A report by Bill Sizemore in The Virginian Pilot this morning notes that the House of Delegates tabled all bills that would have imposed restrictions on the percentage of out-of-state students that Virginia universities could admit.
Legislators from NOVA will tell you that, with the exception of traffic issues, the issue they hear the most about from their constituents is the difficulty that even very good students have in getting admitted to Virginia’s flagship universities.
Dave Albo, Clay Athey and Tim Hugo have been outspoken about the issue for years, Hugo only half-jesting when he called UVA the “University of New York Charlottesville Campus” and W&M the “University of New Jersey, Williamsburg Campus.”
Last year, their legislation received much visibility and a good bit of legislative traction in the House.
This year not so much.
Why?
The first reason is simply money.
Higher ed took a huge hit in the Kaine budget and even if McDonnell can make some positive adjustments, the cuts will still be substantial.
Legislators have little appetite for imposing an even larger reduction by limiting the extra dollars universities receive from out-of-state students.
In fact, efforts to limit out-of-state anything- be it students, prisoners, or garbage- have usually failed whenever they’ve come up against the argument from the bottom line.
Second, the universities were, I think, surprised last year about the depth of sentiment that favored moving toward a North Carolina ceiling-like structure on out-of-state college admissions and clearly did a more effective job of presenting their perspective to legislators.
Jimmie Massie, for example, argued that the high quality of out-of-state admits has contributed to the national and international stature of Virginia universities, reputations that serve the overall interests of the Commonwealth.
Third, Governor McDonnell will be appointing his own higher education commission to examine matters such as access to higher education and many House members may believe that it’s best to give the commission a chance to do its work before advancing a solution of their own.
This may be a very sensible position.
Virginia higher ed is at a genuine inflection point with a set of critical issues that need to be addressed- general funding issues, access, the role of community colleges, K-12-higher ed integration, innovative ways of moving toward degree completion, recruiting students into high need areas, utilizing on-line technologies in a serious way, the role of SCHEV, etc.- and it is probably best to do this by having a comprehensive report that can set the table, rather than responding on an ad hoc basis to each and every troublesome issue that has emerged.
Virginia students now place third nationally in Advanced Placement rankings. I wonder how many of the state’s “best and brightest” prefer for a variety of reasons to study at a good university outside Virginia. I know Virginians all of whose degrees are from the state, some who have one degree from the state, and others whose university education was entirely outside the state and who become ex- Virginians . Some come from other states, get an advanced degree from, say, UVa, and live their lives outside Virginia. The claims of both rootedness and American mobility can be compelling.
The North Carolina model you refer to is worth considering.