University of Texas dean: ‘The classroom is not a marketplace’

A University of Texas humanities dean is slamming proposals endorsed by Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders to dramatically reduce college costs by altering the basis for paying professors. Under Perry's plan, professors' pay would be based on the number of students they teach, and would come out of separate research and teaching budgets.

Perry has endorsed the recommendations of a think tank called the Texas Public Policy Foundation in his quest to get Texas colleges to provide a $10,000, four-year college education, including the cost of books. College tuition in the state has risen by more than 70 percent since it was deregulated during a budget crisis in 2003.

UT Austin College of Liberal Arts Dean Randy Diehl wrote in a somewhat cantankerous report that "evaluating professors based on how much tuition they bring in" is the wrong approach, and may interfere with the state's flagship university's own strategy to keep down costs while maintaining excellence in research and teaching. The college has a six-year graduation rate of 81 percent, which is above average for a large public institution.

"We are skeptical that a recent challenge to develop a quality bachelor's degree that costs less than $10,000 can yield the levels of excellence or efficiency we already reach or serve students effectively," he wrote.

Diehl bristled at the think tank's premise that students are customers who must be served by faculty.

"The higher education experience is not akin to shopping on iTunes or visiting Banana Republic," he said--citing in particular the Perry plan's recommendation that professors and students enter into a signed "contract" about what they promise to teach. "Curricula are based on the wisdom of traditional educational experience, accrediting agencies and state requirements--not simply the momentary wants of the consumer."

Diehl also blasted the proposal that teachers be paid based on how highly their students rate them in evaluations. "The classroom is not a marketplace," he said.

He argued that increasing enrollment and slashing tuition would lower the college's graduation rate and "yield diminishing returns in excellence."

The think tank responded in a statement yesterday that "while world-class research has its role at research universities, students should not be relegated to secondary status, which they are too often today." Conservative groups have argued that universities spend too much money on research and not enough on teaching.

A recent survey of chief financial officers at public and private colleges suggest that this debate is not just happening in Texas. The CFOs said most often that they considered heavier teaching loads and higher tuition as strategies to cut costs and raise revenues.

According to data from the National Association of Budget Officers, 18 states cut higher education spending in fiscal 2011 by $1.2 billion. But proposed cuts for the next fiscal year are much steeper: They total more than $5 billion for higher education.