Lowering standards for higher education
Four state-related universities in Pennsylvania may face “catastrophic” cuts in funding according to Geoffe Rushton, a spokesman for Penn State.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell recently removed Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University from Pennsylvania’s application for federal stimulus money to aid public higher education, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Both Penn State and Pitt are tier-one universities.
The $40 million originally earmarked for the four state-related universities was intended to offset a 6 percent cut in state appropriations for each of the universities next year. Instead, the governor’s proposed budget cuts could cause the schools to face a 2009-10 appropriation 13 percent below this year’s.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the stimulus money will instead go to state universities and community colleges.
Rendell also omitted the universities from a tuition relief proposal in February, telling the Pittsburgh Post Gazette the schools “are not fully public universities,” and he does not control their tuition.
The governor’s decision marks a trend among state governments to give less to top universities, instead investing more in community colleges and non-tier-one universities.
The president of the Association of American Universities told The Chronicle of Higher Education last week the United States may not be able to afford continued support for all of its research universities. He said higher education should consider having “fewer but better” top research universities. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed the state cut support for its state university system by nearly 20 percent in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
On the other hand, state officials in Texas have allocated 50 million dollars for seven state schools to compete to achieve top-tier status.
While cautious optimism about improvement in Texas’ higher education system is in order, Texas has failed to support the tier-one universities it already has. This leads us to wonder whether the end result of the well-intended move to add more highly-regarded research universities to Texas’s higher education system will do anything but cost the state the few it has.
But if Texas taxpayers do decide to provide the extensive funding the state will need to succeed in adding tier-one universities, Texas will buck a national trend toward lower standards and less funding for most major universities.
Advancing LGBT rights, one Stonewall at a time
Forty years ago yesterday, some of New York City’s gay and lesbian population, driven underground by hostile and discriminatory law enforcement officials, rose up to confront the city police force in an unprecedented show of force at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay hangout.
The events of the June 28, 1969 have since become the modern gay rights movement’s watershed moment and serve to focus the nation’s attention on the plight of its
LGBT community.
This road to understanding broke new ground yesterday when the Rev. John Hagee, founder and pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, agreed to meet with leaders from two of Austin’s most prominent gay rights groups, Soulforce and Atticus Circle, after a monthlong campaign by the LGBT organizations.
Hagee outrageously alleged in 2005 that Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans as God’s punishment for a city that openly embraced homosexuality. Gay rights groups rightly fumed at the conservative preacher’s remarks — and the relationship between the Texas pastor and gay groups nationwide suffered a very public and seemingly
irrevocable schism.
As various demonstrations were held across the country last weekend to commemorate Stonewall, we are reminded of the long path we have to travel to ensure equal rights for every American at every level of government regardless of sexual orientation or identity.
But we are also reminded of the need to open a dialogue with those who argue against what many have given their lives for. Advancing civil rights has never been an easy task in America, and there are many forces working against it.
But as Hagee said in a statement concerning the meeting: “We gather in the spirit of Christ that commands us to ‘love our neighbors as ourselves.”
While we denounce Hagee’s ridiculous public statements, we hope a man of God is sincere in his promise to openly embrace his neighbors.
It is undeniable that religion and gay rights have fostered a largely adversatively relationship post-Stonewall, and dangerous demagoguery exists on both sides.
But if major progress — any progress, at that — is to come about in the near future, major players on every side must quell any inclination toward confrontation. It’s going to take a broad coalition of Americans, including those who are religious, to move the nation into the 21st century.
