Washington Monthly - September/October 2020 - 14

TEN
MILES
SQUARE
"... such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) ... [shal l ] become the Seat of the Government of the United States"
the constitution of the united states

Will Regional
Universities Pass or Fail?
The schools most at risk from the pandemic
are the best able to spur America's recovery.
By Anne Kim

I

n Washington, D.C., debates around
higher education tend to focus on the
Harvards and Yales of the world, forgetting that the vast majority of students
don't attend elite schools. Too often absent
from these conversations are higher education's true workhorses: so-called regional public universities.
While the Department of Education offers no official definition of these institutions, they basically occupy the middle
space between community colleges and
flagship research universities. One analysis by Inside Higher Education tallies more
than 500 schools nationwide that fit this
category. Generally, they are less selective in their admissions policies and lack
prestige, but they fulfill an essential role
in helping millions of Americans advance
their lives and careers.
14  September/October 2020

These schools-think Eastern Michigan University instead of the University
of Michigan-confer nearly 40 percent of
all bachelor's degrees in the country each
year and as many as one-fifth of degrees
overall. They are particularly important in
providing students of color access to higher education-and they play an enormous
role in supporting their local economies.
The problem is, they are also struggling
to survive.
Even before the pandemic, many regional public universities were facing
stark financial challenges. Enrollment
numbers and state funding had been in
decline for years. Now, their revenue may
shrink further, as some students shift to
cheaper community colleges for online
classes and others are unable to afford
college altogether.

But if the schools pull through this period, they could be pivotal to a robust and
equitable post-pandemic recovery, as a recent Brookings Institution report found. A
case study of regional public colleges in the
Great Lakes region, it highlights three significant ways in which these schools could
bolster a post-COVID-19 recovery.
First, regional public universities are
typically the economic anchor of the
towns or cities where they're located, and
are often the town's biggest employer.
They also often spur economic development through research and development
activities and partner with local employers
to help commercialize new technologies or
share best practices. In past downturns,
according to Brookings, this support has
cushioned localities from the most severe
impacts of the crisis. In the Great Lakes
region, for instance, communities with
a public four-year school lost fewer jobs
during the Great Recession and recovered
more quickly, the study's authors, Rob
Maxim and Mark Muro, found.
Second, these universities' close ties
with their communities mean they can
be responsive to local employers' needs
for skilled workers. One of the biggest
challenges currently facing the higher ed
community is the frequent mismatch between the skills employers want and the
ones newly minted graduates have cultivated. But Brookings found that in the
Great Lakes region, the most common
majors at regional schools were business,
Washington Monthly - September/October 2020

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