The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

Many institutions are focusing on increasing external funding, either through gifts, and/or grants
and contracts. The sponsored programs office cannot increase the number and dollar of grants and
contracts simply by requesting our faculty and staff increase their submissions. Instead, we must
familiarize ourselves with the strengths and weaknesses of our institutions; develop collaborations
and programs focused on those strengths, and strategies for procuring funding to support such
programs.
Challenges for Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century
Papers
The downturn in the U.S. economy in 2000 had immediate and far reaching repercussions for
higher education funding. For example, higher education competes for state resources with programs
such as Medicaid, elementary and secondary education, transportation and the department
of corrections, to name a few. Because institutions of higher education have the capacity to raise
funds through tuition, legislators often feel that education organizations have more flexibility to
survive than traditional state agencies that are solely reliant on general appropriated funding. For
this reason, in many states, higher education was targeted with a disproportionate share of the
budget cuts.
As an example, funding for public institutions in the State of Illinois has been declining since
2002. Hebel (2004) reports that funding for Illinois public institutions declined 1.7% in 2004 and
States in the Great Lakes area continue to lag behind the rest of the nation in rebounding from the
economic recession in the early 2000s. Additionally, even states whose economies that have begun
rebounding have not returned to pre-2000 funding levels for institutions of higher education.
While these funding cuts have certainly made it difficult to manage the daily operations of an institution
of higher education, the greater challenge is in providing the new programs and services
our society and governments require with these limited resources.
First, the primary challenge to higher education institutions today is in providing access and personalized
service to a larger, further diversified, population of students. In 2009, it is projected that
3.2 million students will graduate from high school, the largest class in the country’s history. The
largest class to graduate previously was in 1977. In 1977, 51% of the graduates went on to pursue a
postsecondary education, in 2005, 68% of high school graduates enroll in college (Selingo, 2005).
Nontraditional or adult students are returning to university or community college campuses taking
college courses at off-site locations, or enrolling in classes offered through their employer, or enrolling
on-line to receive an additional degree or more training. Adult students need this flexibility. By
the end of 2005, 1.2 million college students will be enrolled in college fully online, up from 438,000
in 2002. By 2007, that number is expected to jump to 1.7 million (Selingo, 2005). Tuition costs at
institutions of higher education continue to rise, principally because of decreasing support from
state governments. This is causing an increasing amount of college costs borne by students and
families. Access and affordability for students is being threatened. High academic achievers among
low-income students have limited opportunities to attend college. They are no more likely to attend
college than the lowest performing wealthy students. It is becoming that universities are attracting
principally higher and middle income students and less lower-income students.
A recent survey developed by Chicago Public Schools illuminates the problem of low income,
minority students going to college (Cholo, 2005). About a third of Chicago Public Schools high
school graduates who planned to attend college did not enroll in the fall semester. There were
18,172 students that graduated from Chicago Public Schools in 2004. The percentage of 8,741
Black students that attended college was 46%, Latino students numbered 6,198 and 38 % attended,
White students numbered 2,206 with 60.2% attending and 999 Asian students graduated with 76%
attending college.
2005 Symposium Proceedings Book 153