By Bob Ray Sanders
bobray@star-telegram.com
My parents had great hopes for me when I set out for college in the late 1960s. They also had great expectations.
Although I'm sure they had their worries and fears as well, by the time I left home to enroll at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), my mother and father were expecting at least two things: for me to do well in class (get good grades), and earn my bachelor's degree in four years.
You see, I didn't have loans, grants or scholarships. My folks were footing the bill for my college education, except for the little money I made during the summer and the pocket change I earned at poorly paid campus jobs.
Even though back then tuition per semester was less than the price of an average course textbook today, it was a sacrifice for my parents to pay for four years of school. So college was never a plaything for me, skipping class wasn't an option and not getting a degree "on time" was out of the question.
Today, there's much talk coming out of Austin about the number of students at four-year colleges who do not earn a degree in four years, and many have difficulty graduating in six years.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently released a study showing that only two state universities -- the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University -- graduated more than half their students in four years. Texas A&M had a 51 percent rate and UT Austin graduated 53 percent of their incoming freshmen.
The rates for graduation after six years go up considerably for several schools, but even then a significant number of students are not able to get a degree within that time frame.
The six-year graduation rate for UNT, for example, is 57.4 percent, and it's 50.7 percent for the University of Texas at Arlington, compared with 82.9 percent at UT Austin and 83.6 percent at A&M.
Part of the conversation among politicians and critics of the state's higher education system is that the low graduation rates not only signal failure but a waste of the state's limited funds. Some also suggest today's students are either lazy or enjoy delaying taking responsibility in the "real world."
But before we get too exercised over the raw numbers, and certainly before declaring failure on the part of our institutions or the young people who attend them, let us consider the state's declining role in education, as well as the growing demand and hardships of many of today's students.
First of all, the coordinating board's figures measure rates among "first-time, full-time" freshmen students at these four-year schools. Many colleges, like UTA, have great partnerships with community colleges whose students transfer to the university, usually with great success.
Last fall, UTA had 2,355 first-time, full-time freshmen but 4,308 transfer students enrolling. With President Barack Obama and others encouraging attendance at community colleges as a way of cutting higher education costs, as well as preparing students for other course work, the transfer student must not be discounted in this discussion.
As for the state, there is no doubt that Texas subsidized more of
my college education than it does for students today. In fact, just before the Legislature deregulated tuition in 2003, more than 42 percent of UTA's support came from the state.
Today, the state's share is about 21 percent of the total operating budget.
When the state cuts funding, including financial aid, more of those costs are shifted to the user -- the student. Three-fourths of the students at UTA say they are working at least one job while attending school, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college.
University officials say rather than focus on those first-time, full-time students, consider the increase in the number of degrees awarded. For example, UTA awarded 32 percent more undergraduate degrees in 2010-11 than in 2006-07 (5,103 and 3,861 respectively).
And consider that 75 percent of students earning degrees at UTA were not first-time, full-time freshmen at the university.
UTA has a goal to increase the four-year graduation rate through "University College," which provides more academic advising, tutoring and counseling. Last year, an official said, 74 percent of freshmen returned their sophomore year compared with 67 percent five years ago.
It's one thing for the state officials to focus on numbers, but I'd rather they do as UTA does and focus on the students.
Bob Ray Sanders' column appears Sundays and Wednesdays.817-390-7775Twitter: @BobRaySanders
Looking for comments?
