“Believe me, we are very concerned,” said Charles Cook, who is the vice chancellor for Houston Community College, in a recent chron.com article. “The focus is shifting. It’s not only how do we get students in the door, but how do we ensure that they succeed?”

In conducting the study, researchers only considered those full-time students who were enrolled in college for the first time. The researchers then considered the state and local tax appropriations that went toward those students as well as the amount of state and financial aid those students received. Some specific Texas colleges and the costs they incurred during the 2009-09 academic year toward educating students who later dropped out were as follows:

• Houston Community College – $4.1 million
• Lone Star College – $3.8 million
• San Jacinto College – $3.6 million

According to Mark Schneider, who is the president of the American Institute for Research, which is the institute that conducted the study, the study was not meant to criticize community colleges. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that they have a low success rate. For example, approximately 12 percent of Texas community college students earn their degrees within three years and about one-third earn their degrees within six years. About half of those who attend four-year universities, on the other hand, earn a degree within a six year period. Yet, due to the relatively low cost of attending a community college, these institutions have largely avoided the increasing amount of scrutiny that higher education has faced over the last few years.

“We have to pay attention,” said Schneider. “It’s too expensive not to.”

While community college officials acknowledge that they have poor graduation rates, they are also concerned by their rapidly-increasing enrollment as well as the level of education among the students who enroll. Not only are many students choosing to enroll in community colleges in order to save money as compared to a four-year university or college, but community colleges are also training displaced workers as well as non-English speakers and students who are in need of a great deal of remediation.

“But the schools accept these students,” said Schneider. “They have to do better with the students they have.”

To help address their poor graduation rates, community college officials are looking at many possible approaches. One step has been to encourage faculty members to reach out to students who miss class or who do not participate in class discussions. Some are also requiring students to maintain a certain grade point average in order to participate in club sports, while others are making more of an effort to work with students on goal-setting and developing strategies for achieving those goals.

“It’s almost like practicing preventative medicine,” said Donetta Goodall, who is the vice chancellor at Lone Star College. “When they first come into college, we start talking about their goals.”

Since Texas community colleges practice an open admissions policy, anyone with a high school diploma or GED who is interested in pursuing a higher education is accepted into the schools. Officials report that many of the students are not prepared to complete college level work and, therefore, are placed in remedial classes. Since many students become frustrated by taking classes that do not count toward their degree programs, many community colleges are now offering shorter-term classes that make it possible for students to begin their college classes more quickly. Yet others are offering summer sessions to help prepare students for placement tests, which may make it possible for them to completely skip over remedial classes.

Fisher, who is a white student, claims she was denied admission to the University of Texas because of her race. After suing in Federal District Court, Judge Sam Sparks attempted to use a 2003 Supreme Court decision to help him rule on the case. The decision, which allows schools to use racial preferences in higher education, left him baffled regarding how the decision could be applied to Fisher’s case. According to the decision, which followed the Grutter v. Bollinger case in 2003, made it possible for public universities to sort people according to race. As such, Judge Sparks ultimately ruled that the University of Texas had the right to take Fisher’s race into account.

Legal experts who have analyzed Fisher’s case believe the Supreme Court is likely to hear the case and to make a decision on it by June. Given the changes that have taken place to Supreme Court membership since 2003, it is likely that the Supreme Court will cut back on or even eliminate the use of race in admissions decisions. As a result, some are concerned that universities will start admitting more white and Asian students and fewer black and Hispanic students.

When the Grutter v. Bollinger case was heard in 2003, it was decided with just a 5-to-4 vote. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was the author of the majority decision, retired in 2005. She was then replaced by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who has a record of voting with the more conservative justices when it comes to decisions regarding racial classifications. Chief Justice John G. Roberts has also expressed criticism to programs that classify people according to race.

“Racial balancing is not transformed from ‘patently unconstitutional’ to a compelling state interest simply by relabeling it ‘racial diversity,’” Roberts wrote in a 2007 decision that limited the use of race in order to integrate races in public schools.

Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Alito have agreed with this assertion. While Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has been less categorical, he has never voted to uphold an affirmative action program in the past.
“There thus seem five votes – Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito – to overrule Grutter and hold that affirmative action programs are unconstitutional,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, who is the dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine, is quoted as saying in a recent New York Times article.

Despite the perceived unconstitutionality of affirmative action, supporters of these policies maintain that they have helped improve the education of all students involved.

“There is no longer any doubt as to the educational benefits of racially diverse students learning together and from each other,” said John A. Payton, who is the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

While Payton maintains that studies have shown that diverse campuses are more effective at educating students of all races and backgrounds, others disagree. Peter Wood, who is an anthropologist as well as the author of “Diversity: The Invention of a Concept,” claims that racial diversity is problematic in education.

“The part of diversity that matters to me and a lot of academics is the intellectual diversity of the classroom,” said Wood. “The pursuit of a genuine variety of opinions that are well thought through and well grounded is essential. But that has an off-and-on, hit-or-miss connection with ethnic and racial diversity.”

Through the Grutter decision, admissions officials were granted the ability to admit a “critical mass” of minority students. According to a brief filed in Fisher’s case by the Asian American Legal Foundation, however, Texas took this decision too far by trying “to make the racial composition of its student body mirror the racial composition of the state of Texas.” As a result, Asian students also found themselves discriminated against when applying to Texas colleges and universities. Representatives from the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, on the other hand, have stated that Asian students have benefited from being exposed to a more diverse body of students.

While the Grutter case allowed states to take race into account when making admissions decisions, it did not require race to be a factor. According to Fisher’s case, the murkiness of the system used by Texas colleges and universities regarding their admissions practices is also questionable. While those students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school are automatically admitted, Fisher’s lawyers maintain that the remaining spots are largely determined by race. If her case is heard by the Supreme Court, however, this practice may soon be changing dramatically.

According to a recent New York Times article, four of the state’s public university systems are headed by individuals who once held state office. Kenneth Starr, who is the head of the private Baylor University in Waco, was one of the lawyers to work on the high-profile case that resulted in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Most recently, John Sharp was named chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. Sharp has served on the state’s House and Senate as well as on its Railroad Commission. Other Texas chancellors with no background in academia:

• Lee Jackson, chancellor at the University of North Texas System, served as a Dallas County judge and in the Texas House
• Brian McCall, chancellor at the Texas State University System, served in the Texas House (the man he replaced, Charles Matthews, was the former mayor of Garland as well as the railroad commissioner)
• Kent Hance, chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, served in the Texas Legislature and Congress as well as on the Railroad Commission (the man he replaced, John Montford, was a district attorney as well as a state senator)

While the University of Houston hasn’t gone that route this time, former Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby Jr. served as the chancellor from 1995 to 1997. So, for those who are considering a career in the public university system in Texas, it appears it may be best to pursue an advanced degree and to run for office before applying for the job. In fact, it appears as if politicians are regularly placed at the top of the list. When the Texas State University System was looking for a new chancellor in 2010, it had a pool of 40 applicants to choose from. While only two of them were from politics, they both made the short list and one was ultimately hired.

“What we did was hire 20 years of relationships,” said Charles Amato, who is the chairman of the Board of Regents.

“While many other institutions across the state are starting to see enrollments level out, Northeast Texas Community College continues to grow at a rapid rate,” said President Brad Johnson, in a recent news-journal.com article. “This is particularly interesting because our region has not seen the population growth that much of the state has.”

Since 2008, Northeast Community College has seen a student enrollment increase of about 40 percent. Administrators believe this is largely due to the introduction of dual credit high school programs, which have helped increase student appreciation for pursuing a higher education. The fact that the school is relatively inexpensive has also been a driving force. For in-district students, the rate is just $86 per credit hour. Out-of-district students pay $127 per credit hour, while out-of-state students pay $337 per credit hour.

“Times are still hard. More and more families are looking to Northeast Texas Community College as a quality, sensible alternative for the first two years of university study,” said Johnson. “In response to this, (the college) is expanding to offer a more broad collegiate experience.”

In response to student growth, the school has started to construct a new 112-bed apartment-style housing unit as well as a fitness center. The new facilities are expected to be completed this fall.

“We now have student housing that any college or university would be proud to offer,” said Johnson. “We have doubled the number of students who live on our campus this semester.”

The school is also working toward increasing the availability of online classes. Known as the Regional Training Academy, this part of the college will officially launch on October 7.

“We recognize that much of this rapid growth is driven by real needs on the part of our students and their families,” said Johnson. “We are redoubling our commitment to provide high quality degrees to motivated students.”

In compiling its list of the top 25 undergraduate and top 25 graduate programs in the United States, the Princeton Review considered more than 2,000 schools. Factors that were taken into consideration included academics and requirements, students and faculty and outside factors such as clubs, partnerships and mentors. The top 25 list of undergraduate programs included three Texas universities. These were:

• University of Houston – Wollff Center for Entrepreneurship in Houston – ranked #1
• Baylor University in Waco, Texas – ranked #3
• Texas Christian University – Neely Entrepreneurship Program in Fort Worth, Texas – ranked #21

The University of Houston program, which has an enrollment of more than 2,100 students, is unique in that 100 percent of the faculty members are entrepreneurs. Furthermore, 89 percent of its graduates are still in business. The school also offers the low in-state tuition of $6,270 and the annual amount awarded in business competitions at the school is $100,000. The Princeton Review reports that the program at the University of Houston “has developed computer models that allows students to transfer ideas through multiple levels of research, which ultimately results in a determination of the viability of the ideas and a realistic business plan.”

With a tuition of $28,000 per year, Baylor University is far more costly than the University of Houston. It does have much smaller numbers, however, with just 270 students. Also, the school has $240,000 available to go toward scholarships. Texas Christian University is also more costly to attend, with an annual tuition of $32,400. The school offers 40 mentorship programs with over $615,000 in scholarship money available to its 1,550 students.

Two Texas graduate programs were included in the list of the top 25 graduate schools. These included:

• University of Texas at Austin – Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship – ranked #8
• Rice University – Jones Graduate School of Business, Houston, Texas – ranked #9

Residents of Texas can expect to pay $30,000 per year when attending University of Texas at Austin, while out-of-state students pay $45,000. The school also features 14 clubs and organizations for students to join. 50 percent of the school’s graduates are still in business. For those who are interested in attending Rice University, tuition is quite a bit higher when compared to the in-state rate at the University of Texas at Austin. Here, tuition is $42,000 for all of the 400 students who attend the school. $850,000 in scholarships is available, however, as is $1,311,150 in business plan funds. Furthermore, 100 percent of the faculty members are entrepreneurs and 100 percent of graduates are still in business.

While the Florida college administrators have many concerns regarding the Texas plan, their primary concern is that the plan promotes an accountability system that is similar to the one being put to use at the K-12 level. They are further concerned by the fact that Scott has not taken the time to meet with them in order to address their concerns.

“He candidly asked, and we have responded,” said Katherine Johnson, who is the president of Pasco Hernando Community College as well as the head of the College Council of Presidents, in a recent staugustine.com article. “We are certainly hoping to have an audience with him.”

According to Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson, the college presidents will enjoy a “dialogue” with the governor as they move forward. He went on to say that “no major decisions” have been made yet regarding potential changes to Florida’s higher education system. Under the Texas plan, state funding is tied to university performance and tenure is awarded according to teacher performance as well as on the grades and classes that are taught. With the way the system is set up, those professors who do more teaching than research are more fully awarded. For this reason, colleges will be impacted slightly less than universities, which typically place a greater amount of emphasis on research.

“We don’t have a research function, by and large,” said Joe Pickens, who is the president of St. Johns River State College in Palatka. “Our faculty teach. That is what they do.”

According to State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan, some of the suggested reforms do have merit, but more discussion is needed among university presidents.

“We should be looking at quality,” said Brogan, who went on to say that he does support “accountability-based funding.”
Critics of the plan, however, feel that universities and colleges are cooperating with Scott simply because they do not feel they have any other choice. After all, the governor and the Legislature have a considerable amount of control over the state’s budget. This is particularly true when it comes to providing funding for classroom construction projects.

Over the past decade, Florida’s 29 public colleges have already undergone some major changes. In addition to offering two-year associate degrees, most also offer four-year bachelor’s degrees. As such, many have changed their names from community colleges to either state colleges or something that simply has the word “college” in the title.

According to a recent TexasTribune.org article, 48 percent of students attending a Texas community college need some help to get them ready to take on their college classes. In the area of math, 38 percent of those who are enrolled in a community college do not meet the readiness standard. These students are typically placed in remedial classes until they have achieved a certain standard. For many students, these added classes end up becoming an obstacle that prevents them from completing their degree programs.

“There’s been research done that essentially says remediation doesn’t work,” said Stan Jones, who is the president of Complete College America.

In an effort to address this concern, the grant provided by Complete College America will help pay for a program modeled after one implemented by Selina Vasquez Mireles. In 2008, Dr. Mireles, who is a professor at Texas State University, piloted a program that allowed students to complete their remedial courses while also completing their credit-bearing courses. By not requiring students to take the course as a prerequisite, students were able to work toward earning their degrees more quickly. The Complete College America grant will help 15 community colleges throughout the state of Texas take the same approach toward learning.

With a recent Georgetown University study finding that 56 percent of jobs in Texas will require a college degree by 2018, finding a way to help more students earn their degrees is essential. Out of growing concerns about the state’s ability to meet these needs, state leaders are increasingly looking toward programs such as the Complete College America initiative to help close learning gaps. Yet, due to budget issues, the state cannot afford to help fund these initiatives.

“We are in critical need of it right now because some of the programs that were helping us close the gaps and deal with development education have been cut,” said Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin.

Texas was one of only 10 states to receive the Complete College America grant, though a total of 33 states applied. Each state will receive $1 million from the fund, all of which was given to the group by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After having seen significant cuts to their budgets, however, many of the schools feel as if the money will only go toward helping to make them whole again.

According to educators, administrators and students, many factors are affecting minority students and their ability to enroll in college. For many, the cost of attending college is a barrier, but the fact that many are first generation college students is another contributing factor. For this reason, many students rely on an organization known as PEGASUS to assist with successful completion of college.

“They help answer questions…[and they] helped me utilize different resources on campus, and they offer scholarships,” said Tony Udah, who is a Texas Tech Senior, when describing PEGASUS to myfoxlubbock.com.

With the help of programs such as PEGASUS, Texas Tech is taking steps toward closing achievement gpas and recruiting more students from large urban areas.

“Given our distance from major metropolitan areas, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, etc., the fact that those numbers are growing at Texas Tech in a significant way, I think underscores the favorable programs at Tech that are attracting those students to come here,” said Juan Munoz, who is the Vice President of Institutional Diversity at Texas Tech.

Still, programs such as PEGASUS are not able to close all of the gaps. For this reason, Munoz is calling for the state to take more action toward recruiting and graduating underrepresented groups.

“These are growing populations and to the extent that they become incorporated into higher education is of course not beneficial for those students individually but for the state and for the country,” said Munoz.

The Higher Education Coordinating Board is planning to provide a detailed report of its findings today.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, the new law has made the vaccination mandatory among all first-time and transfer students below the age of 30. Even those who do not live on campus will need to be in compliance with the new law, which goes into effect in January. While college officials are not denying the importance of obtaining the vaccination, finding a way to ensure all students are in compliance by the due date has been a struggle. Furthermore, college officials are trying to determine how they will handle those students who do not obtain the vaccination and who do not have a religious or medical excuse for not being vaccinated.

“The administrative record-keeping and follow-up by people that is going to be required for those students who don’t comply – and there will be students who don’t comply – is very expensive,” said Wanda Mercer, who is the associate vice chancellor for student affairs for the University of Texas system, in a recent fairwarning.org article.

While the new law has received a great deal of support, not everyone approves of the change. In fact, eighteen members of the Texas House of Representatives opposed the measure.

“I’m for freedom,” said Republican David Simpson of Longview. “I’m not for the government dictating to us what we must do with our bodies.”

Given the serious consequences associated with the disease, however, many feel it is essential to get college students vaccinated. Each year, 1,500 new cases of bacterial meningitis are diagnosed. Approximately 10 percent of these cases are fatal. Furthermore, as many as 10 to 15 percent of those who contract the disease suffer from permanent neurological defects, including speech disorders, deafness, mental retardation, loss of limbs and paralysis. Symptoms of the disease, which is spread through sneezing, coughing, kissing and sharing eating and drinking utensils, generally appear suddenly with death following in a matter of hours.

While children are vaccinated against bacterial meningitis as pre-teens, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the vaccination wears off. As a result, young adults between the ages of 17 and 21 are vulnerable to the disease. For this reason, the CDC recommends that all college students be vaccinated for the disease.

“Texas Tech has one of the lowest in-state and out-of-state tuitions in the country, making it a great value nationally,” said Guy Bailey, who is the president of Texas Tech, in a recent press release. “We have an outstanding, talented faculty that is dedicated to our mission of producing the very best graduates and securing our positive impact on society.”

According to the Fiske Guide to Colleges, Texas Tech has the lowest administrative cost of all of the emerging research universities in Texas in both fiscal year 2009 and 2010. These include the University of North Texas, the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Dallas. Of the seven emerging research institutions in the state, Texas A&M and the University of Texas ranked eighth in instructional costs per student credit hour. Bailey contends the lower costs are largely due to lower administrative costs.

All of the schools included within the Fiske Guide to Colleges are considered inexpensive or moderately priced, though most of the schools also boast a four- or five-star academic rating. More than 300 schools are highlighted within the guide, which has been published every year since 1982. The guide includes what it considers to be the “best and most interesting” colleges and universities in the United States as well as in Canada and Great Britain.