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March/April 2012 –
BizVoice
/Indiana Chamber
23
think was easy to do – and that’s to raise their prices
faster than health care.”
In an opinion article written after the discussion
and again during this interview, Snyder compared the
inertia at some of today’s residential campuses with
his 30-plus years in the automotive industry. (One
of the meeting participants admitted that much of the
change in higher education has to come by persuasion).
“It reminds me of the auto industry in the ’70s
and ’80s. Changes were swirling about, but there was
not substantial recognition that the future was going to be
significantly different than the current. The auto industry was not
focused on competition; it wasn’t necessarily focused on the
ultimate customer, and we can see the dramatic change that
has taken place since.”
Federal role
While it is important for Washington to be engaged, there
are certain limitations on what it can or should do in regard to
college costs.
“I don’t think that the federal government is in a good
position to control prices. By that, I mean the federal government’s
effort should be much more focused on reducing costs, reducing
expenses,” Merisotis explains. “The federal government’s ability
to control prices of many things – its track record – is not good.
Airline tickets, oil, gasoline, milk, you name it. I would be
particularly concerned because of the complexity of this industry.”
Conversely, Merisotis offers three areas in which Washington
can play a role.
“First, be the arbiter of data, be the entity that actually offers
a high level of transparency about what college really costs, why
it costs so much and actually use the bully pulpit of the federal
government to increase transparency. At the same time, I think
the federal government has to provide incentives to improve
productivity. It can do that through existing mechanisms, it can
do that through financial aid programs, through cost reimbursement
in federal contracts and grants, through a variety of mechanisms.
“The third thing, I talked about this in the meeting, is some
modest effort akin to what was done with ‘Race to the Top’ –
challenge grants or incentives for current institutions to be
innovative, develop new strategies and solutions. That last one
would require some new money,” he concludes, but while that
figure was billions in the Race to the Top program for states
and K-12 initiatives, Merisotis believes this dollar amount
would be significantly less.
Snyder also cites the needed emphasis on transparency
and notes “there’s not a lot of buttons the federal government
can push.” Closer to home, he points out, “We think there
needs to be a way to encourage students to borrow less, which
means they’re going to have to spend less on their education,
which means community colleges around the country are one
of the options that will come to the forefront.”
Two-year path
Ivy Tech’s tremendous growth in recent years has been
well documented (with student headcount projected to approach
230,000 by 2014). Of all Indiana Pell Grant recipients (federal
dollars awarded to those with documented financial need),
54% go to Ivy Tech. Snyder says the college’s 68,000-plus Pell
students in 2009-2010 were 10 times more than any other
college or university in the state.
“If we’re going to close the gap with Korea, Canada, we’re
going to have to get more people to go to college,” he shares.
“If we’re going to increase that college attainment, it’s the
people below the median income of the state. If we have to
find ways to get them in to lower-cost options, it seems to me
Indiana is well positioned. The other one that helps us to be
well positioned is the growth of online, which further reduces
the cost for students.”
Merisotis says it can be dangerous to have
discussions that don’t consider both affordability and
productivity.
“We need to continue to emphasize financial
need as the most critical factor the federal government
can influence in terms of affordability, but what we’ve
learned is that is not enough – that we’ve got to focus
not just on the price side, but on the cost side. That’s
where the productivity really comes into play,” he asserts.
“There are easy ways to reduce costs; you can
just cut and cut some more. That will certainly bring
down the cost per degree, but that won’t get you more
graduates, won’t get equity for the fastest growing
populations. What we’re talking about is graduating a
lot more people who can power our economy and
help our democracy thrive.”
Continued on page 49
Snyder has been president
of Ivy Tech Community
College since July 2007.
Merisotis (center) participates in a federal higher education briefing on Capitol Hill.