Vol. 1, No. 1

I intend to periodically raise and discuss major issues facing higher education in general and our institution in particular. This forum, which I am calling Friday Focus, will serve as a means by which the entire University community -- faculty, staff, and students -- can consider matters of importance, and it will concentrate primarily on the core missions of the University -- its teaching, research, and service.

I plan Friday Focus to occur on approximately a monthly basis via e-mail. Issues also will be archived on the President's Office web site. I hope it will start and sustain thoughtful conversations among us about some of the most significant academic opportunities and initiatives in which we should be engaging. I look forward to hearing from you about these ideas regardless of whether you agree or disagree with them or want to debate them further. Friday Focus is designed to start discussions, not end them. (I ask that you copy and distribute and/or post each Friday Focus as appropriate for those who don't have regular access to a computer.)

Throughout this first year, I will devote at least one Friday Focus to an elaboration of each of the goals that I emphasized when I was a candidate to be University President. I want to provide a rationale for each of these goals and seek your comments about them.

To refresh our memories, I stated that SMS/Missouri State University must be a University that Missouri depends on to accomplish five goals:

• Democratizing society
• Incubating new ideas
• Helping the region, Missouri, and the nation imagine their futures
• Preparing individuals to understand and create those futures
• Being an institution that models ethical behavior, inclusiveness, and social progress

Today, I want to expand on the first goal -- democratizing society.

Knowledge will be the dominant currency of the 21^st century. Equipped with knowledge, individuals will enjoy greater personal autonomy and be able to fully participate in society. Without it, they will be marginalized and dependent. Knowledge will increasingly become the great equalizer, and that is why it is our obligation to be a University to which Missouri looks to help its citizens trade in the modern currency.

Likewise, if Missouri is to be prosperous and competitive in the future, the state must make adequate investments in public higher education. As the slack economy of the past four years picks up steam, we are already witnessing substantial new investments in public higher education by several states, notably North Carolina, Virginia, and Arizona. It is vital for Missouri to match or exceed these investments if it is to be a significant force in, and for, the future and if it is to grow a robust, nationally competitive economy.

Public higher education conveys a wealth of personal advantages and promotes several self-interests to its participants, but its greater importance is found in the social benefits that it produces. Without these products, our economy and standards of living will quickly erode, and our nation will be weakened and left vulnerable. I believe it is essential that we all understand public higher education's advantages and that we are prepared at every opportunity to explain and discuss them with our students, neighbors, and policy makers. I invite you to join me in studying these social benefits and in making sure that the citizens of Missouri understand them.

Here are some examples:

• Greater personal income: On average, the typical college graduate earns 73% more than the typical person with only a high school diploma. This translates into about a $20,000 difference annually, multiplying to almost a million dollar advantage across an individual life. This income benefit increases even further with advanced levels of education; earning a master's degree is linked to an additional income advantage of about $10,000 annually, or more than $400,000 over a working career, beyond that earned by a baccalaureate graduate.
• Increased public revenue, without increasing taxation rates: Tied to more personal income, the average college graduate pays 100% more in federal taxes and 78% more in total federal, state, and local taxes, yielding more public revenue without requiring tax structure increases.
• Lower levels of unemployment: As educational attainment increases, unemployment falls. This effect holds true for all ethnic groups, but it is particularly strong for minorities.
• Less demand on public assistance and social support programs: People with only a high school diploma are more than twice as likely as a college graduate to be receiving some sort of public assistance.
• Better physical health: At every age, adults with college degrees perceive themselves to be in better health than people without a college education. A mechanism that may account for this difference is better habits of health; for example, 28% of high school graduates in the U.S. smoke compared to only 14% of college grads.
• Lower rates of incarceration: The rate of imprisonment for adults with college degrees is 12 times less than that for high school graduates. Both the social and monetary burdens of imprisonment are lessened by expanded participation in higher education.
• Higher levels of civic participation: The rate of volunteering, for example, is 21% for those with a high school diploma and 36% for those with a bachelor's degree. And, you might be interested to know that Missouri is among the Top 5 states in the nation in volunteerism by those with a bachelor's degree. When it comes to voting, 56% of those with a high school diploma voted in the presidential election compared to 76% for those with a bachelor's degree.

I am convinced the University must deliver a strong message on this topic; if we do not educate people about the necessity of investing in public higher education, who will? Consequently, I believe we should make it a special focus of our Public Affairs activities and events this year. Consistent with our statewide mission, SMS/Missouri State University should be a leader in discussing this topic on behalf of all postsecondary public institutions. In order to plan and organize such efforts, I have asked Dr. John Harms, one of our faculty with interests and expertise in this area, to work with Dr. John Strong, Assistant to the President for Public Affairs, to plan and organize a series of events that will address questions of why and how we invest in public higher education and how to maximize the profits from those investments.

As a social intervention for the public good, higher education has few rivals, and it remains one industry in which the U.S. remains the undisputed world leader. However, we are seeing an alarming loss in this edge, due in large measure to threats on the model of public funding that allowed our system to develop and flourish. I look forward to exploring with you how Missouri State University can lead an effort to substantiate and sustain the essential benefits of public higher education.

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