Brand seeks more funding

Indianapolis -- In the wake of mounting budget restraints, IU's top executive wants state officials to reconfigure their formula for funding higher education.\nDuring his annual State of the University address Tuesday, IU President Myles Brand lamented what he called disproportionate state funding for the Indiana's three largest research institutions -- IU, IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis and Purdue. \nAlthough the four-year research campuses are experiencing record enrollment numbers, the Indiana General Assembly gives them an average of $1,500 less per student than what other Midwest states provide to their Big Ten schools, Brand said. \nBrand alluded to Indiana's priority for funding the one-year-old community college network and other smaller schools designed to administer two-year degrees. \nIU-Bloomington received 65 percent of what Indiana lawmakers allocated on average to other campuses statewide, Brand noted. Vincennes University -- a two-year college in Southern Indiana -- receives more funding per full-time student than IUPUI.\n"In keeping with Hoosier values, we do more with less," said Brand, noting that the University has tried to keep its costs down in light of the funding crunch. "But if we stretch our resources too thin, quality will suffer over time."\nBrand did not say whether there would be cuts in University programs or faculty hiring initiatives as a result of the funding gap. But he did mention that the seeming prejudice against research universities could eventually lead to more students leaving the state in search of higher-paying jobs.\nIndiana is still primarily a manufacturing state, Brand said, affirming his commitment to helping the state develop a more technology-driven economy.\n"'Good enough' is never good enough," he said. "It is not now, nor should it ever be the case, that Indiana students must leave the state in order to find a first-rate job. It would be shortsighted in the extreme if the state did not do all it could to strengthen its research universities."\nAn officer from the state's higher education agency agrees, but said Indiana budget leaders, amid their own crisis, are providing IU with as much funding as they can.\nHealthcare and education are the state's top two budget priorities, but a recent economic slowdown had caused some severe belt-tightening throughout Indiana, said Cheryl Little, vice chair for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.\nIn the meantime, Little said organizations like the Indiana Chamber of Commerce could plug the state's brain drain by attracting more businesses, especially technologically-advanced industries.\n"We can't blame young people for leaving if they can't get high-tech, high-paying jobs here," said Little, a former candidate for Indiana Secretary of State.\nFaculty leaders support Brand's effort to rally the General Assembly for more money.\n"We have to keep hammering away on this," said Paul Galanti, president of the faculty council at IUPUI. "We cannot shortchange higher education. Otherwise we will become a backwater state, and remain that way."\nA professor in the IU School of Law at Indianapolis, Galanti said raising taxes might be one of the most immediate ways the state could raise more money for IU and Purdue.\n"If I have to pay more, I'm willing to," said Galanti, noting that pitching in additional tax revenue to benefit higher education would be a worthwhile investment for Hoosiers.\nGerald Bepko, the University's vice-president for long-range planning and chancellor at IUPUI, echoed Brand's sentiments, calling for a "long-term re-shaping of attitudes" about research institutions.\n"We need to keep the best and the brightest coming to Indiana, and get the best and brightest already here to stay," Bepko said.