Federation of Illinois Independent Colleges and Universities

Responses to Tribune Harper Editorial Printed 5/30/07

	Released: 5/30/2007
	Here is the text of three letters published in the Tribune on May 30 in response to the paper's endorsement of the Harper legislation. The full, unedited versions of David Tretter's and Jeffrey Rosen's letters are available in the member area of our website under "Legislation and Issues." Chicago Tribune / Voice of The People / May 30, 2007 4-year degrees In your endorsement of Harper Community College's proposal to offer bachelor degrees, the Tribune missed some facts. Harper's proposal is unanimously opposed by the Illinois Community College Board, the Illinois Board of Higher Education and every one of the state's 130 public and private four-year colleges and universities. The Tribune claimed that "no local four-year school offers bachelor degrees" in the fields of homeland security and technology management. Yet just 24 miles away in Lisle, Benedictine University offers the bachelor of arts in management tailored to police and fire emergency first-responders and it can be available at no cost to some applicants thanks to federal funding. It may be the case that some Illinois residents have to travel a hundred miles to get to their nearest college or university, but not in Palatine. Students in the area served by Harper College are lucky enough to both have a community college and more than a dozen public and private four-year colleges within a 10-mile radius where they can complete their bachelor degrees. The Tribune stated that the Harper "pilot" program won't "cost taxpayers a dime." It has already cost taxpayers in Community College District 512 well over $300,000 for the four contractual lobbyists and one full-time staff member who have been hired for Harper's campaign. I reject your assertion that Senate President Emil Jones has somehow blocked this bill from having a fair hearing. This legislation relates exclusively to higher-education policy and it was appropriately assigned to the Senate Higher Education Committee upon arriving in the Senate this month. The bill's sponsor chose neither to present the bill to the committee nor to call it for a vote. A larger strategic evaluation of our state's higher-education system is what we really need, not piecemeal so-called pilots. David Tretter President The Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities Springfield Keeping quality in higher education Your editorial supporting Harper College's bid to grant baccalaureate degrees argues that Harper selflessly represents the needs of its community against the forces of "the higher-education establishment" that "fear[s] competition" for students and precious state dollars ("College for the community," Editorial, May 24). For the following reasons, this position is simplistic and reductive: Entirely missing from your discussion is the concept of quality in higher education. When the public uses measures like faculty degrees, publications or national standing to evaluate quality, or considers the role of institutional investments in libraries and laboratories, it recognizes that such resources affect the ability of an institution's graduates to compete for jobs or perform well in graduate-level studies. Your position also ignores the growth of degree-completion programs, such as Loyola University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Rather than funding brand new bachelor of arts programs at community colleges, a better solution for the state would be to support initiatives such as that now offered by the Illinois Board of Higher Education's HECA grants; these were designed to create alliances between four- and two-year institutions. Sadly the State of Illinois has severely reduced its allocations to this grant each year. It is not quite so simple to "roll out" new baccalaureate degrees. For the past year, Loyola has been developing a degree-completion program in emergency management (one of the areas in which Harper has expressed an interest). Curriculum development, the creation of advisory boards, the need to make connections to federal and state agencies and NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and faculty development are essential to the process. Additionally because Loyola intends to offer classes connected to its own trauma center, students will enjoy proximity to a major hospital complex renowned for its clinical expertise as well as its research excellence. Because of limited resources, however, Harper can only create clinical practice agreements, that is, outside the purview of the institution itself, where quality assurance is difficult and expenses are high. You maintain that Harper's proposal is low-cost and low-risk. Yet the investment of new resources is never low-risk; funds allocated to one program mean others cannot prosper. And low-cost to taxpayers? Having served as a community college trustee for the past four years, and having seen the state's contribution to community colleges decline each year, forcing an ever-larger tuition burden onto the backs of students, there is simply no way that Harper can assure residents that its tuition will not increase in order to support these proposed programs. Jeffrey H. Rosen Dean School of Continuing and Professional Studies Loyola University Chicago Chairman Board of Trustees Oakton Community College College resources A recent Tribune editorial expressed support for legislation that would allow Harper College in Palatine to offer baccalaureate degrees. The rationale used for this support is that the pilot program proposed by Harper would not cost the taxpayer anything more and that people need better access to baccalaureate programs. It is the mission of our universities to offer baccalaureate degrees, not our community colleges. Community colleges are not fully funded now and their tuitions are on the rise. For any community college to invest in resources in anything beside the quality and efficiency of the program it is designed to already deliver seems a betrayal of the state and local taxpayer. If resources are available for a community college to start an expensive and experimental program, should not these resources be better used to lower tuition and beef up the programs that the community college already has in place, especially when a baccalaureate program can be delivered by universities that the taxpayer is already subsidizing? More resources should be devoted to increasing access to baccalaureate degrees offered by universities on community college campuses. Such partnerships exist on many of our community college campuses, even at Harper. These partnerships are on the rise with at least 33 community college districts hosting baccalaureate completion programs with 40 different universities. Harper's legislation itself does not address any auditing procedures to study such a pilot program, nor is there any protection for students who may enroll in such a program. There is no guarantee that the college itself can sustain non-tax funding of the program, and if it cannot, then what happens to the students who invested their time and money in it? Any expansion of baccalaureate access by a public institution will ultimately cost more tax dollars; to believe otherwise is folly. Guy Alongi Chairman Illinois Community College Board Springfield