Spank That Donkey

," said VCU President Eugene P. Trani. "Our priority always is to keep costs as low as possible while ensuring that students receive a quality education."

Can VCU provide info showing the quality of the education services has doubled over that time period?

Can the State of Virginia provide info showing the quality of the services provided have doubled over the last decade?

Certainly not Rightside. President Trani fancies himself as a CEO of a major corporation.

Tell me, has the price of Pepsi and Coke almost doubled in the last 6 years? He be fired there in a heartbeat.

In the 1970s, I served as a member on ODU's Board of Visitors as a student representative. There was no incentive for the Board to do anything about cost containment. Increased budget costs were just passed through to the students or the State was asked to pick-up the tab.

I later worked as a Comptroller at Federal agencies and noticed how little incentive there was for units managers to contain costs. There were plenty of rules about justification of costs, but few rewards in place to reward managers for saving money. We got good results by providing a series of metrics to measure cost containment and rewarded our good managers with additional funds for their best performing projects towards the end of the year.

Until we end the budget management philosophy in government agencies that teaches our managers to, use it or lose it; where the incentives are to spend all of your budget each year, or face reductions in the next year, then we shall never see any tangible progress towards cost containment by federal, state or local government managers.

Arbitrary percentage cuts, such as those championed by Mr. Gilmore, have been proven to punish the good managers and good programs, while providing no incentive for internal change in the culture,or management philosophy at government agencies. The right solution is to provide bonuses for good performance, recognizing that some budgets grow due to expanded services or demand, while others shrink due to targeted cuts to non-essential spending, or just lower demand.

College Boards and the Presidents need to change the core management philosophy to one where good fiscal management is rewarded. Schools such as VCU could also attain significant savings through the increased use of adjunct (part-time) faculty and cutting nonsense programs. Programs that I would axe are all of the hyphenated American programs, such as African American Studies, Women's studies and Gay studies, since these topics could be incorporated into other Social Science curricula, without compromising academic integrity. I would also ax Homeland Security studies and other duplicative programs or those who feed our growing police state and what I refer to as the, "Watcher Class." Other people may propose other choices for cuts, but I think it is clear, that at VCU, there are plenty of programs that are frivolous or are duplicated by other schools in this region.

On a broader scale: If we could make education free and make the sharing of information also free, our society would make quantum leaps forward, in just a few years.

JTB:
Gov. Gilmore did the first and only Blue Ribbon Commission reviewing all Higher Ed. in VA. The Commissions cuts were not arbitrary, but recommended by the commission.

The Governor should be commended #1 for showing leadership in this area, and #2 for placing a wake up call to Higher Ed. in VA.

I agree with your incentives to proven managers, and the use it or lose it attitude in Govt. agencies.

Unfortunately any effort to lower costs is labeled a 'cut', and God Knows the children will go stupid and hungry if we were to reform Higher Ed in VA; and not provide the same Govt. handouts required by the Higher Ed community.

BTW, VCU is huge on adjunct faculty. Most of my teachers were adjunct, but whatever savings found there is just cost shifted over to administration to waste or hire more dumb cousins.

“There was no incentive for the Board to do anything about cost containment. Increased budget costs were just passed through to the students or the State was asked to pick-up the tab”

Unfortunately this is the attitude of many of those in government and includes centers of “Higher Learning” at times. There are no incentives to save money and I am sure we have heard of the “Spend it or lose it” accounting practices that also happen in government. I once lived in the Florida Keys and worked for a man who had been a Fire Captain of the Miami-Dade fire department. He told me of the warehouse that had to be built just to house the fire hose that Miami-Dade had bought with leftover budget money that was spent otherwise it would have been removed from the next years budget. A warehouse FULL of hose that was never needed nor would probably ever be used…

The education system is another environment that this attitude seems to take on another form but is still very familiar in the use of “Other” peoples money. While in the Keys I took several Marine Biology courses at the local community college for I was working on a Sportfishing boat and exposed to the marine environment. The day I registered I filled out the forms, provided my education transcript, and then went to pay for the tuition. I pulled out cash to pay and the poor girl, actually woman, was surprised and had to got to other people in the office to determine how to handle somebody paying in cash without student aid, scholarship, and \ or Pell grant. Had numerous people tell me that I was eligible for grants and financial aid, scholarships and the likes. Same deal when I went to pay for my books for the class and did not use any “financial” programs…

Gov Gilmore started in the right direction and we need to get a man like this in office to look after our tax money and the likes…

Exactly RightSide:
Unfortunately part of Student Aid comes in the form of student loans, that of course need to be paid back. I have always figured that as a drag on the economy, because a $200 dollar a month student loan is close to a car payment.

Sure a bank likes the interest, and that adds to the economy, but getting citizens out of college with less debt is an interesting concept, so they can do crazy things like afford health care, buy homes, raise children etc.