California and its colleges and universities are in the eye of a hurricane. California higher education survived the initial storm of the recession in the early 1990s, albeit at the cost of reducing enrollments and drastically increasing the cost to students who were admitted. Student fees rose sharply, and enrollments declined by more than 200,000. Alone among the major industrial states, California suffered a decline in the percentage of high school graduates moving on to college. Nearly 2,000 senior faculty members in the University of California, including many highly productive scholars and teachers, were persuaded to take early retirement-a process that a highly placed university official has called "random decimation." The California State University laid off hundreds, if not thousands, of part-time faculty members, resulting in larger classes, heavier teaching loads and a widely perceived decline in academic quality. In the California Community Colleges, several districts came perilously close to financial ruin, as both state and local support dwindled. In all three public systems, buildings were poorly maintained, and libraries and laboratories deteriorated.
The first part of the hurricane seems to have passed. There has been some recovery in the past two years, as student fees have been frozen and state operating support has increased, though only slightly above the inflation rate. Enrollments have begun to creep upward again, but much of the damage done during the first years of the decade is still unrepaired. Despite an improved state economy and better budget prospects, this is not the time for business as usual--this is the illusory calm before the next storm. The next ten years will see almost a half-million more applicants knocking on college doors than are now enrolled. At the same time, state fiscal resources will be severely constrained, even if economic growth continues. Neither the state nor its higher education institutions have policies or plans to meet this challenge, and few in leadership positions seem willing to acknowledge the difficult times ahead. Yet there is real danger that the quality of this system will deteriorate or that access will narrow. Now is the time to act if California's historic commitment to college opportunity--which must include both access and quality--is to be preserved.
This report--which suggests actions and policies that will take California into the 21st century with a renewed commitment to college opportunity--recommends that a new compact be forged between the state, the colleges and universities, and students and their families. This new compact for shared responsibilities and benefits asks the state and the public to stabilize budgetary support, target additional funding to undergraduate enrollment growth, resist construction of new campuses, and hold the institutions accountable for enrolling additional undergraduate students. The compact asks colleges and universities to enroll all qualified students and reallocate resources to maintain-even enhance-quality with fewer new dollars for each additional student. It asks students and their families to bear their share through limited fee increases, and it asks students to work harder before and during college.
This compact of shared responsibility is needed now because California is in danger of revisiting a greater crisis than that of the early 1990s. The impending crisis results from the convergence of three factors:
Standing alone, each of these findings would be cause for concern. In combination, they present an unprecedented challenge to California, one that approaches crisis proportions because of a fourth factor:
In response to this predicament, this report addresses two urgent questions.
First, should California revitalize its historic tradition of finding a place on campus for all qualified applicants? Although there has been quiet erosion of this tradition, this report is premised on the belief that the ultimate answer will be affirmative. Who believes that Californians would deliberately deny to the next generation the benefits of quality education beyond high school that they and their parents enjoyed-individual benefits that have made the state the envy of the nation? All Californians are at risk if access is denied or quality declines. In the emerging era of rapidly changing work requirements and technology, of dramatic demographic shifts, and of a new and intensely competitive world economy, the state cannot afford to deny any Californian the chance to make the most of his or her life.
Second, can California manage its uniquely large and complex higher education system so that students, their families, and the public can afford both access and quality in the next century? This report asserts that it can, although only with extraordinary effort. The availability of a broadly accessible array of education and training opportunities beyond high school can no longer be taken for granted by Californians. In that spirit, this report offers a comprehensive policy framework for higher education's future.
Although the heart of this report is found in its recommendations for shared responsibility by the state, the public, higher education institutions, and students, the specific strategies that define the shared responsibility approach are options, not prescriptions, for California. While many of these options have been tested by quantitative analyses and by experience in California and elsewhere, others have not.
None of the strategies is offered as a "silver bullet" that can resolve the thorny issues of quality and access; nor should every strategy be applied in the same way to every campus or system of higher education. At the same time, the strategies presented in this report are feasible, interdependent elements of policy options. It is in their combination that the proposed policy of shared responsibility achieves the three conditions that any such plan must meet:
First, the state and its colleges and universities must continue to maintain and enhance the quality of instruction, research, and public service.
Second, the state and its colleges and universities must accommodate all qualified undergraduates, regardless of their financial resources.
Third, while quality is improved and accessibility is maintained, the average cost of education per student must be reduced, and more extensive use must be made of public and private facilities.
The state successfully met similar challenges when faced with veterans returning from World War II, and with their children, the baby boomers. During the 1960s, California's four-year colleges and universities accommodated enrollment growth without a commensurate increase in financial support, and those days are often recalled as a "golden age" in higher education. But today's conditions are far less favorable than they were in earlier years, and tomorrow's are uncertain at best. The demands of other public services are far greater than in the past. The state's population is larger and will become more heterogeneous. And its economic growth is more problematic.
Present conditions, however, are not entirely adverse. Over the past three decades California has attracted talented and creative faculty and administrators to its colleges and universities. Their intellectual power and inventive capacity are the most important resources for reshaping higher education to meet future demands; faculty members are the ultimate guardians of academic quality. California's public and private colleges and universities-the result of investments made over more than one hundred years-constitute another asset. If appropriately utilized and maintained, they can meet many of state's future needs. The potentials of modern electronic technology, of new insights into the organization and delivery of learning opportunities, and of strengthened ties to public schools hold promise of greater accessibility, quality and productivity.
Can the state meet the enrollment and fiscal challenges of the next ten years? The Center believes that it can. This report clarifies what is at stake for California and proposes, within a framework of shared responsibility, specific strategies to revitalize California's commitment to college opportunity. It also seeks to shift the burden of proof to the doomsayers who predict the inevitable decline of educational opportunity and quality in higher education. California can meet the challenges it faces--if the leadership and collective will of the public, the colleges, and the state can be marshaled. As this report reveals, the capacity exists in California to provide the next generation of Californians with access to high quality education after high school. The core issues that remain, however, concern public priorities and values--and the willingness of Californians to accept and share responsibilities as well as benefits.