Texas colleges face painful choices

Higher ed officials seek legislative funds for special items

No university president wants to lay off dozens of faculty or cancel hundreds of classes — especially in his first year on the job.

But Texas Southern University’s new president, Austin Lane, realizes that if the state Senate’s proposal passes as written, he would have to do exactly that, as the plan calls for nearly $15 million in cuts to TSU.

“This is counterproductive to all of the things we’re trying to put in place to graduate students and fuel the Texas economy,” Lane said Monday in an interview.

Facing hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts proposed by the Senate and smaller spending reductions put forward by the House, public universities across the state are trying to shore up lawmakers’ support for their research activities, specialized cen-

ters and even basic operations.

The Senate’s proposal would eliminate about $700 million in “special items,” through which Texas universities finance research centers, academic programs and faculty salaries. The plan provides about $300 million for such special items statewide, dramatically lower than the roughly $1.1 billion that was approved during the last session.

“I don’t believe higher education can absorb the loss of this much funding for these projects without some significant consequences,” Sen. John Whitmire, a member of the Senate finance committee, said Monday.

These special items are just one portion of higher education funding in Texas. Formula funding, which is tied largely to enrollment, gives millions of dollars for university operations. But universities are accustomed to receiving millions of dollars in special-item funding that they say plays a crucial role in maintaining operations, especially for smaller campuses.

The proposed House budget, which lawmakers begin discussing this week, offers about $1 billion in special items. Under its proposal, energy research at the University of Houston, TSU’s pharmacy program and an academic advising center at Sam Houston State University receive more than 90 percent of what the universities requested.

Lane believes the Senate proposal is just a starting point for negotiations. Still, he worries about the effect of severe cuts on TSU’s goals, which include improving completion rates and graduating more students on time.

Lawmakers at a lengthy Senate finance committee hearing last month cited a tight budget as a reason for the cuts — a familiar refrain this year in Austin.

Clear Lake campus affected

The University of Houston at Clear Lake opened its doors to freshmen and sophomores for the first time in 2014, an important step in a long-planned expansion to serve more students southeast of the system’s flagship. Enrollment grew by about 500 students, and that spring, state lawmakers allocated $6.5 million to the university in a special item to finance the growth.

The Senate finance committee’s proposed budget eliminates funding for this special item, and the House’s proposal allocates $5.85 million over two years.

“If the item wasn’t funded, we would either have to severely limit the admission of freshmen or go back to being an upper-level university,” UHCL President William Staples said Monday.

Like other presidents and some lawmakers, he said he’s optimistic the final budget will find middle ground. “I think we’ll end up with special items — I don’t think they’re going to disappear.”

Still, Senate Finance Committee chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said at a hearing in January that there wasn’t much wiggle room in the budget. She urged university leaders to rank their requests.

“We’re going to have to look at every penny we’re spending,” she said.

Whitmire said Monday that the proposed reduction in the Senate proposal could devastate many programs.

“But the leadership seems to be intent on that amount of reduction,” he said.

Five medical school presidents told lawmakers that the proposed Senate budget would impede their mission and their ability to recruit top researchers, the Houston Democrat said.

Rep. John Zerwas, a Katy Republican leading the House’s appropriations committee, said the chamber is open to using the Rainy Day Fund for higher education special items as the state faces smaller revenues.

“The Senate’s working at a bottom-up point of view, and we’re working on it from a top-down point of view,” said Zerwas, who served last session as chair of the House’s higher education committee. “We’re going to do everything we can to minimize (cutting) any of those priorities that we’ve set.”

Nationwide problem

Proposed cuts to higher education spending in Texas are in no way unique as states across the country are working to rein in their budgets amid stagnant economic growth. University money has been on the chopping block in conversations nationwide.

In Missouri, Gov. Eric Greitens said the state would eliminate more than $80 million from university funding as part of $146 million in cuts. The University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University will each see multimillion-dollar cuts in a new law that Gov. Terry Branstad proposed.

And a Senate committee in Kansas approved $23 million in cuts to higher education this fiscal year as the state tries to reduce a $310 million deficit, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

Here in Texas, stress over special-item funding is just the latest tension over education funding and costs. Over the summer, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus asked all state agencies — including public universities — to reduce their budgets by 4 percent.

Bills introduced this session by Republicans and Democrats would limit public universities’ ability to raise tuition and fees. Lawmakers criticize universities for raising tuition — which has more than doubled at Texas’ fouryear universities since 2003 — but presidents say they need the revenue to finance ambitious research agendas and enrollment growth.

Presidents expect to return to Austin next week to again advocate for their university’s interests — this time, before the House’s appropriations committee.

TSU’s Lane said he plans to reiterate to House lawmakers the importance of maintaining special items in the budget.

“I’m hopeful we’re able to do that,” he said.