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Report lists ways to improve higher education in Ohio
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Some of the recommendations included in a report about the future of Ohio’s universities and colleges are already under way at both Youngstown State University and Eastern Gateway Community College, although officials say more needs to be done.
A project team led by E. Gordon Gee, former president of Ohio State University, and John Carey, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, issued the report, the “Quality and Value Initiative for Ohio Higher Education,” last month. Gov. John Kasich asked Gee and Carey to lead the effort.
The team developed the report, which lists nine recommendations, after conducting forums across Ohio to gather input from educators, students and others.
“I thought the list was very good,” said Laura Meeks, EGCC president.
Martin Abraham, YSU’s interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, likes some of the report’s recommendations, too.
“A lot of the ideas are good ideas and things we should be able to do,” he said. “Some of them are easier than others. Some are very appropriate for Youngstown State University. Some are very appropriate for Ohio State University and may not be appropriate for YSU.”
University officials will need to sit down and determine which nuggets of information YSU can use to improve, Abraham said.
The report says that lasting improvement in the quality and value of Ohio’s higher education “will not occur simply by directing institutions to lower tuition or by persuading the state to increase spending on its college and universities.
“While those actions might alleviate the immediate concerns of Ohio students and merit serious consideration, we believe that long-term and sustainable strategies are required for the systemic challenges facing higher educational quality and value.”
One of the recommendations is that colleges and universities should reinvent the student academic-advising structure to make it more data-driven and collaborative.
Abraham said that’s a complicated undertaking but also something YSU needs to do.
“We do not do as good a job with academic advising as we could,” he said. “We do the best we can with the resources available. We don’t have enough academic advisers.”
YSU’s 2010 strategic plan lists improved academic advising as a goal, too.
Making that recommendation a reality is about more than just having advisers in an office for students; those advisers also have to have access to the appropriate data to support students, Abraham said.
Another recommendation says the state should provide more opportunities for student internships.
Abraham said YSU students from many colleges take advantage of internship opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math fields, business, education and health professions.
“We have them throughout university departments,” he said. “We want to do more, and we need to do more.”
Another recommendation calls for the state to help higher-education institutions develop online competency-based degree and certificate programs for working adults.
Meeks said that’s something EGCC already is trying to do. College officials are developing self-paced online degrees.
The report is “driving some of the things that we’re doing,” she said.
Abraham said YSU is working to determine the best way to do that with available resources while meeting state mandates.
“We’re trying to figure out how to do it effectively so we can maintain academic quality,” he said.
Jeff Robinson, a spokesman for the Ohio Board of Regents, said some of the report recommendations probably will be incorporated into the governor’s new budget which is expected to roll out in the coming weeks.