As another academic year closes, our guest today, University of New Hampshire President Mark Huddleston, can look back at a year that was a little easier than 2011, when the legislature cut appropriations to higher education in half. Now, with some of that money restored, tuition was frozen for a time, while other initiatives (many bolstered by private money) moved ahead. In January, UNH and Franklin Pierce law center made it official, and now there’s “UNH Law School” in Concord. In April, a new school of business and economics opened on the Durham campus, and planning is also underway for the new Carsey School of Public Policy. Also this year, Huddleston also participated in a White House forum on college affordability. It’s a problem especially relevant to his institution, where tuition is a lot higher than at most state universities, and where students graduate with among the nation’s highest levels of debt. (digital post by Faith Meixell)
GUEST:
- Mark Huddleston - president of the University of New Hampshire
LINKS:
- Last year's vote for a tuition freeze: "The USNH board of trustees voted unanimously Friday to freeze tuition for in-state students for two years, one day after the state community college system announced its tuition rates for all students would remain stable next year."
- UNH down-sizescommunications and public affairs staff: "the changes are part of an ongoing effort to get the school up to date in the world of communications. It could mean as many as a dozen reorganized positions once the process is completed this summer"
- Huddleston defendsUNH's planned football stadium renovation: "the university plans to pay the projected $25 million cost of a major renovation of its outdoor athletic complex through borrowing and private fund-raising, and stressed it will have no effect on student tuition"
- UNH prepares for largest incoming class ever: "President Mark Huddleston says UNH attributes that at least partially to the restoration of state funding that allowed the school to freeze in-state tuition for two years."
- Obama's plan for higher education ratings: "The heart of the proposals is a controversial plan to rate colleges based on measures of access, affordability, and student outcomes, and to allocate aid based on those ratings. Under the plan, students attending higher-rated institutions could obtain larger Pell Grants and more-affordable loans."
Watch Mark Huddleston's 2014 State of the University address here.
