Should UG become a private institution?

Mar 05, 2015 Editorial

A vice president at Washington State University with a background in business and academia, and whose portfolio included public-private partnerships, was frequently asked why higher-education institutions do not simply become private schools? Isn’t higher education today more of a private than public good anyway? No, it is not.
It is true that the rewards of college go to the degree-holder, including successful careers, higher incomes and more stable lives. Not to be overlooked, however, is the greater public good generated by college graduates who tend to be civically engaged, philanthropic and entrepreneurial, creating opportunities and jobs.
They give back to their communities and their schools. In the United States, Washington State University and the University of Washington are among more than 40 universities that have successfully waged billion-dollar fundraising campaigns.
Guyana is not so financially sound with the result that the university often does not even have money to properly pay its staff.
Private support has an impact, and has done much good in public higher education. But privatization through student-assessed fees for campus amenities, outsourcing of bookstore, food and other campus services, as well as the revenue that has come from certain external sources have caught the attention of many.
Coupled with the broader national trend of privatization of almost everything, it’s not much of a leap to ask the local universities to think of living off private support.
Such talk of privatization of public higher education could not come at a worse time. Wage and education gaps in this country are at historic proportions. Do we not feel a collective responsibility for keeping our university accessible and affordable for the next generation?
Public higher education has seen tough times before. In the United States, adversity was the parent of tough times during 1862 when Abraham Lincoln and the federal government created a new kind of public research university through the Morrill Act. Using the only asset they had, Congress granted land to the states to finance this very public experiment to provide economic support and ultimately opportunity for their citizens.
Looking back, the establishment of these universities literally changed the world. These new engines of research and scholarship produced the people and ideas that powered the economy through progress in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, health and technology. Broad accessibility and public accountability were key to this success.
Today, there is not a U.S. hub of innovation and development that is not anchored by a public research university. Guyana has one university but there is an annex that funds research into the use of many things, including waste oil, used tyres and plastic. That is the Institute of Applied Science and Technology.
And, the best partnership has private and public support aligned. The growing amount of private support seems more of an endorsement of its very explicit public mission. These are grateful supporters who are voting with their checkbooks to leverage and serve the whole state — its people, communities, businesses and challenges.
Private support is able to take programmatic risks, support targeted students and add a level of quality that we should not expect from the public. But it cannot replace the dollars from public funding or the powerful voice of collective ownership public dollars convey.
Some universities have maintained their innovative frontier spirit, and celebrate sons and daughters who have done well. The University of Guyana recently attempted to do the same when it observed its 50th anniversary.
In turn, many of those who have passed through its doors have demonstrated their gratitude and have shown the world how to give back, providing private support for very public problems. As unfashionable as it may seem, rather than seeing state support and politics as problems, one should see them as a necessary part of keeping the public’s stake in public higher education. Let’s help define and expect the public purpose of our university — private and public support will follow.

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