Office of the Chancellor > Campus Stragetic Planning > The Quality for Colorado Plan

Strengthening the Flagship
Reprinted from the Rocky Mountain News (September 6, 2001)

Officials at the University of Colorado want to make a deal: Let them raise the price of an education and they'll produce a better product.

Let them raise tuition until it's in line with flagship public universities in states from coast to coast, who are members of the prestigious Association of American Universities, and in return CU will trim enrollment so the Boulder campus isn't bursting at the seams, upgrade student quality, enhance the academic experience, and attract a greater number of eminent scholars.

The details haven't all been worked out yet—and you can quarrel with some of those that have been released—but we think the general blueprint is worth embracing. The University of Colorado at Boulder has a unique mission in this state—it is the premier public research university—and that mission should be reinforced. That means upgrading faculty and students, which in turn will require more resources.

Let's deal with the students first, since they are sometimes overlooked as a key to building an academic reputation. Although CU already does have a relatively restrictive admissions policy, up to 20 percent of those offered admission can fall below state-set general academic requirements. Because a larger share of those offered admission through this so-called window actually accept, 25 percent of freshmen have sub-par credentials. That's too large a percentage for a supposedly elite school, and CU will be able to reduce it to 15-20 percent under the proposed plan.

To attract more of the state's elite students, CU wants to create a more attractive environment for them, in part by hiring a greater number of top scholars. The tradeoff would be higher tuition and more state aid.

Indeed, the university has proposed a fundamental shift in how it's funded, from a model that depends on increasing enrollment and toward a model that emphasizes improving quality. The state currently adjusts an institution's per-student funding each year for inflation, but that simply keeps up with rising costs. The only way CU can bring in more state money is to admit more students.

But in Boulder, where last year's freshman class of 5,090 stretched facilities to the limit, that is no longer an attractive option.

Instead, CU hopes the Colorado Commission on Higher Education will approve a block-grant funding model, which would increase the university's base funding each year by inflation plus 1 percent, without any adjustment for changes in enrollment.

This year, Boulder has 4,950 freshmen. It would like to stabilize first-year enrollment at from 4,600 to 4,900, though with increases in the number of graduate students and expanded opportunities for students to transfer from community colleges.

For in-state tuition, CU-Boulder currently ranks 27th out of 31 public universities in the Association of American Universities, about $1,200 below the average. CU proposes to add $300 a year to tuition for each of the next four years. That's admittedly a lot, and is acceptable only because approximately 30 percent of the increased revenues would be dedicated to financial aid. Half of the revenue would be used to recruit and retain faculty, especially in areas where CU is or could be recognized for high distinction, and 20 percent would go toward special programs for undergraduates.

Nobody rushes to embrace price increases, but Chancellor Richard Byyny says that students and parents he's talked to are at least willing to consider the benefits of getting new programs under way sooner, while they are still on campus.

CU officials made their first presentation to the higher education commission last week. Though a formal vote is not likely before October, we hope the commission will support the university's general goals as it refines the details of its proposal.