The 260-page Report of the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education is now available. It is nearly identical to the Joint Interim Committee on Higher Education and rather benign to faculty since they are rarely mentioned. One item touching on the TACT Legislative Agenda is the following recommendation: "The Legislature should study the feasibility of funding facilities for community colleges."

This is particularly interesting in light of another recommendation that would require all of Texas to be within some community college taxing district, thereby increasing their tax base.

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August 16

The Texas Association of College Teachers is recruiting five Finance or Business Professors to comprise a task force to study the statewide disparity in policies governing the administration of the Optional Retirement Program. The faculty members will each be offered a stipend of $1,000 plus expenses and expected to contribute up to 15 hours of work, including one or two trips on a Saturday to TACT headquarters in Austin.

"We need the very top investment minds we can find," said TACT President James M. Puckett. "We're not sure why a single state-financed faculty retirement program has such different rules among different universities, but we need to let our members know that some plans seem to be better than others."

Interested faculty members are encouraged to submit their vita and a brief statement of their interest in the project to TACT Headquarters by September 9. The first meeting in Austin may be the fourth Saturday of September or first Saturday of October. It is important that the task force members be TACT members, but that can be arranged upon selection.

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August 11

The Joint Interim Committee on Higher Education met Tuesday to review the results of four working groups. The Systems Group indicated that they were working efficiently and well and no new schools have requested placement into a system for a few years. There was no suggestion of realignments. The Community Colleges Group suggested that every piece of Texas be included within a community college district to expand the overall tax base.

The Research Institutions Group thought that incremental research funds should be targeted to particular schools to create centers for excellence rather than evenly distributed. The Teaching Institutions Group had not met and had no recommendations.

Co-chair Senator Florence Shapiro said that the Committee intended to meet its November 1 Interim Report deadline by having the first draft available September 13.

Upon recess, the Legislative Oversight Committee on Higher Education convened, which comprises the same elected officials plus several public members. It took testimony from each system and university about tuition increases and their intended uses.

Interestingly, Texas provides less than 10 percent of total student financial aid, relative to federal funds while the national average is that states provide 40 percent of the total. Federal financial aid funding has been frozen at 2001 levels and no one is predicting an increase soon. It is estimated that fewer that 500,000 Texas college students presently receive financial aid, but if the closing the gaps goals are reached by 2015, an additional 250,000 students will need aid. If all the current students who qualify for TEXAS Grant and B-on-Time were fully funded, the State would need to add $1 Billion in funding for the next biennium.

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July 9

TACT Executive Director Chuck Hempstead met Thursday with key staff members of State Senator Judith Zaffirini about the cost to the State of providing all Optional Retirement Program participants with an 8.5 percent of salary contribution (the national average is more than 9 percent).

Using Coordinating Board data, Hempstead projected that the additional cost for the FY 2006-07 biennium would be approximately $75 million. TACT's position is if that is unaffordable, one-third of the difference could be funded for $25 million, and future catch-up could occur as the State's revenues increase.

The full text of TACT's response to the Senator's request is below:

July 8, 2004

The Honorable Judith Zaffirini

Texas Senate

Box 12068

Austin, TX 78711-2068

Dear Senator Zaffirini:

Thank you for your June 17 letter agreeing that returning Texas Optional Retirement Program to its previous level of 8.5 percent of salary is an immediate step toward recruiting and retaining the best university faculty. You have asked for the cost of such a move.

According the Coordinating Board for FY 2003, the state contribution to university and health related faculty receiving 6 percent of salary was $57,332,305, up nearly 15 percent from the previous year to account for salary increases, replacing older faculty with new, and any net increase in FTEs. Discounting the growth rate by the nearly 1 percent of 8.5 percent recipients retiring or moving, that number should grow to $84,940,332 for FY ’06 and $96,831,979 for FY ’07.

If these projected state contributions were normalized to the 8.5 percent of salary received by faculty hired before 1995, the employer contributions would be $120,332,137 and $137,178,636. The increase to the state would be $35,391,805 (2006) and $40,346,657 (2007) for a biennium total of $75,738,462.

If those figures are too challenging given the State’s current fiscal condition, then our suggestion is that the state make up one-third of the difference during the upcoming biennium at a cost of $24,993,691 (a 6.83 percent of salary employer contribution to those hired since 1995) in the anticipation of an accelerating economy and a future, further narrowing of the discrepancy. The idea is to gradually phase in equal treatment of all faculty over the period of three biennia.

Thank you again for your interest and please let us know how we may help.

Sincerely,

Chuck Hempstead

Executive Director

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June 10

June 10, 2004

Dear Senator:

Thank you for the interest in excellence you expressed during the Finance and Higher Education Subcommittee hearing June 8. We were pleased that you seem to concur with the presidents and chancellors that more needs to be done to recruit and retain the best faculty we can afford.

When I complimented your comments and relayed them to our membership, I received the following from a faculty member who is leaving for greener pastures.

"Thank you for your information. I concur that more must be provided to not only attract faculty, but also to retain faculty. As a faculty member who is leaving Texas to another state, I can only restate my concurrence since my future ORP (Optional Retirement Program) match is 12% paid by my future university employer. As a faculty member hired after 1995 in Texas, the current 6.5% is abysmal and it needs to be increased incrementally year by year to at least the 8.5% paid to those hired before 1995. It does not need to be increased all at once, but at least on an incremental basis. For too long, it has remained too low and Texas will start paying for it by losing additional faculty if there is not at least a "token" amount of an increase to show that the legislature actually can put their money where their mouth is."

Last session, you passed HB 264 permitting local supplements to the ORP employer match, but due to tight university budgets, we are not aware of any participants. If you could begin incrementally increasing the match to the 8.5 percent received by faculty hired before 1995, it would go a long way toward ensuring the additional faculty we will need as part of "Closing the Gaps."

Sincerely,

Chuck Hempstead

Executive Director

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June 8

The Texas Senate Finance Committee and Subcommittee on Higher Education met today to take testimony regarding higher ed funding and the possibility of moving additional institutions to Tier 1 status. Defining Tier 1/Flagship/Research universities caused great discussion and confusion, with the conclusion being that a working definition for Texas and the quantifiable benefits derived would be necessary for further conversations.

Most presidents and chancellors testified that increasing the amount of outside research grants was a primary goal, and could best be accomplished by enhancing the recruitment, retention and total number of top-quality faculty. Some legislative panel members expressed that they wished more attention would be paid to quality undergraduate education.

Senator Duncan of Lubbock said that the number one investment should be in faculty. Senator Shapleigh indicated the importance of a long-term, consistent policy of faculty recruitment. Midwestern State President (and TACT Member) Jesse Rogers emphasized the commitment of his school in placing additional tenure-track faculty in undergraduate classrooms, and that the faculty supplement intended to reward that behavior assisted with those additional costs.

Interestingly, Subcommittee Chair Royce West vocalized a recent rumor. When someone confirmed that the majority of the economic development benefits were realized within the geographic area surrounding the respective university, Senator West asked a witness if the local taxpayers would be willing to create a higher education (taxing) district.

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May 18

The Joint Interim Committee on Higher Education met today regarding its charge to review the operations of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Touted as Commissioner Brown's last appearance in front of legislators before his retirement at the end of this month, he led an overview of the many activities of the nearly 300 agency staff members. Commissioner Designate Raymund Paredes was introduced to the Committee Members and said a few words about how he looked forward to working with the legislators beginning in July. Deputy Commissioner Teri Flack will serve as Interim Commissioner during June.

Commissioner Brown began with the history of the Coordinating Board, including referencing a speech to the first Coordinating Board by Governor John Connally in 1965. Available at www.thecb.state.tx.us, we have quoted this before:

"First of all, I would remind you that neither monumental buildings, nor winning football teams, nor spacious dormitories, nor expansive campuses, nor anxious administrators, nor ambitious plans ever taught a college student, Faculties teach.

Books on the shelves and elaborate research projects, and I'm for those, concerned with esoteric subjects enrich the student mind only indirectly. Teachers teach."

Senator Zaffirini quoted the Governor's text where he cited higher education improvements, including: a 100 percent increase in higher ed appropriations in a single year, 40 percent faculty salary increases in two years, a 180 percent increase in research appropriations, and a 140 percent increase in library funds.

Commissioner Brown quoted his predecessor, Ken Ashworth, defining the dual role of the Coordinating Board as "straddling the fence between advocacy and oversight while keeping both ears to the ground."

Chairwoman Shapiro announced that the Committee would break into work groups, including Teaching Institutions (Turner, chair, Duncan, Shepard) and Research Institutions (Janek, chair, Basaldua, Brown).

The next meeting of the entire committee is scheduled for August 10.

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May 13

Elections are final for new TACT Board Members scheduled to begin terms of office June 1, 2004. Their first duty includes a Board of Directors' meeting in Austin Saturday, June 5.

Elizabeth Lewandowski has been selected President-Elect. She has served on the Board for several years, including as Regional Vice President and Vice President of Membership. She has been President of the TACT Midwestern State University Chapter, where she helped the chapter grow into the largest in the State. She teaches in the Department of Drama, specializing in costume design.

Debra Price will serve as Vice President of Membership. She has been active with the Association at the state level in political affairs and conference educational programming, and presently serves as President of the Sam Houston State University Chapter. She was a TACT leader on the legislative issue of post-tenure review and teaches in the College of Education and Applied Sciences.

Gary Coulton is the new South-Central Region Vice President. He teaches psychology at the Texas A&M University-Kingsville branch campus in San Antonio and specializes in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

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May 6

The Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education met this morning to take testimony on community college efforts regarding developmental education. For the first hour, it was mostly testimony by Commissioner Don Brown on community college issues in general, and how they affect Closing the Gaps.

He said of the additional 200,000 student increase expected to occur naturally by 2015, 60 percent are expected to enroll first in community colleges. But of the other 300,000 envisioned by Closing the Gaps initiatives, he estimated that 70-80 percent would enroll in community colleges. By that same target date, if ratios of things like students to faculty remain the same, Texas would need an additional $20 billion, of which half of that would go to community colleges and half of that would be for buildings and other facilities.

Regarding legislative funding, Commissioner Brown estimated that if the State fully funded the new formula during the next biennium, a 95 percent increase would be needed over the current biennium for community colleges. Since that is unlikely, the Coordinating Board has recommended a 20 percent increase.

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April 22

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board today selected Dr. Raymund A. Parades to succeed Don Brown as Commissioner of Higher Education. Dr. Brown's last day is May 31, after which he will be joining the College for All Texans Foundation.

Dr. Parades is Vice President for Programs at the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. He is a native Texan who holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from The University of Texas at Austin. Additional background is available online.

In other action, the Board approved a new, cost-based funding formula with a recommendation to the Legislature that it be phased in to smooth funding changes. Details will be included in the upcoming TACT eBulletin. The recommendation is a result of many months of intensive committee work, including committee member and TACT Immediate Past President Larry King.

Board Members were particularly impressed by a presentation of a mock website which permits accountability and performance criteria of institutions and their subsets to be measured against peer institutions. It has not been determined how those peer institutions would be chosen, but it is possible that different peers may be used for different criteria.

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April 20

The Texas Legislature convened yet another special session today, this time for something more substantive and expensive than redistricting. So far, no legislation directly affecting higher education has been filed.

Following bill referrals, nearly all to the Select Committee on Public School Finance, the Joint Interim Committee on Higher Education met for its first overview of community colleges. Higher Education Commissioner Don Brown reported that the Coordinating Board was expecting to hear in June that the Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools would approve the pilot program authorized during the regular session (against TACT's advice and testimony) permitting four rural community colleges to offer selected bachelor's degrees.

Speaking of Don Brown, he told me that his retirement date is the final day of May. No successor has been named, though rumor has it that the Governor's budget director is odds on favorite. Maybe something will happen later this week when the Coordinating Board meets.

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March 22

The Joint Interim Committee on Higher Education met today on the subject of accountability, and at no time were faculty or post tenure review mentioned - almost as if it were the "institutions," rather than the professionals and students, which were responsible for hitting benchmarks.

The Systems' Chancellors all testified that they were well along with accountability programs, including UT Chancellor Yudof who said that, in his opinion, UT has the best program in the country comprising 130 variables. UNT System Chancellor Jackson, who chairs the Texas Council of Public University Presidents and Chancellors, distributed initial survey results from members of his group which attempted to priority rank dozens of benchmark indicators.

While everyone agreed that measured variables should be limited, they also agreed that they would be different for each school and identifying peer institutions with which to compare would be difficult, and may require different peer groups for different variables of a single institution.

Higher Ed Commissioner Don Brown identified what was being done today regarding accountability and performance, which he differentiated by saying that accountability implies responsibility and consequences. He emphasized that closing the gaps was already providing performance measures and annual reports. He displayed a hypothetical web site which would provide results by state, system, institution and program on whatever criteria are eventually identified.

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March 17

Join TACT in presenting the Legislator of the Year Award to Fred Brown, at the Texas State Conference of the AAUP. The conference will be held on March 27th, from 10am-4pm, at the Rudder Tower on the Texas A&M campus.

For more information, please see Texas State Conference of the AAUP

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February 18

The Joint Interim Committee on Higher Education met today primarily to hear from students about how they are organizing Go Centers in the high schools to encourage their peers to attend college and assist them with the roadblocks.

More interesting was a discussion on formula funding and how it rewards some schools more than others on a per student basis. The usual comments from legislators questioned why higher education was the only state function which permits institutions to transfer funds between line items. Committee members did not seem to think the performance measures outlined in the Appropriations Act were relevant or sufficient measures of educational output.

The March 16 meeting is scheduled to discuss accountability, which, as one co-chair commented, is being studied by so many groups that it deserved some coordination.

On another matter, someone mentioned at the regional meeting Saturday that they are telling students and parents, "Wouldn't you work for eight years (meaning high school and college) for a million dollars? (meaning additional lifetime income)" Maybe you can develop your own statistical comparisons from the following data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2000:

Annual Income

No high school diploma $14,349

High School Diploma $23,233

Associate Degree $31,684

Bachelor's Degree $45,648

Master's Degree $56,958

Doctorate Degree $87,644

Professional Degree $99,207

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January 23

The following executive order relating to accountability in higher education was signed by the Governor yesterday. How it will affect Texas faculty and what TACT's response should be will be a topic of discussion during the regional meetings in February. Additional information on the meetings is forthcoming. You may share your reaction by emailing TACT

Executive Order

BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF TEXAS

Executive Department

Austin, Texas

January 22, 2004

EXECUTIVE ORDER

RP 31

Relating to accountability of higher education systems and institutions.

WHEREAS, the people of the State of Texas expect the state to provide the highest quality of higher education; and

WHEREAS, Texas public institutions of higher education and the systems in which they operate are funded by both public funds and tuition paid by private citizens; and

WHEREAS, the public has the right to demand complete accountability for its investment in institutions of education; and

WHEREAS, public K-12 education has been required to provide comprehensive accountability to the citizens of Texas for more than 10 years; and

WHEREAS, systems and institutions of higher education must be able to clearly define the need for additional state-funding in a manner which will justify the public's continued investment of resources;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Rick Perry, Governor of the State of Texas, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the constitution and laws of the State of Texas, do hereby order the following:

The boards of regents for public institutions of higher education in the state shall direct that each institution and system work with the Higher Education Coordinating Board to create a comprehensive system of accountability.

This system will provide the citizens of Texas, the Governor, and the Legislature with the information necessary to determine the effectiveness and quality of the education students receive at individual institutions. It will also provide the basis to evaluate the institutions' use of state resources.

This system of accountability shall be approved by the Boards of Regents and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board no later than December 17, 2004.

This executive order supersedes all previous orders inconsistent with its terms and shall remain in effect and in full force until modified, amended, rescinded, or superseded by me or by a succeeding Governor.

Given under my hand this the 22nd day of January, 2004.

_____________________________

RICK PERRY

Governor

Attested by:

_________________________

GEOFFREY S. CONNOR

Secretary of State

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January 21

The Joint Interim Committee on Higher Education met yesterday to take invited testimony on "Financing Education Beyond High School."

Senator Duncan commented that institutions that increase their tuition the most will benefit the most from any additional financial aid appropriation. Higher Education Commissioner Don Brown said that under current federal guidelines, the B-on-Time loan forgiveness program becomes a taxable event at the time of forgiveness. He also said that due to enrollment increases, the state's cost to provide a TEXAS Grant to each eligible student ten years from now (under the current criteria) will exceed $1 billion.

Senator Shapiro suggested raising the threshold of students eligible for a TEXAS Grant to 12 semester hours, rather than the current 9, though 9 is sufficient for federal grants, and the average TEXAS Grant recipient now is enrolled for 13 hours.

Several members suggested combining the many financial aid state resources and placing them in one place in the state budget.

Representative Turner commented that while several members noticed that the state could increase higher education appropriations or financial aid resources, a third option was to limit the number of students able to attend college, making a degree a more socially elite attainment, and abandoning the state's goals in "Closing the Gaps."

Upon recess of the committee, the Legislative Oversight Committee on Higher Education convened. It comprised the same legislators as the previous committee without the public members, and began quizzing chancellors and presidents about how their tuition increases were determined and what they intend to do with the additional money. Leading off was UT-System Chancellor Mark Yudoff, who showed that the additional tuition revenue was less than the appropriation reduction from the previous biennium.

The next meeting of the committees is scheduled for February 17.

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January 9

We received a note last week from a well-respected faculty rights attorney, which concluded “Hope ’04 is good for you all- and I hope ’04 will be a year that faculty start taking stock of their perilous positions and empower themselves through collective actions!”

Highlights of a few 2004 activities planned consistent with this advice include:

January- Distributing draft 2005 Legislative Agenda to members for feedback. Joint Select Committee on Higher Education (where TACT will communicate our priority of quality degrees in addition to quantity).

February- Regional Meetings in Beaumont, Stephenville, and elsewhere. Publication of TACT eBulletin.

March- TACT State Board elections. Presentation of Legislator of the Year Award to Rep. Fred Brown.

May- Publication of TACT eBulletin.

June- First meeting of the 2004-2005 TACT State Board.

August- eBulletin with Annual ORP/TDA Study.

October- Fall Leadership Conference in Austin.

Please pass on this information to your colleagues, and let them know that they may participate by visiting our new secure on-line membership application then click on “ONLINE.”

Thank you!