01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, February 16, 2005

BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer

Somewhere along the way, colleges began paying more attention to style than to substance.

Flashy projects such as athletic stadiums and apartment-style dorms top the agenda while the core mission -- educating students at a reasonable price -- has been relegated to the back burner.

Heightened competition -- for better students, star professors, federal grant dollars and higher rankings in the influential U.S. News & World Report -- is the driving force behind this shift in focus.

But at what price, asks a study released today by the Futures Project at Brown University.

"These trends are converging to threaten the public mission of higher education," said Lara Couturier, coauthor of the study "Correcting Course: How We Can Restore the Ideals of Public Higher Education in a Market-Driven Era."

"We are on the verge here of going too far and not being able to rein in market forces. We want institutions to compete on the things that matter, like equal opportunity for quality higher education, not compete on athletic teams and fancy cafeterias."

Such bells and whistles may attract students and enhance an institution's reputation, which the $54-million Ryan Center has done for the University of Rhode Island and which Brown University's $500-million expansion should do for the state's only Ivy League institution. But the pricey projects also boost college costs, which are already beyond the reach of many working and middle-class families, the report finds.

The study examines another troubling trend: more colleges are using financial aid not as the way to help needy students, but as a tool to lure top students who are headed to college anyway.

"It's called tuition discounting, and it's a real departure from the access mission public universities have," Couturier said. If this continues, she warns, "the only people who will have access to higher education are the ones who can pay for it."

THE REPORT, which focuses on public universities, zeroes in on another problem: the failure of colleges to measure their success, particularly in the area of graduation rates. Too few students are graduating from colleges in Rhode Island -- in some cases fewer than half of students receive degrees.

"We need to ask tougher questions, like are we providing access to a high-quality educational experience that results in academic success?" Couturier asks. "Or are we providing access to an experience that might lead students into debt, but not to a degree?"

Also, because state support for public higher education is dwindling -- a decade ago, for example, the state paid for 28 percent of URI's budget; last year, the state's share fell to 19 percent -- public universities have been forced to look for money elsewhere. Tuition increases are the most common and expedient method to raise dollars, but state colleges have also aggressively worked to build their endowments and form partnerships with private companies on research projects and spinoff companies.

Just last year, Rhode Island lawmakers passed a bill making such public-private partnerships easier to establish, a move URI officials said would enhance research projects and draw millions of dollars to the university.

But partnerships also raise prickly issues. Who controls the project and who reaps the rewards? Are there enough safeguards in place to oversee the grants and projects?

"On face value, corporate sponsorship makes perfect sense," Couturier said. "But there is also evidence that it can lead to some biases."

However, states such as Rhode Island cannot be expected to give more money to higher education unless the economy becomes stronger, said Gary Sasse, executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, a business-backed economic policy group.

"Rhode Island won't have the financial resources to make the kind of investments promoted by this report unless we grow the economy," Sasse said. "And state colleges and universities play a key role in that."

Colleges face real economic pressures, and must perform a tough balancing act, Couturier acknowledged. Nevertheless, too often they sacrifice educational mission for marketing and money, she says.

"At the end of the day, universities are making strategic decisions about whether to ask a donor for money for a new sports arena or to fund scholarships for needy students."

RHODE ISLAND'S higher education officials acknowledge competition in the college market has intensified over the years, and has guided the direction of the state colleges in some key areas, particularly quality of student life. URI and RIC will start building new suite-style dormitories for upperclassmen later this year; URI also received approval to build a new cafeteria.

"Students have expectations, as do the residents of the state," said URI Provost Beverly Swan. "They want a university that offers a significant array of programs, and when students get here, they expect facilities, exercise rooms and Internet access."

At the same time, the state is committed to expanding access to its public colleges, providing need-based financial aid and boosting the graduation rates for all students, said Jack Warner, Rhode Island's commissioner for higher education.

"We can't wish away the business aspects of higher education," Warner said. "Higher education is a business." But, he says, it is also a service industry that operates in the public interest.

"The market assumes there is a private benefit to getting a college degree, and there is, of course. What is not discussed enough today is the public benefit of having numerous people with higher-education degrees -- and it's more than a public benefit. It's a public necessity."

Staff writer Jennifer D. Jordan can be reached at jjordan [at] projo.com