University Times

HARRISBURG — As part of his proposed state budget for next year, Gov. Ridge is recommending that the state divide $6 million among Pennsylvania's public and private universities where at least 40 percent of undergraduates finish their bachelor's degrees in four years.

But currently, only private schools such as Carnegie Mellon (which graduates 65 percent of its students in four years) and Chatham College (48 percent) would qualify. None of the state's public or state-related universities meets the 40 percent requirement.

Among the four state-related schools, Pitt's four-year graduation rate (33 percent, including all five campuses) is the highest, followed by Lincoln University (31 percent), Penn State (30 percent for all campuses) and Temple (16 percent), according to campus presidents.

Four-year graduation rates among the 14 state-owned universities that comprise the State System of Higher Education range from 36 percent at Bloomsburg and Millersville to 7 percent at Cheyney.

At a Feb. 15 budget hearing, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg told the state Senate appropriations committee that the governor's plan — while "conceptually, an attractive one" — likely wouldn't change the way Pitt does business.

That's because the University already has made timely graduation a high priority, he said.

In the mid-1990s, Nordenberg said, Pitt began taking "an aggressive look" at student complaints that their graduations were delayed because they couldn't get needed classes. Among other things, the University has been:

* Regularly surveying students before and immediately after graduation, seeking feedback about course offerings and other academic matters.

* Counseling students as early as their freshman years about linking academics to their career and life goals. "When they have more of a sense of direction, it positions them to more effectively make use of their time" and avoid putting off a slew of required courses until late in their undergraduate careers, the chancellor said.

* Communicating regularly with parents about students' academic progress. As Pitt began looking into individual student complaints about insufficient course offerings, the University found in some cases that, "This is the story that was given mom and dad, but it wasn't necessarily the kind of thing that played out when you looked at the facts," Nordenberg said.

State officials argue that public universities have a special responsibility to graduate students within the traditional four years, getting them into the job market expeditiously and owing as little money as possible. (The average Pitt bachelor's degree student graduates with a debt of $15,000, Nordenberg said.) But at this week's Senate appropriations hearings, Nordenberg and leaders of Penn-sylvania's other public universities maintained that Ridge's plan would amount to a perk for private schools, and that the incentive is based on outdated notions about higher education.

"I think the [four-year graduation] numbers that you see coming out of Pitt and other institutions these days reflect what is a changed educational environment, where more and more students — particularly at an urban university like ours — take time out to work because of economic need. Or, they take time out to pursue an internship or a job opportunity that they think will add to their development," Nordenberg told the committee.

In contrast to private schools, public universities tend to enroll large numbers of nontraditional students (30 percent of Pitt undergraduates are aged 23 or older) and disadvantaged students who are more likely to leave school temporarily to earn money, the chancellor said.

In briefing the University Senate's budget policies committee (BPC) about Ridge's proposal last week, Pitt Commonwealth Relations Director Ann Dykstra said: "A single mother who's 37 and trying to put herself through school — a four-year graduation requirement for her is meaningless, almost. It's punitive."

Dykstra said she's heard stories of full-time Pitt undergrads taking fewer credits per term in order to keep their grade averages up and thereby qualify for the graduate or professional school of their choice.

The five-year graduation rate for Pitt undergraduates is 52 percent; after six years, it's 62 percent, Dykstra pointed out.

With a total amount of $6 million, the four-year graduation incentive would bring Pitt, at most, several hundred thousand dollars. While noting that "any dollars are nice," Dykstra said that failing to qualify for the plan might cost the University more in terms of its image with the public and state lawmakers than it would financially.

BPC member Tom Anderson suggested that Pitt's graduation rates can be attributed, in part, to southwestern Penn-sylvania's working class heritage.

"For many of our students," Anderson said, "there doesn't seem to be a strong family tradition of higher education. Their parents say, 'Fine, go to college. I hope you can earn your way through.' And that's very difficult. I've noticed many students in my department [geology and planetary science] who are really under a lot of economic pressure.

— Bruce Steele