Twenty years ago, a student at any CU campus paid for roughly one-third the cost of his or her education. The balance came from the State of Colorado.
But today, the situation is exactly opposite – the student and supporting families can expect to pay two-thirds with the state only contributing one-third.
Todd Saliman, vice president, CU System, and Brian Burnett, senior executive vice chancellor, Administration and Finance, explained the shift in state funding priorities to a group of 60 who attended a meeting of the CU Advocates Wednesday afternoon in the University Center. Those in attendance included CU Regents Kyle Hybl and Vice Chair Sue Sharkey as well as Colorado Springs City Council Member Val Snyder, former Colorado State Senator Andy McElhany and campus benefactors Ed Osborne and Tom Saponas.
“48 is not a statistic we should be proud of,” Sharkey said, referencing Colorado’s ranking among the 50 states for funding of higher education.
For almost an hour, Burnett and Saliman drove home points about the lack of state funding, efficiencies that CU has undertaken, the growth of other government spending in other areas and the value of a CU degree as measured in higher individual incomes and lower unemployment rates.
While Burnett and Saliman live the numbers, their task Wednesday was to demonstrate to others that the shifts will soon cause irreparable harm to Colorado and put the cost of attending CU out of reach for low- and middle-income families.
“State support is going down while enrollment is going up,” Burnett said. “This has been a huge challenge for us.”
Saliman explained that only 5 percent of the CU budget comes from the State of Colorado. For UCCS, the number is 10 percent. In only a few years – possibly as early as 2018 – those numbers will be zero.
“The state won’t have enough money to pay for things it has to pay for,” Saliman said. “And it doesn’t have to pay for higher ed.”
While topics such as eliminating or changing TABOR, increasing private donations, and even a ballot issue to support higher education were raised by audience members Wednesday, there were no tangibles to point to. State leaders are talking, however, about options.
“The value of higher education in Colorado is not a self-evident truth,” Michelle McKinney, the event’s organizer and Office of the President staff member said. “But today, we made an installment on changing that.”
In coming weeks, similar presentations will be conducted at other CU campuses. For more information, visit https://www.cusys.edu/cuadvocates/outreach.html.
See a video shown at the event:
To learn more about the CU Advocates program, visit https://www.cusys.edu/cuadvocates
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