Prominent college leaders from four distant corners of the higher-education marketplace met here on Tuesday night to debate whether the industry’s business model is broken.
In a discussion that featured several pointed exchanges, the “team” of Gail O. Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College, and William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, argued that higher-education finance is indeed fractured, parrying with leaders of two disparate private institutions, Richard C. Levin, president of Yale University, and Daniel M. Hamburger, president and chief executive of DeVry Inc.
The debate, which was sponsored by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs and moderated by Ray Suarez, a public television correspondent, was broadcast on the Web and will also run on PBS.
Mr. Kirwan said state budget cuts are harming many universities, particularly in places like California and Washington State, and that the nation’s production of college graduates will remain flat without an extensive re-engineering across higher education.
“We are at a serious crossroads,” said Mr. Kirwan. “This recession is different.”
The two defenders of the existing business model may have made for an odd alliance—hailing from a for-profit giant and an elite research university—but they echoed each other in Mr. Hamburger’s take on American higher education: “The strength of our system is its diversity and its flexibility.”
Mr. Levin, Yale’s president since 1993, agreed, saying that China’s and India’s education leaders “look at us with envy” for the American blend of four-year liberal-arts programs and graduate programs, which is seen as the gold standard for producing creative graduates who can adapt to changing economies.
He also praised the for-profit sector “for creating a lot of innovation” in the industry, including its role in driving distance education.
Ms. Mellow, of LaGuardia, however, criticized the large and growing share of federal-aid money that students take to for-profit colleges like DeVry, which has more than 90 locations in the United States and Canada. For-profit colleges have “destabilized” the industry, she said, and have “taken needed tax dollars away from public higher education.” Ms. Mellow also pointed to the relatively high costs of attending for-profit colleges, which generally outpace the price of community colleges by wide margins.
Mr. Hamburger countered that DeVry and its peers provide college access to nontraditional students, and that federal aid goes to students, not to colleges—a point that Yale’s president backed him on.
“The students are coming to our schools for a reason,” Mr. Hamburger said. “They’re getting support,” he said, citing DeVry’s spending on counseling and student services. He also said DeVry’s higher tuition was due in part to its lack of public subsidies, and noted that the for-profit industry pays large amounts in taxes—about $100-million this year for DeVry.
‘Throwing It Down’
Community-college students account for half of all undergraduates, Ms. Mellow said, yet they receive less public investment than do the nation’s elementary schools.
Federal-aid policies are based on a “nostalgic image of who goes to college,” she said, noting that lawmakers focus on the relatively small number of students who pack up the family station wagon and troop off to a residential college.
Mr. Kirwan agreed, and said higher education will “ride and fall on the public sector,” which educates about 80 percent of students.
Mr. Suarez told the two speakers from private higher education that Mr. Kirwan had “thrown it down to both of you,” calling them “niche players.”
In response, Mr. Hamburger said his sector helps meet crucial student needs, while Mr. Levin said the recession presented unique challenges. However, both presidents made peace with their opponents by saying they support more federal and state funds for public higher education.
America’s higher-education system is “more diverse, adaptable, and democratic than ever,” said Mr. Hamburger.
A question-and-answer segment followed the hourlong debate. The questions included several on college costs, as well as on the achievement gap, three-year degrees, and intercollegiate athletics.
In a discussion of what Mr. Kirwan called “out of control” spending on major college athletics programs, Mr. Levin called for universities to consider seeking payments from professional sports leagues that draw college players.
“Why don’t we have the NBA and the NFL subsidize intercollegiate athletics?” asked Mr. Levin.