Chancellor Makes Pitt’s Case Before Legislators On “Damaging” PA State Budget Proposal

In testimony before the Appropriations Committee of the Pennsylvania Senate last week, Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg labeled proposed cuts to the University’s appropriation as “deep...disproportionate...and damaging.” The hearing originally had been scheduled for March 28 but was moved to March 16 in light of the steep cuts to higher education funding proposed by the Governor in his March 8 budget address. Also offering testimony were the presidents of the Commonwealth’s three other state-related universities—Ann Weaver Hart, Temple University; Ivory Nelson, Lincoln University; and Graham Spanier, The Pennsylvania State University.

Legislative committee hearing on the Governor’s proposed education funding cuts: The heads of Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities, including Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, testified March 16 before the state Senate Appropriations Committee in Harrisburg. From left are Graham Spanier, Pennsylvania State University; Chancellor Nordenberg; Ivory Nelson, Lincoln University; and Ann Weaver Hart, Temple University.

In responding to questions posed during the two-and-one-half-hour session, Nordenberg underscored the importance of higher education, both in elevating individual lives and in sustaining the collective strength of the Commonwealth; emphasized the special role played by the state-related universities, which today educate more than 150,000 Pennsylvania students and also are important research centers; and described the positive impact of Pitt, through its programs of education, research, and public service and as an engine of economic growth.

Under the Governor’s proposal, the University would suffer a 50 percent reduction, or $80 million, to its general educational appropriation; would face the complete elimination of nearly $17 million in funding for four programs in the health sciences—the School of Medicine, the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, the Dental Clinic, and the Center for Public Health Practice; will lose more than $7.5 million in stimulus funding; and is concerned about the possible loss of more than $9 million in annual research grants from the tobacco settlement fund. In total, those cuts exceed well over $100 million.

As he has done in other public statements, the Chancellor labeled the proposed 50 percent reduction to the University’s general appropriation as a “fundamental retreat” from the basic agreement struck in the mid-1960s, when Pitt became a state-related university. At that time, the Commonwealth committed to providing an appropriation of sufficient size to support large numbers of university opportunities for Pennsylvania students at a more affordable tuition rate than private universities charge. Today, Pitt not only maintains a sizeable differential between in-state and out-of-state tuition but charges roughly $25,000 per year less than peer private universities.

One collective message delivered by the presidents was that the entire weight of these large cuts could not be passed on to students. However, they also added that tuition increases that are far larger than usual, particularly for in-state students, seem inevitable in the absence of legislative relief and that dramatic reductions in state support could lead to a basic re-examination of the current tuition structure.

Nordenberg continued to express respect for the Governor and an appreciation for the difficult task he faces in dealing with the budget deficit that he inherited. “I’ve never had to close a $4 billion deficit, and I’ve never had to do it in six weeks,” Nordenberg told the committee. “I do understand the pressures under which the administration was operating. I also do understand that all of us will need to do our share to bring things into better alignment economically.”

Committee members, to a person and regardless of their party affiliation, seemed strongly supportive of the case made by the state-related universities. Sen. Jim Ferlo (D-38th District) noted that Pitt had helped rebuild Pittsburgh after the 1980s collapse of the steel industry. “It would not have happened without the energy and resources of the universities,” he said, adding that securing adequate funding for the Commonwealth’s institutions of higher education “is not a Republican or Democratic issue.”

Sen. John Rafferty (R-44th District), a graduate of Pitt-Johnstown, and Sen. John Yudichak (D-14th District) have formed a bipartisan caucus to advocate for more adequate funding for the state-related universities. Sen. Rafferty spoke of the proposed budget cuts as an undesirable change in policy. “We’re saying in this budget document... that we do not value higher education in Pennsylvania, that we do not see it has a role to play in economic growth. That goes against every study I’ve ever read about the evolution of a knowledge-based economy.”

There also was an express recognition that, because of a no-increase pattern of funding for public higher education, the state-related universities had not contributed to the current state budget deficit. Senator John Pippy (R-37th District) noted that funding for the state-related universities had remained flat over the course of the last decade, even while inflation and funding for many other programs had risen, and stated, “So you’ve been carrying a pretty heavy burden already. With the economic impact you have on our communities, it just doesn’t make sense that you are getting targeted” for funding cuts.

In concluding the hearing, Sen. Jake Corman (R-34th District), the Committee’s chair, stated that the Governor’s proposal has forced Commonwealth residents to think about higher education and its relative value to other items in the annual budget. “Now the public is going to get engaged and hopefully put higher education at a higher level of priority in our budget.” Interestingly, polling results released two days after the hearing by the Center for Opinion Research at the Floyd Institute for Public Policy at Franklin and Marshall College found that only 28 percent of respondents favored balancing the state budget by “cutting state funding in half for the state’s public universities.”

Pitt and the other state-related universities will have the opportunity to take their case to Harrisburg again on March 28, when they appear before the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165th District). In an interview following the Senate hearing, Adolph said the higher education budget reduction proposals came as a “complete shock” to the Legislature. “That will be looked at very closely, and we will get the information of how that will affect tuition and how that would affect the overall fiscal stability of the state system, and we will certainly evaluate that proposal,” he said. “I have always been an advocate for funding of higher education. I’m only speaking for myself, [but] I just don’t see how a 54 percent decrease can work.”

This year’s “Pitt Day in Harrisburg” will take place on April 5, when members of the University community, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni, will meet with legislators. Additional information about “Pitt Day in Harrisburg” can be found at http://www.govtrel.pitt.edu/events.html. Information about Pitt’s efforts in Harrisburg and other issues related to the budget can be found at the Pitt’s Progress Web site, www.progress.pitt.edu.

Nordenberg said that he left the Senate hearing encouraged by the strong expressions of support that came from Committee members. However, he also cautioned that the hearing was just one step in what continues to loom as a very challenging budget process. “Even if we are able to attain some meaningful level of restoration to our appropriation,” he said, “the state’s funding challenges could leave us with a sizeable deficit. Therefore, we need to continue advocating for the cause of higher education, and for all of the many people who depend upon our universities, until the budget has been finalized so that we are as well positioned as possible to press forward with our important work.”