State Sen. Florence Shapiro convened a meeting of the presidents of six emerging research institutions Wednesday at the Capitol to address the creation of another tier-one Texas university.
UT President William Powers, who did not attend the meeting, advocated Thursday for recognition that tier-one universities in Texas — which include UT, Texas A&M and Rice universities — require special funding.
The meeting follows a summer of discussion on the issue that began with a July 23 hearing with state Sen. Judith Zaffirini. At the hearing, UT-Dallas President David Daniel proposed a plan for creating the next tier-one school that would involve matching state funds for the two or three universities most successful at raising private funds.
University administrators and legislators have offered no precise definitions of a tier-one university. Among the criteria proposed are membership in the Association of American Universities and successful attainment of federal research grants.
At the July hearing, the presidents of the University of North Texas, Texas Tech University, UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas, UT-El Paso, UT-San Antonio and the University of Houston presented cases for their institutions to be named tier-one universities.
Daniel said in an August interview with The Daily Texan that all seven emerging research institutions should be allowed to compete for state funds on an equal playing field under any plan.
In his proposal Daniel said a comparison between the emerging research universities in Texas and national tier-one universities showed a gap in funds of $3,000 per student. Based on the average size of the seven schools, his proposal said a $70-million-per-year infusion of state funds would be required to achieve parity.
Gretchen Bataille, president of the University of North Texas, said the university presidents will work to form a set of recommendations for the Legislature to create one or more new tier-one universities.
Bataille named the four priorities for tier-one funding: matching state funds for endowed professorships and chairs, graduate fellowships, undergraduate merit scholarships and research grants. She said the promise of matching funds from the state would leverage greater participation from donors and researchers.
“If you can say to your faculty, ‘For every research dollar that you bring in from the federal government, we’ll get 50 cents from the state,’ it also gets buy in from people,” Bataille said.
Bataille said she understood there will be many state agencies advocating for funding in the next legislative session but believes more research universities in Texas would have a spillover effect.
Kevin Hegarty, chief financial officer for UT-Austin, said tier-one universities can be a regional economic force, attracting both federal research dollars and venture capital. He said the drain of Texas high school graduates to doctorate-granting institutions in other states was a concern but the question is whether the state is willing to fund new tier-one institutions and maintain those already in place.
Because universities in Texas are funded based on an average in the formula-funding system, some institutions inevitably lose out because of the varying cost of educating students, he said.
At a tier-one institution, “you’re being taught in laboratories and classrooms that are outfitted for the quality and the expectations of faculty who are at the top of their profession,” Hegarty said.
State appropriations compose about 16 percent of UT’s operating budget. Because state funding has declined relative to UT’s overall budget, he said, tuition costs have risen.
“Your tuition is a function of what the state’s investment is in this institution,” Hegarty said. “If you wanted to maintain quality, we’d have to recover that somewhere, and that means tuition.”
Powers has on several occasions endorsed the creation of more tier-one universities in Texas for both the benefit of the state’s economy and higher education as a whole.
“I think we have to sell to the people of Texas and the Legislature the importance of the kinds of things we do,” he said. “If the issue is seen that way, it’s not whether we get [state funding] or A&M gets it. There’s more of a discussion now that I think is: What is the future of higher education in Texas?”
