service of the people of Virginia and keep up the good work.
Posted: July 20, 1999
By The Educational Policy Institute of Virginia Tech
sjanosik@vt.edu