Good News Bad News

The bad news in higher ed is always the same: some person with great power showing they understand nothing about higher education funding.

At a conference sponsored by the Higher Education Government Relations Conference called "Making the Case," the chancellor of Ohio's Board of Regents said that colleges can do more with less today because the Wright Brothers "created their flying machine without government grants, a subsidized research laboratory, or even college degrees."

This is like saying that Mr and Mrs Smith conceived Johnny late one night with the help of Mood Candles and red wine, so candles and wine are all the parental support Johnny will ever need.

Forget the rest of the history of aviation, from the patent pools created by the federal government after World War I to the massive government research and procurement money ladeled on the industry annually for the past seventy years. Without government money, we'd still be making airplanes in bicycle shops.

The good news is that there were hints that higher ed leaders aren't going to take cuts lying down, as they often have in the past. UC President Mark Yudof

said it was time for students, faculty members, and administrators to “go over the heads of legislators” and do more to clearly explain to members of the public that “if we don’t do well, they won’t do well.”
Mr. Yudof also said that he and the other higher-education leaders nationally are looking for help from the federal government. They have drafted an economic-stimulus plan for higher education that they will pitch to Congressional leaders and President-elect Barack Obama.

They need to push hard on this, starting with the heads of their own Boards of Regents