Kirwan pushes USM in the right direction

As the University System of Maryland’s chancellor, he oversees 11 public institutions.

Kirwan, 69, received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky and master’s and doctoratal degrees from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Q You are approaching your fifth year as chancellor of the University System of Maryland. What has been your most important accomplishment?

A What’s happened over the past five or so years is a greater recognition on the part of our elected officials and business leaders of the role and importance of higher education.

I think what I and others have been doing is talking about Maryland’s success ... and Maryland’s potential to be a leader.

When I compare the past five years to 1988, when I became president at College Park, there wasn’t that general appreciation of higher education or an understanding that it is essential in building a strong economic future and a high quality of life.

Q What has been your biggest challenge?

A When I came back to Maryland as the chancellor, we were facing severe budget challenges, and our institutions suffered greatly from the cuts, which resulted in increases in tuition — more than we wanted to see.

The seeds of difficulty were sown at that time, and it sort of stopped the momentum.

The rise in tuition put obstacles in front of potential students.Fortunately, about halfway through the [Gov. Robert] Ehrlich administration, the economy started to rebound, we built a partnership, and the last two years of the governor’s administration — when things got righted — we got back on a very positive trajectory.

Q Are you in favor of this year’s state-mandated tuition freeze on USM schools?

A I am totally in favor of the tuition freeze this year.

We worked very effectively with the [Gov. Martin] O’Malley administration to help them understand the level of tuition we were thinking about, and they worked with us to provide additional general fund support. But I have some concerns about legislatively mandated tuition freezes.

Setting tuition is the responsibility of the Board of Regents. I understand what’s happening this year, but going forward, we need to work together to ensure that adequate general funding and moderate tuition is the norm.

Q Is the freeze setting up USM for a tuition increase?

A I think it will depend whether or not the state provides adequate general fund support.

If they continue, as they have over the past three years, we can keep tuition modest. If we don’t fix the fiscal deficit in the state, if there aren’t adequate general funds, there will be pressure to raise tuition.

It’s interesting that the funding for K-12 education is seen as an unquestioned responsibility. What we have to learn in this country is that the importance of a high school education a century ago is what a college education is now, and the obligation to fund education doesn’t stop at the 12th grade.

Q What is USM doing to control the rising cost of higher education?

A A few years ago, we began the Effectiveness and Efficiency Initiative.

In the last three years, we have taken about $60 million out of the base cost of running the system through efficiency.

We use shared services so that we don’t have to replicate certain administrative functions. We’ve streamlined the path to a degree by limiting the number of credits that are required — 120. We’ve asked our faculty to teach more courses to increase accessibility. We’ve done some very creative things within the system to hold down the growth in cost, and that has enabled the state investments to have maximum impact on quality, and it’s helped to keep tuition at a more affordable level.

Q Where do you stand on the Legislature’s decision to let the state’s illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition?

A I can understand why the notion of providing in-state tuition to people who haven’t come here through the normal legal means would be a source of irritation to some. On the other hand, many of these individuals have come through our high schools, and they are going to stay in our state.

So you have to ask yourself: Are we better off as a state if we make access to higher education easier for them? So often these young people come from low-income families, so tuition really matters.

For the long-terms goals of our state, we are better off if we allow these students to come at in-state rates, because it will only serve to increase our pool of highly educated workers, and that’s to our advantage.

Q Legislators lobbied this year to eliminate Towson University’s MBA program, arguing that it is a duplicate of Morgan State’s. What’s your position?

A My position is that we have a system that is working very well. It’s not broken.

And I think the record is pretty clear that since 1999, there have been 18 degree programs opposed by Morgan that have gone to MHEC [Maryland Higher Education Commission].

In 17 of those cases, MHEC has agreed with Morgan’s objection, and the program was not created. In only one instance, MHEC disagreed with Morgan, [saying] that you can duplicate a program if there is an educational reason and a larger societal need.

I find it very troubling that these disputes could go into the courts. I cannot believe the public wants our institutions spending their resources battling each other in the courts.

I don’t think there is any precedent for this, and this is not an area where Maryland wants to be a leader.

Q Is USM responding to Maryland’s work force needs?

A One of our great responsibilities is to work very closely with the entities in the state that analyze work force needs.

One of the things we did — and I think it shows an unusually high degree of cooperation among our community colleges and our independent and public four-year institutions — was a listening tour in partnership with the Workforce Investment Board.

We traveled around the state, brought business leaders together and asked, ‘What do you need that we are not delivering to you?’

We are now developing a strategy to respond to what we heard on this tour — the shortages in nursing, pharmacy and a number of the other health care areas.

We’ve also created education centers in underserved areas where there aren’t four-year universities.

Q As USM schools get more competitive, how important are community colleges?

A Community colleges are absolutely essential.

We are blessed in Maryland to have a very strong system of community colleges and an unusually high degree of collaboration with the University System of Maryland. We are constantly working on ways to improve our collaboration and the seamless transfer from community college to four-year institution.

If any student graduates from a two-year institution in Maryland, he or she is guaranteed admission to any four-year school in the system.

This really extends educational opportunities into every jurisdiction in our state.

University System of Maryland

By the numbers

» Bowie State University

Undergraduate: 4,020; Graduate: 1,299

» Coppin State University

Undergraduate: 3,451; Graduate: 855

» Frostburg State University

Undergraduate: 4,321; Graduate: 720

» Salisbury University

Undergraduate: 6,437; Graduate: 572

» Towson University

Undergraduate: 14,495; Graduate: 3,516

» University of Baltimore

Undergraduate: 2,098; Graduate: 2,797

» University of Maryland, Baltimore

Undergraduate: 859; Graduate: 4,667

» University of Baltimore, Baltimore County

Undergraduate: 9,406; Graduate: 2,224

» University of Maryland, College Park

Undergraduate: 25,442; Graduate: 9,927

» University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Undergraduate: 3,448; Graduate: 442

» University of Maryland University College

Undergraduate: 19,000 stateside, 34,448 worldwide;

Graduate: 8,429 stateside, 8,495 worldwide

» There are 404,272 alumni from USM’s 11 institutions now living in Maryland.

Source: University System of Maryland