With state budgets under pressure from the economic downturn and widespread public anxiety about whether college is accessible to all qualified students, a new report released today points to the need for policymakers, public higher education leadership, and faculty to join together to look for ways to keep public higher education costs under control.

The new report, entitled "Campus Commons? What Faculty, Financial Officers and Others Think about Controlling College Costs," outlines differing perspectives on the cost containment challenges facing higher education.

Broad concern, but different starting points
Concern about rising costs and their impact on students and communities is widespread among higher education leadership, faculty, and the public at large, according to the "Campus Commons?" report, as it is among leaders in government and business. But the report identifies some potentially troublesome communications gaps between the views of financial officers charged with making ends meet and faculty whose focus is on academic issues and the classroom. The two groups approach the problem of controlling college costs from very different angles.

College costs escalating and out of reach for many
The "Campus Commons?" report comes against a backdrop of calls from a broad array of elected officials and business leaders to dramatically increase the number of Americans students earning postsecondary degrees and credentials in the coming decade. At the same time, tuition at public higher education institutions has been rising faster than the rate of inflation and faster than the income levels of middle-class and lower-income families, according to a recent 50-state review of college affordability conducted by the National Center on Public Policy and Higher Education.

The "Campus Commons?" report calls for broader public discussion about the future of higher education, and urges policymakers and institutions to bring faculty in the conversations sooner rather than later.
"Campus Commons?" includes:

• Observations from interviews with public higher education financial officers at the state and institution level
• Observations from focus groups with faculty at two- and four-year public higher education institutions
• A recap of the concerns and priorities of the major stakeholder groups, and a discussion of steps for enhancing dialogue
• An “inventory of cost-effectiveness ideas” presented as a discussion starter. Grouped in eight categories including “Improving college readiness,” and “Using incentives and models from the business world,” the inventory grew out of the Midwest Higher Education Compact Fourth Annual Policy Summit in Minneapolis in November, 2008, along with observations gathered in the "Campus Commons?" research.

The full "Campus Commons?" report is available at http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/campus-commons.

More information about Making Opportunity Affordable is available at http://www.makingopportunityaffordable.org.

"Difficult Dialogues, Rewarding Solutions," which addresses productivity in higher education, is Public Agenda's report from the 4th Annual Policy Summit of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact and is available at http://www.mhec.org/pdfs/0209difficultdialoguesrpt.pdf.

The Lumina Foundation for Education’s Making Opportunity Affordable initiative is a multi-year initiative focused on increasing productivity within U.S. higher education, particularly at two- and four-year public colleges and universities. The research was conducted by Public Agenda, the nonpartisan opinion research and citizen engagement organization.