Faced with budget cuts, some cash-strapped state universities are stepping up their recruitment of higher paying out-of-state undergraduates, a move that critics say is unfair to the states’ residents and could affect in-state minority applicants. The University of California system and the University of Washington in Seattle have openly declared their intention to boost their bottom lines with more out-of-state students, and admissions data for this fall reflect their efforts.
Other schools are probably making similar efforts, but, since it’s not a popular move, “it’s not something they would send out in a [news] release,” said Dan Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
The monetary incentive is great. Out-of-state tuition can be several times that of in-state. At the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, for example, tuition and fees for 2011-12 are about $11,837 in-state, and $36,001 for out-of-state students.
“There are concerns that states are reneging on their promise—that states are inadvertently creating another roadblock for minority students,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The trend is recent, a result of the economic downturn, and “direct consequences are very difficult to quantify,” he said.
Universities may end up with the same number of minorities, but they’re not necessarily state residents or underprivileged, he said. The concern is “you get more affluent minorities,” he said.
State universities face varying regional, budgetary, and legislative conditions. But most are coping with growing pressure as more students want to go to college—seeing it as crucial to surviving a tough economy—and state lawmakers cut higher education funding. In 2010, state and local appropriations for higher education hit the lowest level in 25 years: $6,451 per full-time equivalent, according to State Higher Education Executive Officers, or SHEEO. The group blamed enrollment growth, inflation and the failure of state and local funding to keep up.
Apart from furloughs, layoffs, fat-trimming and dipping into reserves, state universities are turning to other remedies, including seeking more say in how they use their dollars, raising tuition—in some cases drastically—and bringing in more out-of-state students.
