Another Great Dissolution? The Privatization of Public Universities and the Academic Library (original) (raw)

2005, The Journal of Academic Librarianship

State contributions to higher education budgets have been falling since the 1970s. Today, some universities receive less than ten percent of their budget from state allocations. As funding declines, some institutions are negotiating for deregulation from state oversight and are implementing strategic changes for enrollment, tuition, and fundraising. In 2005, the University of Colorado at Boulder received only seven percent of its total operating budget from state allocations. This article reviews the national trends towards privatization of higher education and how they are beginning to impact the University Libraries at the University of Colorado at Boulder. L ate in the 1530s, King Henry VIII, angry at the church and short of cash, dissolved England's monasteries. The land was sold; many buildings razed; and the furniture, art, and libraries dispersed. The popular image of this is the homeless monk wandering the English countryside, precious manuscripts on his back, traveling from hamlet to hamlet. However far from the truth that particular image is, Henry's privatization scheme was a political success. The gentry got the land, Henry got the money, and the French got attacked-all with no new taxes. That the Pope was apoplectic was simply a bonus. Of course, with nearly half a millennium's hindsight, we now recognize what a tragedy it was to sell off Tudor England's centers of education and scholarship. Several centuries later, after an equally difficult legislative battle, Governor Bill Owens signed the State of Colorado's 2004 budget. The state was in its deepest recession in decades and was burdened with a restrictive Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Constitutionally mandated to balance the budget, the general assembly had considered closing many of the state's parks, shutting down social services, and increasing tuition 40 percent at two of the state's universities. But fourth quarter tax revenues unexpectedly rose sharply, averting, or at least delaying, disaster. It was a fiscal miracle for which only a John Faustus dared wish, but still it was not enough. Ninety million dollars short, including an inexplicable mandate for a forty million dollar tax refund, the general assembly was desperate to cut budgets. Among voters, though, a 40 percent tuition increase was proving too unpopular, so the governor publicly distanced himself by promising to hold tuition increases to 1 percent. Reluctantly the general assembly agreed, but later in the term and without press releases, higher education budgets were slashed in committee. 1 Tuition would increase by only 1 percent, but state allocations to higher education would be reduced by 14 percent. 2 It was a political success. Parks remained open, unpleasant Medicaid cuts were dodged, tuition remained low, and everyone got a tax refund. But state contributions to the University of Colorado at Boulder, the state's flagship research institution, had slid to less than 7 percent of the university's budget, and some began to wonder if the public mission of the university was in jeopardy. Nationally, state governments are rapidly reducing appropriations for higher education. The University of Colorado at Boulder, with only 7 percent state funding, is leading a trend that has been underway in nearly every state for decades. Some states, such as Florida, Virginia, and Montana, have seen higher education appropriations halved in ten years. 3 Many public universities, as a consequence, are aligning with a new fiscal reality referred to as ''privatization.'' While long-term implications are unclear, several trends are becoming apparent pertaining to institutional autonomy, self-sufficiency of departments, tuition restructuring, and fundraising. These trends indicate a fundamental change in academic policy that will not leave libraries untouched. THE PUBLIC GOOD OR FOR PRIVATE GAIN? Coloradans, as do other Americans, place a high value on college degrees. 4 One poll found 87 percent of Americans agree that a college degree is as important as a high-school