Lexington, KY - As Dr. Lee T. Todd, Jr., completes his final year at the helm of the University of Kentucky, Business Lexington would like to congratulate him on his accomplishments and encourage him to work with the Board of Trustees toward a reformulation of the Top 20 goal.
We don't think he's likely to heed our call, particularly since he declared in his final State of the University address, delivered mid-September, that he has no intention of giving up the chase. We admire his stated interest in avoiding manipulation of rankings, rather than jumping up a few places by soliciting more applications from students in order to turn them down and thus appear more selective. His own personal history gives him a special understanding of the importance of opportunity for students from rural backgrounds.
Yet Todd's business plan, developed to meet the state legislature's 1997 mandate for top 20 national public research university status by the year 2020, depended on a significant increase in funding from the state, as well as increases in student and faculty numbers and in funded research projects. The aspiration was so dramatically different from what we've known here in Kentucky that it spawned as many doubters as supporters. For the first several years of the plan, state funding was available to jump-start progress, and even some doubters became believers.
Here we are in 2010, however, in the midst of an era of financial retrenchment. We see clearly now that without a major turnaround in the economy, and consequently state funding, attaining a top 20 national public research university ranking doesn't seem likely within the coming decade. Perhaps the doubters were right. But rather than viewing this as a failure, as a "Kentucky can't accomplish this" moment, we should seize the opportunity to revise the goal to seek top 20 status in areas of critical importance to our commonwealth. And we might take a moment to identify areas in which we really don't want top 20 standing at all.
We remain woefully behind many states in the proportion of residents with a college education. An educated citizenry is the power that fuels an economic engine. The Council on Postsecondary Education recently reported a 40 percent increase in the number of college students enrolled in Kentucky institutions of higher learning over the last decade. Why not aspire to be among the top 20 in percentage increase of enrolled college students - and graduates, too - by 2020?
Business Lexington has written recently about UK's First Scholars, a program dedicated to helping students who represent the first generation in their family to attend college. Too few are in the higher education pipeline, and too few actually complete degrees. Let's also aspire to be among the top 20 in percentage increase of first-generation college-bound students, both enrolling and graduating.
UK does many things well and, indeed, has pockets of outright excellence. Research funding has grown in recent years, as have scholarly citations of faculty members' work. UK reports that in fiscal year 2010, grants and contracts received through the UK Research Foundation exceeded $300 million, representing nearly a 1/3 increase over fiscal year 2009. A 2007 report of scholarly activity among faculty ranked UK 19th among public universities. Achieving top 20 standing in specific areas that are already well on the way, or maintaining it in areas where it's already documented, could indeed be achievable.
UK's Board of Trustees recently "reclassified" Dr. Todd's status in order to boost the salary of the president significantly. We suspect this was done partly as reward for Todd's efforts over his years as president and partly to entice excellent candidates to consider the possibility of succeeding him. Indeed, compared to presidents of top 20 research institutions, Todd's salary has lagged. But the fact remains that UK is not a top 20 institution. And an even more glaring fact is that faculty and staff have not had salary increases for three years. Why would the trustees want to achieve top 20 status in the level of faculty and staff animosity on campus? Or in disparity between top executive pay and faculty salaries? Ironically, the board's action was taken at roughly the same time that the 2010 Governor's Conference on Postsecondary Education Trusteeship held a one-day summit on cost containment issues.
Student tuition rates at UK, as at public post-secondary institutions statewide, have risen dramatically since the implementation of the plan. Something had to make up the shortfall in state funding, but given Kentucky's extremely modest average household income, we'd hate to see UK achieve top 20 status in tuition levels.
There is no "trap door" beneath anyone that will spring open on the dawning of 2020 in the event UK has not achieved top 20 national public research university status. It has simply been a goal since that auspicious House bill was passed in Frankfort in 1997. But in this economy it has become a burden in that it now seems entirely unattainable. In that respect, it just sets us up for unrealistic expectations, misdirected policy and, ultimately, disappointment and descent back into the "Kentucky Can't Do It" mindset that so seriously afflicts our culture.
Setting lofty goals is a noble endeavor. Every organization finds itself at times, however, readjusting goals in accord with economic and political realities. Dr. Todd and the Board of Trustees should realign expectations in this, Todd's final year, so that the focus is on achieving top 20 status in specific areas that benefit Kentucky rather than an overall goal. And while at it, they should be especially mindful of areas where being in the top 20 will not be productive.