Washington Monthly - September/October 2020 - 15

health, and education, indicating that
graduates are likely filling high-demand
local jobs, such as in nursing.
Dan Hurley, CEO of the Michigan Association of State Universities, said this
function of filling local workforce gaps is
bound to become more important as the
economy shifts after the pandemic subsides. "Michigan already has an exceptionally high proportion of adults that
have some college and no degree, and now
we have pandemic-induced unemployment and underemployment," he told me.
"These populations are poised to reenter
higher education either for upskilling or
to earn longer-term credentials. There's
huge pent-up demand there."
Third, regional public institutions offer broad access to higher education,
which can make them engines of equity and economic inclusion. Of course,
no school is perfect, but these universities have a significantly better track record than elite schools in enrolling and
graduating minority and low-income students in terms of sheer numbers. In the
Great Lakes region, as many as 71 percent of Black students enrolled in a public university attend a regional public institution, as do nearly three-quarters of
Native American students, 59 percent of
Hispanic students, and 61 percent of students who identify as two or more races,
Maxim and Muro found.
These schools also award a greater share
of bachelor's degrees to Black students
than flagships and major research universities. In terms of absolute numbers, they
grant more than twice as many bachelor's
degrees to Black students as their elite
counterparts. "Regional public universities help close racial attendance gaps,"
Maxim and Muro concluded.
Research by Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist who focuses on social mobility, and
his colleagues at Opportunity Insights
likewise finds that regional public colleges are among the most successful in recruiting and graduating low-income students. Among the schools Chetty cites as
best facilitating economic mobility are institutions like the State University of New
York at Stony Brook and many campuses
of the City University of New York. (This
dedication to equity is also one reason why

so many regional schools populate the top
slots of the Washington Monthly's college
rankings, see page 62.)
By comparison, Chetty finds that state
flagship schools and elite colleges are still
largely preserves of the rich, with essentially no gains in the share of low-income
students enrolled (despite much-ballyhooed initiatives to increase economic diversity). Nor have these top-tier schools
become more racially inclusive. A 2017 New
York Times  analysis  found that Black and
Hispanic students are actually more underrepresented at top colleges today than they
were 35 years ago. Black students make up
just 6 percent of the freshman class at elite
schools-a share that hasn't changed since
1980, though their share of the college-age
population has grown to 15 percent.
While regional public universities have
been doing great work for decades, they
may not be doing  any  work if the pandemic wreaks havoc on their budgets.
The vast majority
of these schools do
not have the cushion of fat endowments. Instead, they
rely on student tuitions and state appropriations to keep
their doors open.
While state funding
was  declining  even
before the coronavirus outbreak,
higher education spending now faces
much deeper cuts. "It's a pretty tough period right now," Rob Maxim told me in an
interview. "States are seeing double-digit
revenue declines, and unfortunately higher education tends to be a balance wheel
for state budgets." State legislators, in other words, know that they have more flexibility when it comes to funding public universities in comparison to other priorities,
such as K-12 education or prisons, where
funding levels are fixed or mandated by
statute. "A lot of these schools had just gotten to 2007 pre-crisis funding levels," Maxim continued, "and we're looking at potentially slashing appropriations again."
Moreover, many schools will face steep
drops in enrollment numbers as students
rethink their fall plans-meaning more

revenue losses on top of state budget cuts.
While analysis from McKinsey finds that
more college-going students are now opting for in-state schools closer to home, it's
flagships and major research universities
that are benefiting from the shift. Hurley
said that Michigan State University, for
instance, is likely to see its largest freshman class ever, while enrollment is likewise reportedly increasing at the University of Michigan. "State flagships have
global brand pull," Hurley said. At the
same time, students more likely to head
off to regional schools are now less able to
afford it, even despite tuition freezes and
other changes schools have made to stave
off enrollment declines.
As of this writing, it's still too soon to tell
what impacts the pandemic will have on attendance this fall, but it's clear that regional public universities could suffer enormous economic fallout. The consequences
could be dire for the students and com-

The vast majority of regional
universities lack the cushion
of fat endowments. Instead,
they rely on student tuitions
and state appropriations to
keep their doors open.
munities that rely on them-especially
low-income and minority students, for
whom regional schools may be the only
lifeline to greater opportunity.
"If there's anything that's been laid bare
by the past few weeks, it's systemic racism
and the continuing inequality of access
that people of color have in the U.S.," Maxim said. "If these schools are defunded, it's
only going to deepen those inequalities."
Given the vital role that regional public
universities play, the nation can't afford to
let these institutions become yet another
casualty of the pandemic.
Anne Kim is a contributing editor to the
Washington Monthly and the author of Abandoned: America's Lost Youth and the Crisis of
Disconnection.
Washington Monthly  15
Washington Monthly - September/October 2020

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