Southern universities rethink goals amid recession

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The goal was ambitious, even in brighter economic times.

Take the flagship university in one of the nation's poorest states, one better known for basketball than academics, and transform it into a top 20 public research institution - an exclusive club where the Southeast has always had few members.

Yet the University of Kentucky appeared well on its way after launching its top 20 business plan in 2005. Retention and graduation rates skyrocketed. Highly sought administrators and deans were picking UK over more prestigious schools. And the state's General Assembly was so committed to the cause it bankrolled even more money in the second year than the university requested.

Then the economy bottomed out, the funding dried up, and UK President Lee Todd was forced to make some tough choices.

"It's still alive," Todd said of the plan. "We're not moving that goal, but it's a struggle because we've got to now kind of re-envision where the money's going to come from."

The situation so disturbed Todd that, shortly after talking with a reporter about the plan, he announced he would step down after 10 years as president when his contract expires in June. One trustee said, while the board wanted the 64-year-old Todd to stay on, he had become "depressed" about the university's financial condition and the inability to raise faculty salaries.

"He just really felt beat," said Trustee Billy Joe Miles.

UK isn't the only university in the South shouldering the tough economic conditions just as it was getting started on a major push to move up the higher-Ed rankings. The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn., and Clemson University in South Carolina also have outlined such goals and are determined to keep them going despite the short-term pains.

With a challenge from Tennessee's governor, UT Knoxville launched its plan earlier this year in the middle of the recession. Although there have been some cost-cutting efforts, such as a limit to the number of courses a student can drop, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek said waiting until conditions improved would simply put the school further behind.

"The journey is much more important than the destination," he said.

Although schools tend to set their own benchmarks and keep internal lists of the perceived competition, an independent ranking by U.S. News & World Report published last month lists Clemson as the No. 23 public university. That is just three off the school's top-20 goal set in 2001, when it barely cracked the top 40.

Cathy Sams, the university's chief public affairs officer, said Clemson might be there already if not for some major budget cuts - including $25 million last year. That has meant downsizing, including the loss of about 90 faculty positions, most of them through attrition and retirement incentives.

Belle Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission on Colleges, said investing in research - a key component of many of these plans - actually could soften the recession's blow in the South.

"Research tends to spawn off business, so it may not be as difficult as we think it's going to be," Wheelan said.

At UK, Todd has insisted that the increase in research spending continue, even amid cost-cutting moves such as pay freezes and tuition increases. He has tried to find cuts without layoffs, doing such things as asking athletics, the university-owned hospital, parking and others to start handling operational expenses once absorbed by the university.

Not all the changes have been popular with students or faculty, but Todd said once research dollars are scaled back, the battle is essentially lost because the schools currently in the top 20 aren't cutting.

"They're not sitting still," Todd said. "I've yet to hear a president say, 'We're ready to drop out of the top 20. Come and get us.'"

By UK's internal calculations, it now ranks as the No. 38 public research institution in the country. Only four from the Southeast are among the top 20 on that list - the University of Florida, Georgia Tech University, University of Virginia and University of North Carolina, which many schools from poor Southern states have identified as a model.

David Shulenburger, vice president for academic affairs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, said UNC has been effective because it has found the proper balance between being a national player in research while still providing the education badly needed for its state.

Although Shulenburger says it's encouraging that others in the South are trying to follow, he cautions that a university must first direct its precious dollars at programs that most benefit the residents. Overall rankings are probably less important when times are tough, he said.

"I suggest they sharpen the ambition," Shulenburger said. "Find the part of the rankings that really benefits your students in your state, and work on that individual element. Make sure what you're trying to maximize really makes your state and university better off if you succeed."

Todd said that is exactly why he wants Kentucky to join the top 20 fraternity, a goal that the legislature mandated in 1997. He said states with a top 20 school have household incomes well above the national average and rates of child poverty and Medicaid enrollment well below it.

Todd acknowledged the school hasn't seen much positive movement in the rankings since the budget cuts, but nor has it slipped.

"Holding our own right now is pretty good, because it's tough," he said.