Grant Writing with The King of Rock ‘N Roll

Anyone who knows me well knows that I L.O.V.E. Elvis Presley. I’m not just a fan. I’m a fanatic. Yes, I’m that kind of fanatic. The infatuated kind who collects memorabilia, reads books about his life, silently celebrates his birthday and knows the words to nearly all of his songs. I totally get this level of dedication. I’m also an old soul and hopeless romantic. No musical artist will ever replace my love for the big E-P. No one has even come close. The upside is that I’m pretty confident that I can win any game of Elvis trivia.

So, in a lighthearted “dog days of summer" post and in honor of the 34th anniversary of his passing, I’m sharing a few tips about grant writing from The King himself. Uh, huh. Enjoy!

 

Follow that Dream: Create a Road Map for Your Vision!

Elvis was born in a small two-room home in Tupelo, Mississippi. His father had an eighth-grade education and struggled to support his family. Life wasn’t always easy. Fast forward….when Elvis was 25, he had a Rolls Royce and was paid $125,000 for a six-minute appearance on a Frank Sinatra TV special! Six minutes. His success didn’t happen overnight and he worked hard. He also had a plan, a team of people to support him and a vision. 

Grant writing forces you to put your big dreams and visions down on paper, to map them out and to have a plan for success. It’s okay to start small. Funders want to know how you’ll get to the Rolls Royce, whether that’s today, tomorrow or next year. Spend the time to clearly identify your goals, your objectives and your measurements of success. Then, hold yourself accountable.

 

Partnerships are Like Yummy Sandwiches: Clearly Describe Your Collaborations. 

Peanut butter, bananas and mayonnaise are good on their own and even better together. Right? Elvis thought so and the culinary trend caught on. (I don’t personally enjoy this delicacy. Bacon would be a better choice than mayo.) This sandwich is a genius combination and a great metaphor for collaboration. 

When you are trying to fund a project, think about ways you can highlight your collaborative partnerships. Let your funders know that you have strong and qualified team of people to see the project through from start to finish. If your peanut butter is even better with mayo, tell them how. Prove it. Fry it up and let them try it. Share letters of support and testimonials that demonstrate the value of your partnerships. How do the strengths of your organization work with the strengths of your partners? Make your project tempting to fund because of your ability to collaborate.

 

Shake Your Hips: Don't Be Afraid to Blaze a Trail! 

When Elvis first hit the scene, conservatives balked, girls fainted and jaws dropped. He looked like a well-groomed southern boy and sang with a deep blues soul (we'll save the hips for another post)! Who would have thought this was possible? There was no Elvis before Elvis, but that didn’t stop him from following his dreams. He blazed his own trail. He doled out hip-shakin’, heart-racin’, rockabilly blues that the world never knew existed. 

When a nonprofit creates new programs in order to respond to the needs of the community, there might not be a model to follow. You’ll need to create one. If homeless children need back to school supplies and no one else has a program to help, you might be the first—go for it. If there is a gap in service it usually means no one else is filling it. Step up to the plate. Make a commitment as an organization to dedicate yourself to serving your mission. Foundations primarily exist to make change happen. Innovation, creativity and thoughtfulness are generally appreciated if they have goals attached to them.

If the heat of the summer is slowing you down or you are discouraged by recent grant denials, take a minute to shake up your approach to funders—Elvis style. Think outside the box, give your funders something delicious to sink their teeth into and show how you are innovative. The King did all of this and definitely set himself apart from the competition!

Thank you. Thank you very much.

~Cheers!

School Dropout Rates Add To Fiscal Burden

Click here to listen to the story. Transcription below.

Patricia

Claudio Sanchez and Linda Wertheimer | NPR
July 24, 2011

Nearly 1 million kids who start high school every year don't make it to graduation. At a time when federal and state budgets are tight, dropouts costs taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue, health care, welfare and incarceration costs.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: This week NPR will be airing a five-part series on America's dropout crisis. To give you an idea of what that means, just under four million kids begin ninth grade every year, but about a fourth of them don't make it to graduation. That's almost a million dropouts every year. According to one estimate, from the American Council on Education, there are currently 40 million Americans who never graduated from high school. That is an enormous cost for them as individuals, for the rest of society.

NPR's education correspondent Claudio Sanchez is here to talk to us about the series.

Claudio, the school dropout situation, that's not new. Why focus on it now?

CLAUDIO SANCHEZ: The genesis of this series, Linda, began with the reporting that NPR has been doing on the economy. Everybody is hurting, but for people without a high school diploma, the numbers are staggering in terms of unemployment, lost earnings and cost to taxpayers.

It wasn't that long ago, remember, that if you dropped out of high school you could still manage to find a good job. But today, the people who seem to be hurting the most in our sputtering economy are dropouts.

WERTHEIMER: So it's a cost to individuals of income?

SANCHEZ: A high school dropout, according to the latest statistics, will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate over his or her lifetime, and almost a million dollars less than a college graduate. The unemployment rate for dropouts right now is anywhere from 15 to 18 percent, double what it is for high school graduates. It represents just an enormous loss of human potential.

WERTHEIMER: What about the cost to taxpayers?

SANCHEZ: Well, that's pretty staggering as well. There are estimates of anywhere from 320 to 350 billion dollars to taxpayers. That's in lost wages, taxable income, health, welfare, incarceration costs. We spend a lot of money on these kids.

One other interesting statistic. The vast majority of dropouts today are Latinos and blacks. Now, if high schools were to raise the graduation rate of both these groups to the level of whites - white kids graduate at about 82 percent, so there's an assumption that it is a 10-15 percent dropout rate - personal income for blacks and Latinos would add more than $310 billion to the economy. That is serious money.

WERTHEIMER: So, is the dropout problem getting worse because of the economic downturn?

SANCHEZ: I think the answer is yes. But it depends on who you talk to, or whose data you rely on. The data can be easily manipulated. In 2007, when the economic downturn began, the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported that nearly 60 percent of high school dropouts were unemployed or not in the labor force. In our reporting we have found that dropouts 25 years and older, for example, often want to come back to get a GED - which is the closest thing to a diploma - but most give up because their reading and math skills are so poor. Many say it's probably not worth coming back and they would rather wait till they're 62 to live on Social Security. Also, one interesting trend is that more and more companies, big and small, won't even consider you if you don't have a high school diploma or a GED. And according to a couple of labor market studies, six out of 10 jobs today require at least two to four years of college.

WERTHEIMER: So, did you find anything as you talk to people around the country that suggests that there is some kind of a solution to the dropout crisis?

SANCHEZ: I don't know if there's a solution, a big solution out there, but, yes, there are many examples of some communities, some cities and states that have done some good things. Chicago is a good example. It has created a network of 22 charter schools that literally rescue the youngest dropouts, some directly from jail. These kids are getting a second chance to improve their reading, writing and math skills; learn a skill and how to apply for a job.

But again, in this economy, there aren't any jobs and the few that are being creating are essentially going to people who are unemployed but with college degrees. The long-term answer, Linda, according to experts, is to intervene early and identify children at the risk of dropping out in the elementary and middle school grades. What we found in Baltimore was that the city has put a lot of time and effort in reducing both the truancy and absenteeism rate. And it claims that it has reduced those rates by half in the last three years. It's a school system that has invested a lot of time and energy in placing psychologists, social workers into some of the poorest schools, especially in East Baltimore. And they're having some degree of success. They're also getting tough on truancy, on absenteeism, where, you know, the city can fine parents $50 or they can essentially put some of these parents in jail, if necessary.

So, it's a tough answer but something that absolutely needs to happen to get at this question of a solution to deal with this problem is just to be able to get a handle on the data. The data right now is so unreliable, so useless because states essentially collect their own data and most of those states don't really have a good way to come up with accurate estimates. And so, if states ever get a handle on the data, I think it will go a long ways towards really solving this problem, because people will know what we're up against.

WERTHEIMER: NPR's Claudio Sanchez. His series on dropouts begins tomorrow on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. It will also be on MORNING EDITION. Claudio, thank you.

SANCHEZ: You're welcome.

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July 24, 2011

Of all the problems this country faces in education, one of the most complicated, heart-wrenching and urgent is the dropout crisis. Nearly 1 million teenagers stop going to school every year.

The impact of that decision is lifelong. And the statistics are stark:

* The unemployment rate for people without a high school diploma is nearly twice that of the general population.

* Over a lifetime, a high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate and almost $1 million less than a college graduate.

* Dropouts are more likely to commit crimes, abuse drugs and alcohol, become teenage parents, live in poverty and commit suicide.

* Dropouts cost federal and state governments hundreds of billions of dollars in lost earnings, welfare and medical costs, and billions more for dropouts who end up in prison.

NPR is looking at the dropout crisis through the stories of five people. Three dropped out of school years ago. They talk about why they left school, the forces in their lives that contributed to that decision and its impact in the years since.

There are also profiles of two teenagers who are at risk of dropping out and the adults who are working hard to keep them in school.

Monday, July 25

Almost half a million black teenagers drop out of school each year. Most will end up unemployed by their mid-30s. Six out of 10 black male dropouts will spend time in prison.

Patrick Lundvick, 19, quit school in ninth grade. He started running with a gang and selling drugs in his Chicago neighborhood. Within a few years, he was in prison for theft. When he got out, he promised his mother he would change. He's now studying at a special charter school for dropouts and hopes to get his diploma and go to college. But he knows that having a criminal record has damaged his job prospects, and he admits that the lure of the streets is still strong.

Tuesday, July 26

The single biggest reason why girls drop out of school is pregnancy. And Latinas have the highest teen pregnancy rates of any racial or ethnic group; 41 percent of Latinas leave high school because they get pregnant. These young women often end up with few job skills, more pregnancies and dependency on unreliable and sometimes violent men.

Lauren Ortega, 20, is a mother of two who is struggling to finish her high school education. She is torn over whether to stay with the father of her children.

Tuesday, July 26

A fifth of the schools identified by the U.S. Department of Education as "dropout factories" (where no more than 50 percent of students graduate) are located in rural areas like Oconee County in South Carolina.

Nick Dunn, 16, hates school and is teetering on the edge of dropping out — just like his father and his four siblings did. But things have changed a lot since his father was young. Oconee County has watched its economy dry up and even adults are struggling to find work.

Wednesday July 27

Studies show that kids who miss a lot of school are at far higher risk of dropping out.

By the time he was 12, Danny Lamont Jones had already missed all of sixth grade and much of seventh. Now at 15, Danny is due to enter tenth grade next fall but isn't sure he'll go.

Officials in Baltimore are trying to intervene early with kids like Danny to try to keep them engaged with school and prevent them from ending up on an inevitable path toward dropping out.

Thursday, July 28

Sixty percent of the nation's high school dropouts are older than 40. Most of them left high school to start working, but few move beyond low paying, dead-end jobs. Only seven percent of dropouts 25 and older have ever made more than $40,000 a year. And in hard economic times, many find that not having a diploma puts them at the end of the employment line.

Kenny Buchanan, 44, was 18 when he gave up on high school. He figured he could earn a living without a diploma, and for several years, he did. But then he got married and found it difficult to find work that could support a family. Before long, employers began refusing to even interview him because he didn't have a diploma.

The Racial Wealth Gap’s Larger Than Ever. Here’s How It Will Destroy Us

by Kai Wright | Color Lines
Tuesday, July 26 2011

This morning features two large and frustrating pieces of economic news. One: Washington’s silly fight over a fake debt crisis (rather than the real debt crisis) isn’t likely to resolve itself in time to avoid a manufactured catastrophe. Two: When measured by wealth, racial inequality in the U.S. is greater than it’s been since 1984. Anybody truly concerned about the country’s future solvency should be most alarmed by the latter news.

The racial wealth gap has been enormous ever since the Census Bureau began measuring it 25 years ago. But it has never been larger than today. The median wealth of a white family is now at least 20 times higher than that of a black family and 18 times that of a Latino family, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

Pew looked at wealth numbers between 2005 and the technical end of the U.S. recession in 2009. It found that the racial wealth gap exploded in that time period, as blacks and Latinos suffered dramatic blows from the collapsed housing market. Median wealth—the net value of your assets versus your debts—fell by 66 percent among Latino households and 53 percent among black households, while it fell just 16 percent among white households. By 2009, median black and Latino families each held less than $7,000 in wealth; the median white family held $113,149.

That’s a lot of numbers. But they all add up to something quite simple: When the economy struggles, those who are least secure get crushed. That’s nothing new, and neither is Washington’s refusal to deal with it. With the exception of the aggressive efforts to create a white middle class following World War II, U.S. economic policy has never encouraged economic equality. What’s new today is how much economic policy actually facilitates inequality.

Certainly the recent explosion in the wealth gap is owing to the fact that the little wealth black and Latino families hold is disproportionately locked up in homes. White families are far more likely to have jobs with retirement accounts and investments in the stock market. Those black and Latino families that have wealth depend on the housing market for it.

But that’s still more symptom than root cause. Black and Latino families are also far more likely to live in places crawling with expensive, deceptive consumer lending of all sorts, from car loans to refinance mortgages. They are more likely to turn to that lending because they make less money and because they already hold less wealth to cushion themselves in tough times. It’s an ugly cycle: inequality across the economy creates demand for predatory credit to bridge the gap, which in turn worsens inequality.

So things are right now growing dire in communities of color—with home wealth evaporating, joblessness lingering and wages falling, people have never been more vulnerable to predation. That’s a problem for people of color, yes, but it’s also a problem for the entire economy. After all, we already know what happens when we leave huge segments of our economy open to predatory credit—see under: subprime mortgages and global economic collapse. And with blacks and Latinos already accounting for roughly a third of the people whose labor and spending create the economy—a share that will increase dramatically in the next generation—this sort of deep inequality is simply untenable.

Which means today’s Pew study is more of a benchmark than a final tally of the damage done in the past decade. Unless Washington intervenes to get people living-wage jobs and stop banks from preying on their wages with deceptive products, these numbers will grow more dramatic. That’s a problem for everyone.

‘Unacceptable’ schools grow fivefold in Texas

New standards have parents scratching heads
By ERICKA MELLON | HOUSTON CHRONICLE
July 30, 2011

The number of academically unacceptable public schools in Texas increased more than fivefold this year after the state raised standards, leaving parents with a confusing picture of districts' progress.

Houston-area schools saw a similar shake-up in their accountability ratings, which the state released Friday. Fewer campuses earned the highest honors, and more landed on the troubled list.

The ratings plunge is largely due to the state no longer using a statistical measure that gave credit for failing test scores if the students were on track to pass in coming years.

"It's very important for parents to remember that the standards substantially increased this year," said Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

In the Houston Independent School District, the "unacceptable" campuses more than tripled to 25 — or 9 percent of its rated schools.

Statewide, about 7 percent of schools netted the lowest rating this year. The unacceptable list grew from 104 schools to 569.

Four of the nine schools in HISD's Apollo reform program were "unacceptable" despite millions of extra dollars spent on improvement. HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said the turnaround effort is a three-year initiative, and Apollo is entering its second year.

Kashmere and Jones high schools and Attucks and Ryan middle schools were the low performers among the Apollo campuses. Kashmere has been rated unacceptable for three straight years. Lee and Sharpstown high schools and Key Middle School came off the state's worst list, moving from unacceptable to acceptable.

Schools and districts with the lowest standing face sanctions from the TEA such as appointed monitors and mandatory staff overhauls.

The ratings, from best to worst, are exemplary, recognized, acceptable and unacceptable.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, honored last year as the state's largest "recognized" district, dropped to "acceptable." HISD, the biggest district, also was "acceptable."

Among the area's other large districts, Katy, Pasadena, Conroe, Alief, Klein, Clear Creek, Humble, Lamar Consolidated, Galena Park and Pearland earned "recognized" status.

"This is a significant accomplishment for our district considering we achieved it under much stricter and higher accountability standards," said Alief Superintendent H.D. Chambers, who took the helm of the district in April.

The ratings are based mostly on how well students perform on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exams in reading, writing, math, science and social studies. Schools must hit targets for all students and for different racial and socioeconomic groups. Schools' graduation and dropout rates also count.

Changes to the accountability system, in addition to the end of the so-called Texas Projection Measure, made it harder for districts to meet the standards.

All the test scores of special-education students were counted for the first time. Schools also had to ensure that at least 60 percent of their students with limited English skills passed the state exams to earn the two highest ratings. And the passing standards on the math and science tests — traditionally the hardest for students — increased by five percentage points.

This is the last year for the TAKS testing program, which began in 2003. Schools will get a one-year reprieve from ratings as students take the new exams, expected to be more challenging.

Test scores traditionally rise over the years as teachers and students get used to the format of an exam. Statewide, at least 90 percent of students passed the TAKS in reading, writing and social studies this year. At least 80 percent passed in math and science.

HISD saw its scores remain mostly flat this year. The district's passing rate in math rose two points to 83 percent, while writing dropped two points to 91 percent.

"Schools have a pretty good routine based on the TAKS," said state Rep. Rob Eissler, a Republican from The Woodlands who chairs the House Public Education Committee. "It will change when we get to the (new) end-of-course exams and the STAAR tests."

The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness will replace the TAKS.

Friendswood ISD was the only traditional school district in the greater Houston area to earn the state's highest rating of "exemplary." The charter schools YES Prep, Harmony School of Science, Harmony School of Excellence and Houston Heights Learning Academy also earned the top status.

Statewide, 14.5 percent of charter schools were dubbed "unacceptable," compared with 6 percent of traditional campuses. Charter schools are public schools with certain freedoms from state law.

KIPP, one of Houston's most popular charter school networks, had its first "unacceptable" campus. Three schools earned the highest rating, and the other 14 were split between "recognized" and "acceptable."

Mike Feinberg, KIPP's co-founder, said he was not surprised that KIPP's Sunnyside High School rated low because it opened in 2010 with 120 ninth-graders. He said it takes time to catch up the students.

"If this was a full-sized high school, I would be in the hospital right now having a stroke," he said. "But it's the first year out of the gate."

Three area districts — Hitchcock, La Marque and North Forest — were rated "unacceptable" overall. The TEA is planning to close North Forest ISD in 2012 after its streak of poor academic and financial marks.

Grant Savvy’s Top 5 Tips for Winning Grants

I was invited to share a guest post with Digital Library Consulting about the "Top 5 Tips for Winning Grants." Compiling only 5 tips was a bit of a challenge because I easily could have created a list of 100+! At any rate, all of these tips are friendly reminders that I use every day when writing, coaching or engaging with nonprofits. Enjoy!

For nearly 10 years, Digital Library Consulting has made the task of displaying digitized materials on the web easy for the world’s most prestigious and innovative libraries and archives. Institutions such as Princeton University Library, Cornell University Library, and the National Libraries of New Zealand and Singapore, have all relied upon Digital Library Consulting’s products and technical expertise to successfully display millions of pages of digitized newspapers, books, photographs, and other media types to Internet users around the world. Learn more about Digital Library Consulting. 

Top 5 Tips for Winning Grants

Grant writing and proposal development can seem overwhelming. Some days, it is. However, when you take the time to educate yourself about the grant process, you’ll be one step ahead of your competition. Here are 5 tips for success:

1. Do your research. Make sure you have a fit with your potential funder.

Knowing whether or not your potential funding partner is interested in your project is important—very important. If you decide to approach a foundation that has a focus on animal habitats in Africa and you are a library looking for new books, you probably aren’t a good fit. Know what makes the funder tick. What is their mission? What are they interested in? You can access financial information, past giving history and guidelines through their website and online databases. If you submit something that isn’t a good fit, you are wasting everyone’s time.

2. Read the instructions. Read ALL of the instructions.

One of the most obvious and overlooked tips for success is to know what is expected of your application. Every funder has different guidelines, so know what they need from you and make sure you can provide it. A few quick tips for formatting:

• Complete the entire application and answer every question completely and to the best of your knowledge.
• Don’t give half-answers or false information.
• Follow word limits. They are not suggestions.
• Apply all required formatting (12 pt., Times New Roman, 1” margins, etc.) to the entire document.
• Use letterhead whenever possible.  

 

3. Begin with a relationship in mind.

Creating a relationship with a program officer before you submit a proposal is the ideal way to do things. It’s good to have someone to bounce ideas off of and who can be an internal advocate for you. Sometimes that isn’t possible, but reaching out in any way is a good idea. If the foundation accepts phone calls, pick up the phone and introduce yourself. Ask questions about what the funder’s goals are for this year. Clarify any technical questions that you may have about the submission process. If you can’t make a phone call, see if you can reach out via email. You want your funder to be a partner for more than one year and they want to be more than just your bank account.

 

4. Don’t rush the process.

Give yourself time to prepare your proposals. On average, a proposal will take 4-8 weeks to develop. Know exactly what you are asking for and know how you want to describe your work. Give all of your team members enough time to gather information, share their feedback and add to the process. You will also need time to secure signatures from leadership, define budgets, create letters of support and finally, package all of the materials accordingly. 

 

5. Measure your success.

Any investor or funder wants to see that you will be successful with their money. Wouldn’t you? Be thoughtful about your evaluation plan. Funders will usually have a question related to evaluating success and measuring your results. Think it through and stick to your response. Are you increasingly literacy rates? Decreasing school dropout rates? By how much? Why does this matter? How many people are you serving now? How many will you serve in 12 months? Usually 12 months after you receive funding, you will be required to report back on the progress of your program.

 

6. Bonus Tip: Ask for help.

It’s okay. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Seek out resources in your local community such as the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and Grant Professionals Association (GPA). Find free classes, tutorials and workshops that can help you improve your grant writing. There are also a host of reputable resources online including The Foundation Center’s GrantSpace. Never stop learning!

One of the great myths of grant writing is that there are only a handful of large, national or international funding opportunities. The truth is that there are many small, locally-focused grants that are available to nonprofits and community organizations. The more you develop a process to create a winning grant proposal, the more proposals you can submit and the better your chances will be that you see the funding in the bank!

~Cheers!

*In respect to full-disclosure, I was not paid to write this post for DL Consulting, I was not paid to endorse them and did not receive any form of compensation for my mention of their site. Thank you.*

Texplainer: Will Budget Cuts Mean Higher Tuition?

I have to highlight the bottom line at the top:

Bottom line: As schools deal with increasing enrollment and decreasing state funding, it's a safe bet, but not certain, that tuition might rise, even if only modestly. The actual amount is decided on a university-by-university basis by boards of regents.

-Patricia

by Reeve Hamilton | Texas Tribune
July 26, 2011

Hey, Texplainer: If budgets are being cut, how much will tuition be going up at Texas universities?

In the wake of well-documented budget woes, the state Legislature took a more than 9 percent chunk out of higher education funding for public universities and colleges in the recent session.

In June, shortly after the budget decisions were made at the Capitol, the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents called a special meeting in Dallas. It approved a 5.9 percent increase in tuition and fees for Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and a 9.9 percent increase for Angelo State University in San Angelo.

“The increase in tuition and fees will enable us to offset a portion of the deficit we’ve incurred due to state budget cuts,” said Texas Tech president Guy Bailey. The increase is expected to generate approximately $8.6 million for his university, which saw a $29.1 million cut over the next biennium.

The tuition hike has drawn significant criticism from both sides of the political divide. The Tech chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas issued a press release asserting that the regents had “decided to avoid the key issue of balancing the budget by cutting frivolous spending and instead, took the easy way out by passing the burden on to students, as it consistently seems to do.”

Meanwhile, state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, placed the blame on legislators. “By slashing state support for higher education, those in control of the legislature pushed these universities to raise tuition and close the door to higher education for many hard-working students,” he said in a statement.

Of course, the Texas Tech University System is not the only group to make such a move. Earlier in the month, the University of Houston System approved a 3.95 percent increase for each of its four institutions. The UH System Board of Regents Chairwoman Carroll Ray said it was a last resort. “We understand the financial burden many of our students face, however, the UH System could not absorb the cut in state funding we currently face on our own,” she said.

The University of North Texas System regents approved tuition hikes back in March. The 2.8 percent increase at the University of North Texas will mean $101.25 more in tuition and fees for students taking 15 hours this fall and $117.75 in the spring. Unlike some of his peers, UNT President V. Lane Rawlins said the increase was not intended to make up for state budget cuts, but rather to bolster its efforts toward becoming a tier-one research university.

Amid the fireworks of its May meeting, which featured the final speech of an outgoing chancellor and a fiery protest from faculty, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents voted to keep most tuition rates level. However, there were exceptions for specific programs, including three colleges — engineering, veterinary medicine and architecture — at the flagship campus in College Station, as well as some increases at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

How other systems respond to financial issues remains to be seen. Aug. 4 is the deadline for universities to submit requests to the Texas State University System Board of Regents before their mid-August meeting. Mike Wintemute, a spokesman for the system, said he could not predict what would happen, though he said, “Our institutions are facing many of the same pressures that many institutions are facing in the state, primarily significant enrollment increases and reduced state funding.”

The University of Texas System addresses tuition for its undergraduate institutions every two years and won’t revisit the issue until the spring 2012, although it did impose an increase on its health institutions earlier this year.

House Higher Education Chairman Dan Branch, R-Dallas, has been keeping close watch over the situation. In 2009, he passed a resolution out of the House that encouraged universities to raise tuition no more than 3.95 percent or $280 from year to year until 2013. It didn’t make it through the Senate, but the message was clear. And, Branch said, it appears to have been received.

In percentage terms, there haven’t been any double-digit hikes since 2009, and only a few schools have gone beyond Branch’s parameters (For example, Texas Tech's increase may have exceeded 3.95 percent, but it only translated to $252. Angelo State's 9.9 percent boost, meanwhile, amounted to $331, exceeding both guidelines). Overall, the trend has been toward modest increases, Branch said, adding, “And we were well below the national average in increases.”

He said he hopes that universities and regents got the message from the 2011 session as well. “One of the loud headlines from this session was that you’re going to have to do more with less,” he told the Tribune. “We've got to live within our means. You can’t just pass on dramatic tuition increases to families or students.”

Bottom line: As schools deal with increasing enrollment and decreasing state funding, it's a safe bet, but not certain, that tuition might rise, even if only modestly. The actual amount is decided on a university-by-university basis by boards of regents.

Booster urges top regent to stand up for UT president

Kenneth Jastrow II 'Overt lack of support' troubling, UT booster says in letter.

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz | AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, July 25, 2011

A leading booster of the University of Texas has written a testy letter to the chairman of its governing board demanding that he stand up for the school's president.

The letter to Board of Regents Chairman Gene Powell from Kenneth Jastrow II underscores the continuing divide between Powell and much of the Longhorn nation.

The chairman's critics also include major donors, such as Dallas investor Peter O'Donnell Jr., as well as the Ex-Students' Association, also known as the Texas Exes.

Jastrow is chairman of the university's $3 billion fundraising campaign and led its blue-ribbon Commission of 125.

He wrote to Powell after the regents' chairman issued a statement last month defending Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, who oversees the UT System's 15 academic and health campuses, against allegations by a dismissed system official, Rick O'Donnell (no relation to Peter O'Donnell Jr.).

Although O'Donnell also criticized UT-Austin President William Powers Jr., Powell's statement made no mention of Powers. That didn't sit well with Jastrow.

His July 8 letter outlines the Austin president's impressive fundraising record during tough economic times, with more than $1.6 billion raised since the campaign was started in 2008.

"Clearly, 191,000 plus donors believe President Powers and others at UT are doing a good job, and they believe in the mission and core values of The University of Texas," wrote Jastrow, former CEO of Temple-Inland Inc.

He went on to say, "Your overt lack of support of Bill Powers is troubling, especially given the fact that in a UT System Board of Regents roll call vote, Thursday, May 12, 2011, you voted to support Chancellor Cigarroa and the Presidents of each institution in the UT System which, of course, includes Bill Powers."

Jastrow concluded, "You voted to support President Powers, and you should honor your vote."

Powell did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Jastrow's voice is a powerful one in the UT community.

Chosen by then-President Larry Faulkner to head the Commission of 125, Jastrow led a panel of more than 200 civic and business leaders who spent two years studying the university and preparing recommendations that have prompted a revision of the undergraduate core curriculum and other changes.

Powers tapped Jastrow in 2008 to lead the $3 billion fund drive, dubbed the Campaign for Texas, which seeks to underwrite scholarships, faculty endowments, construction projects, research and athletics.

O'Donnell, who had been hired March 1 by Powell, was dismissed April 19 after accusing top UT System and UT-Austin officials of suppressing data showing that a growing sum of tuition and taxpayer money is paid to professors and administrators who do little teaching.

Within hours of the June 27 release of the settlement reached by O'Donnell and the system to avoid litigation, he lashed out during an interview with the Statesman at Cigarroa, Powers and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Democrat from Laredo who leads the Senate Higher Education Committee.

O'Donnell charged that the trio had mounted "a brutal campaign" to demonize regents who have been active in pursuing data on faculty members' research and teaching output, including Powell, Alex Cranberg, Wallace Hall and Brenda Pejovich.

O'Donnell said Cigarroa and Powers had ginned up opposition among donors, alumni and faculty members to the collection of such data. And he said Powers begged him and Powell not to collect the data.

In his response on June 28, Powell said: "At no time did Chancellor Cigarroa encourage donors and alumni to actively oppose efforts by the Board of Regents and Mr. O'Donnell to obtain various data. Furthermore, Chancellor Cigarroa did not encourage 'a brutal campaign' against specific members of the Board of Regents. The Board of Regents has an excellent relationship with Chancellor Cigarroa and fully supports his vision and commitment to advance excellence in education, research, patient care and service across the great University of Texas System."

rhaurwitz@statesman.com; 445-3604