1977. Brent Henze

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СКАЧАТЬ the 10 percent mark—or even exceeded it—in many chronically depressed areas (R. Elgin 397). Record-breaking cold in January and February of 1977 depleted natural gas supplies in Pennsylvania, forcing shutdowns at more than 300 plants and temporarily stalling the efforts of over 265,000 workers. In July heavy rains caused a dam to burst near Johnstown, and the subsequent flood killed at least 76 people and caused damage to homes and businesses in excess of $200 million. Confronted with economic problems like these and with diminishing tax revenues consequent upon them, and unable to resolve differences over its budget and necessary tax increases, the state legislature—hopelessly stalemated in the face of the crisis—left the state completely without a budget in 1977. Interstate highways and roads alike were left to rot because the state could not afford repairs. Dead animals piled up on highways and rest areas were closed; citizens began to joke that the state ought to welcome travelers at the borders with the motto “Welcome to Pennsylvania! No Facilities.” By August legislators had come up with a partial budget to pay state workers and welfare recipients, but lawmakers continued to debate funding for universities and colleges until early 1978, forcing schools and universities to cut back services and take out temporary loans to meet payrolls. Those loans in turn only compounded budgetary crises for state-funded schools and universities, several of which defaulted because they were unable to make interest payments.

      Economic and political problems were only some of the difficulties facing higher education in 1977. Indeed, higher education in general was witnessing extreme instability in the middle 1970s, leading to changes that significantly altered curricula, institutional structures, and student populations. In the fifteen years before 1977, college enrollments had burgeoned, particularly among previously underrepresented groups. Pennsylvania alone witnessed a 21 percent increase in enrollments in higher education during the 1970s, with the greatest growth coming between 1973 and 1976. Widely discussed “open admissions policies” (started in 1970 at the City College of New York [CUNY]) along with federal, state, and local affirmative action policies put the highly charged issue of accommodating culturally diverse students at the center of debates in higher education.7 Enrollment for African Americans in higher education increased from 821,930 in 1974 to 960,804 in 1978; similar increases were recorded for Hispanics (287,432 to 370,366), Asians (114,266 to 203,250), and Native Americans (52,876 to 66,264)—numbers that would continue to increase through the 1980s (Deskins 20). Furthermore, federal measures such as Title IX (1972) were continuing to ease access for female students. For instance, although men still outnumbered women 61 percent to 39 percent in the student body at large, a majority of the 1977 freshman class at Penn State was female. Older students, or “returning adult students,” were also swelling the ranks: by 1976, learners over the age of 22 were the fastest growing segment in higher education, constituting 48 percent of the total national enrollment of 10 million (Munday 681). At the same time, administrators debated both the legality and the practicality of governmental measures to increase the numbers of previously underrepresented groups on campus. When places like Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, and Michigan faced threats from the federal government to withhold funding if they did not move more resolutely to increase enrollment of underrepresented groups, many in higher education lashed out against such “federal intrusion” (Brubacher and Rudy 79)8; but mostly universities moved to comply.

      Demands for more accessible and professionally applicable higher education led to another trend in higher education in the 1970s: the increasing influence of community colleges, two-year junior colleges, and professional/technical schools, all of which brought higher education closer to increasing numbers of students. In a 1976 report, for example, the Pennsylvania Department of Education claimed that “both the number of community colleges and the increasing number of students at such colleges have constituted the greatest growth in post-secondary education in Pennsylvania” (i). Students at the community colleges either worked for associate degrees or transferred after two years to complete baccalaureate requirements: Temple University in Philadelphia was receiving over a thousand transfers a year in 1977, many from Philadelphia Community College (Pennsylvania Dept. of Education 6); and the Penn State system had grown to include 18 two-year campuses, many of whose students came to University Park from those Commonwealth Campuses to complete traditional undergraduate degrees.9 Proprietary schools and schools of technology grew even faster than community colleges during the 1970s. In Pennsylvania, for example, enrollment in proprietary and technical schools grew an astounding 184 percent from 1970 to 1979 (Pennsylvania Economy League 3).

      Despite these increases in overall enrollment in the first half of the 1970s, many colleges and universities faced great economic challenges as they confronted inflation, rising energy costs, and a projected dearth in the number of college-age students (indeed, that anticipated dearth explains, as much as do the political forces left over from the 1960s, the willingness of colleges to reach out to under-represented groups and returning-adult students). Even as early as 1971, a survey of 41 institutions conducted by the Carnegie Commission found that 71 percent were either already in financial distress or were well on their way to it (Brubacher and Rudy 383). In Pennsylvania, for example, federal appropriations to higher education grew nearly 106 percent during the decade while state and local appropriations increased over 92 percent (Pennsylvania Economy League 3), but those increases could not keep pace with rising expenses. Costs for instruction rose nearly 110 percent, expenditures for operation and maintenance of university grounds and buildings climbed nearly 135 percent, and a Pennsylvania government struggling with hard economic times was reluctant to spend additional money on higher education. According to the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, the state ranked 20th—well above average—among the states in its per capita income, underutilized tax capacity, and level of employment but only 48th in terms of higher education appropriations as a percentage of state general revenue (45).

      Many universities therefore were reducing faculty and staff; articles in higher education journals were regularly offering administrators advice on “Managing Faculty Reductions” (e.g., Alm, Erhle, and Webster 153). A study of 163 institutions conducted in 1975 found that from 1971–1974, 74 percent of private four-year institutions, 66 percent of public four-year institutions, and 41 percent of two-year institutions had undergone staff reductions (Alm, Erhle, and Webster 153). In 1973–74, the University of Wisconsin sent lay-off notices to 88 of its tenured faculty; Southern Illinois dismissed 104 faculty and staff members, 28 of them tenured (Brubacher and Rudy 384); and Michigan’s public universities, in the face of setbacks in the auto industry that reduced tax revenues sharply, were under similar duress. Several institutions even faced the possibility of closing. In response to these pressing economic conditions, faculty and staff stepped up efforts to protect their jobs by unionizing. By June 1974, faculty had selected collective bargaining agents on 338 campuses and had successfully unionized on 29 (Brubacher and Rudy 392). Colleges and universities sought to manage budget problems not only by reducing their faculties but also by increasing part-time positions and graduate assistantships. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the five-year period from 1972 to 1977 saw a dramatic increase in the number of part-time faculty in higher education: in 1972, colleges and universities employed 3.17 fulltimers for every part-time faculty member; in 1977, the numbers had fallen to 1.26 fulltimers for every parttimer (Leslie, Kellams, and Gunne 23).

      The panic over declining funds was exacerbated by frequent predictions of large enrollment drops—the general consensus was at least 15 percent—for the coming decade. According to the projections of the Pennsylvania Economy League, for instance, enrollments in higher education in Pennsylvania would drop 32.1 percent during the 1980s, with state-related institutions like Penn State losing close to 20 percent of their enrollment numbers (2–3). Another report issued by the Pennsylvania State Board of Education in 1978 suggested that, due to changes in the birth rate after 1960, “the number of college-aged youths 18–22 w[ould] drop by about 24 percent between 1975 and 1990” (43).

      Economic conditions and projected declines in enrollment caused many potential students to reconsider the value of higher education. On the one hand, this convergence of crises resulted in a phenomenon known as “student consumerism.” To keep the customers coming, institutions of higher education had to please those customers. The Educational Record dedicated a series of articles in the Spring 1977 issue to “The Student СКАЧАТЬ