The Texas Tribune, an Austin-based publication that covers policy and politics in Texas, made the trek from Austin to Lubbock last week as a part of a statewide discussion that looks toward the next five years in public and higher education.
Chancellor Robert Duncan, who was formerly a Senator for more than two decades before becoming the leader of the Texas Tech System in 2014, was among the guests featured on the panel moderated by Tribune Editor-in-Chief and CEO Evan Smith. The panel brought experts from across higher education in Texas together for a lunchtime discussion of the goals and challenges that are coming between now and 2020 - a year significant for Texas Tech in particular.
Texas Tech President M. Duane Nellis opened the event, which attracted a full house at the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center and included Senator Charles Perry (who now holds Duncan's recently vacated Senate seat), Juliet Garcia, executive director of the Institute of the Americas at the University of Texas, and Wynn Rosser, the president and CEO of the Greater Texas Foundation.
Among the issues that arose during the panel, spending was a major concern, a challenge that affects nearly every part of a higher education experience. Nellis, who was previously president at the University of Idaho, said items up for renegotiation in the 84th legislature include ensuring institutions like Texas Tech have the resources to continue to grow.
"We’re recruiting a higher and higher quality faculty and staff to Texas Tech," Nellis said. "We need to ensure that they have the support, the salaries to be competitive, so that we can keep them here at Texas Tech and be part of a very successful university as we look to the future."
Despite 2011 budget cuts to the tune of $5 billion, Duncan said education has always been a major priority for lawmakers in Texas. After his transition from lawmaker to educator, though, Texas Tech in particular will be his top priority.
"Generally, the legislature has always tried to invest in higher education. [But] we’ve had budget constraints to do so. I think, in this sense, I’m looking more at Texas Tech University specifically, as opposed to all higher ed. But again, we have always benefited at Texas Tech, politically, from ‘rising [sic] all boats.’"
A rising tide does indeed lift all boats, to quote John F. Kennedy, and as the budget improves for all Texas universities, so it does for Texas Tech.
"As we go into the legislative session, it’s going to be really important that we continue the funding related to the ENRAF program, the National Research University Fund, the Competitive Knowledge Fund, the TRIP match funding," Nellis said. "Those are some of the key areas that we’re monitoring very carefully and are going to be a very important part of our future."
Money isn't everything, but it definitely helps, which makes it crucial, Nellis said, to restore the budgets of pre-2011 legislature. Duncan said Texas Tech, despite the dramatic cuts, has been able to rebuild.
"We actually were able to restore some of the research funding that was cut in 2011 last session," Duncan said. "So we’ve been very successful and aggressive in national research. I’ve seen some really good work, and our ability to recruit, as some of the things we’ve been able to do since 2011 by bringing back those research funds, as we did in [the] 2013 session."
Duncan emphasized that panels like the Tribune-hosted event are integral for further discussions.
"You basically measure it by the amount of dialog that you have," he said. "In order to move things in the legislative process, there has to be conversation about it. It has to be on everybody’s minds. If you’re an elected official, it has to be something that’s on your constituents’ minds. So these kinds of forums are critical."
