Privatization and the Public Good: Public Universities in the Balance

Lambert masterfully outlines the challenges facing American public higher education, and provides three distinct approaches taken at different institutions. The author's affable prose and personal anecdotes make the book as enjoyable as it is informative.

At this moment of great disruption in higher education, particularly public higher education, determining how best to conduct the difficult dialogue of change is, in itself, a major challenge. Happily, Matthew T. Lambert has taken on this challenge in his new book, Privatization and the Public Good. Lambert provides for all of us, legislators, board members, administrators, faculty, and the public, a foundational document that provides an important historical context, a carefully defined (and often misunderstood) lexicon, and a model for better understanding the dynamics at play in public higher education along with its inevitable trajectory to privatization. Through Lambert’s thoughtful narrative, we, as educators, can finally see how the maze of opinion, funding, and policy was created in various states but also how we might possibly find our own way through to the future of public high education. This document is a “must read” for anyone who believes in the mission of public higher education.

well researched and well written - an important read for anyone who cares about public higher education.

Well written and backed by deep research, this book was illuminating and informative.

Lambert tells it like it is in higher education today and why immediate action is needed. I believe this book is a must read for every college and university chancellor, president and provost, those in university relations and members of governing boards; lawmakers responsible for higher education oversight; and especially the editors of newspapers and magazines that serve higher education. I spent 10 years of my professional career in higher education and the sooner these people understand and identify the problems the sooner the necessary solutions will be implemented.Our nation’s colleges and universities have been in a crisis mode for many years and according to Matthew T. Lambert since no one can agree on the problems, finding the solutions is nearly impossible.Lambert, who is vice president for university advancement at The College of William & Mary, did intense and comprehensive research before writing this book including interviews with more than 150 lawmakers and senior executives in higher education. It is no wonder the nation’s public colleges and universities are in turmoil when he writes: “… very few of the state legislators and governors interviewed were deeply knowledgeable about higher education or the issues impacting our colleges and universities.”His book notes that while many public schools are pushing for more autonomy to set enrollment mix and tuition levels and for freedom to compete in the marketplace, the lawmakers are pushing them to identify alternate revenue sources, become more efficient and operate differently from the rest of government. Lambert says at the same time the institutions are being pulled toward national and international prominence which requires a significantly greater focus on research, much of it federally funded, and this has resulted in a decrease in the traditional focus on undergraduate teaching.Lambert says that if you gather a group of university educators in a room that soon they will joke about how his or her institution has gone from being “state supported” to “state assisted” to “state located.” Public colleges and universities no longer receive the financial assistance that once came from the state.In his research Lambert spent considerable time looking at the flagship universities in California, North Carolina and Virginia. “These states feature three of the finest systems of higher education in the world even though they are different,” he says. “California and North Carolina historically were very highly coordinated and managed systems with very high per-student state funding while Virginia has been loosely coordinated with the schools having more autonomy but receiving low state funding.The major public universities in Virginia received less than 12 percent of their overall budget from state resources. This prompted the University of Virginia to undertake a $3 billion fundraising campaign. When state governments reduced support to their public colleges and universities it forced the schools to launch fundraising campaigns that once were the domain of private schools.Lambert notes that the budget in California for corrections exceeds spending for higher education. From 2000-2010 allocation to prisons increased from $5 billion to $11 billion and the state spends $50,000 per year per prisoner and only one-tenth of that on university students.Being forced in the direction of privatization, the public colleges and universities need greater flexibility and less bureaucracy as well in contracting, human resources and capital projects without additional accountability requirements and performance measures. Lambert notes that sponsors have made privatization in college sports a multibillion dollar industry. From 2005-2011 academic spending in Division I schools grew 3 percent while spending for all athletes grew 31 percent and 52 percent for football.Institutions have successfully outsourced many things including foodservice, sleeping accommodations and dormitories, and bookstores. Ohio State leased its campus run parking services for $483 million for 50 years. The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business became financially independent of its parent but continues to bear its name. UCLA’s Anderson School followed UVa and tuition went from providing 6 percent of the overall cost to 100 percent.The public colleges and universities now compete directly with their private counterparts not only for students, faculty and administration, but for funding and research dollars. As privatization continues there will be little noticeable difference between the public and private institutions.