by The Anniston Star Editorial Board
The University of Georgia System plans to propose merging eight college campuses into four to save money. Alabama’s cash-strapped neighbor will merge small junior colleges and a professional school with larger institutions.
Alabama should watch this with care. If there is one place where money might be saved in higher education, it is in the state’s proliferation of colleges and campuses.
Just don’t expect it to happen.
In the first place, Alabama has no central governing authority like the Georgia Board of Regents. Instead, Alabama has a Balkanized system of senior colleges where Boards of Trustees jealously guard their campuses and seem more intent on expansion than on consolidation and economy.
This attitude turned Troy University into what is known derisively as the “kudzu college” for the way it has spread abroad and into neighboring states. Closer to home, there is a town the size of Gadsden having branch campuses of both nearby Jacksonville State University and the faraway University of Alabama, which frequently offer similar, and in some cases identical, programs. (JSU and Gadsden State offer classes at McClellan, as well.)
The expansion and overlapping of senior colleges is small stuff compared to the way junior colleges and their branches seem to sprout and spread. Operating under an entirely different system than the senior colleges, they exist in a world of their own. In their admirable quest to make education inexpensive and convenient, they have become cornerstones of their communities.
That brings us to the other difficulty consolidation will face. Although most of these junior and senior institutions do an excellent job of educating those who come through their doors, it is long been known that education is only one of the reasons for many being where they are.
These institutions are economic engines; they bring prestige to their towns and pump money into the local economy. Indeed, many of them are located where they are because local legislators had the clout to get them put there — not because there was a particular academic need. The fact that new and expanded colleges often became patronage pits for governors and legislators makes them even more resistant to change.
It comes down to is this: When considering the areas where the state education budget might be cut and money saved, there are few places where savings are more possible than in the trimming and consolidation of small institutions and branch campuses. However, there are few perks the state provides that are more closely guarded than a community’s college.
It will be interesting to see if budget-cutting Republicans can muster the courage to take this one on.
Alabama should watch this with care. If there is one place where money might be saved in higher education, it is in the state’s proliferation of colleges and campuses.
Just don’t expect it to happen.
In the first place, Alabama has no central governing authority like the Georgia Board of Regents. Instead, Alabama has a Balkanized system of senior colleges where Boards of Trustees jealously guard their campuses and seem more intent on expansion than on consolidation and economy.
This attitude turned Troy University into what is known derisively as the “kudzu college” for the way it has spread abroad and into neighboring states. Closer to home, there is a town the size of Gadsden having branch campuses of both nearby Jacksonville State University and the faraway University of Alabama, which frequently offer similar, and in some cases identical, programs. (JSU and Gadsden State offer classes at McClellan, as well.)
The expansion and overlapping of senior colleges is small stuff compared to the way junior colleges and their branches seem to sprout and spread. Operating under an entirely different system than the senior colleges, they exist in a world of their own. In their admirable quest to make education inexpensive and convenient, they have become cornerstones of their communities.
That brings us to the other difficulty consolidation will face. Although most of these junior and senior institutions do an excellent job of educating those who come through their doors, it is long been known that education is only one of the reasons for many being where they are.
These institutions are economic engines; they bring prestige to their towns and pump money into the local economy. Indeed, many of them are located where they are because local legislators had the clout to get them put there — not because there was a particular academic need. The fact that new and expanded colleges often became patronage pits for governors and legislators makes them even more resistant to change.
It comes down to is this: When considering the areas where the state education budget might be cut and money saved, there are few places where savings are more possible than in the trimming and consolidation of small institutions and branch campuses. However, there are few perks the state provides that are more closely guarded than a community’s college.
It will be interesting to see if budget-cutting Republicans can muster the courage to take this one on.
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