Thursday evening, a group of local higher education leaders met in the Martha Street Culp Auditorium in a Tennessee Board of Regents’ mandated town hall meeting to discuss possible ways in which schools of the TBR system could save money in light of the current Tennessee budget crisis.
Members of the panel were ETSU President Paul Stanton; Jack Campbell, president of Walters State Community College; Dr. Bill Locke, president of Northeast State Technical Community College; Jerry Patten, director of the Tennessee Technology Center at Elizabethton; Lynn Elkins, director of the Tennessee Technology Center at Morristown; and TBR member James King, vice-chancellor for the Tennessee Technology Centers.
The TBR system is made up of six universities, 13 community colleges and 26 technology centers.
The system, which services 180,000 students each year, is the sixth largest such system in the nation and is present in 90 of Tennessee’s 95 counties.
One of the suggestions for cutting expenditures that the TBR is considering is possibly lowering the number of required credit hours to receive a baccalaureate degree.
This idea raised concern from members of the panel as well as those in attendance.
“My concern will be that the TBR will set a mandate that will infringe upon the individual universities’ ability to meet the accreditation of the programs,” said ETSU graduate student David Lane, noting the fact that many programs have accreditation requirements they have to meet outside the university.
While the idea of lowering degree requirements in order to improve graduation requirements may seem appealing in some areas, the effects on the quality of education far out weigh the benefits.
Currently, Tennessee is 41st in the nation in the percentage of adults who hold a baccalaureate degree and is also behind the regional average.
Nationally, 20.3 percent of adults hold a baccalaureate degree. That number drops to 18 percent in the Southeast and falls even further to 16 percent for the state of Tennessee.
The effects of this deficit of education effect the area’s economy as well.
“Employers don’t want to come into an area without and educated work force,” said Dan Emmel, director of the Office of Career Development and Internship Services.
Elkins added to Emmel’s statement by saying “Not a single industry is looking to come to Tennessee because of our work force.
“The income gap between the high and the low is going to broaden and get worse.”
Another possibility to cut costs is for TBR schools to form partnerships with other area TBR schools in order to share resources. Currently, the university already has such a partnership in place with Norteast State Technical Community College and Walters State Community College.
“When the state looks at ways to save money, we’re already doing most of this,” said Locke. “We can’t save more money.”
Campbell agreed saying, “They (the TBR) keep expecting us to do more and more with less and less.”
The TBR is also looking at the possibility of placing a cap on enrollment.
This also disturbed panel members who pointed out that doing so would only take away students and would make the funding problem even worse.
The panel also pointed out that the schools in the TBR already practice many of these methods of cutting expenditures, and feel that the only way for the TBR to be better funded is for the Tennessee State Legislature to make a better commitment to higher education in the state.
“Can you sustain quality without extra money? I don’t think so,” Campbell said. “Efficiency doesn’t always mean quality.”
Stanton noted that in recent years, the schools have become more and more dependent on student fees to make up the funding gap.
Locke feared that the TBR would impose restrictions that would affect how the schools run. “When money is tight, we need flexibility to run our institutions,” he said.
Stanton agreed adding, “It’s hard to get our people where they need to be without the money to do it.”
The fear of the financial problems compiling and not being solved was addressed by Campbell. “Over the years with less funding, these problems just continue to compound and it’s going to get ugly.”
One of Stanton’s main concerns is that the TBR really consider their actions before they take them.
“We really need to have some judicious thought on the situation,” he said. “Let’s do it right if we’re going to make changes.

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