Closing Thoughts: Dennis D. Berkey, president and CEO of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Dennis D. Berkey, president and CEO of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.Educating the tech economy
Worcester Polytechnic Institute's 15th president, Dennis Berkey, has been in the business of higher education for more than 30 years. He has taught, headed departments, served as dean and provost at Boston University, authored textbooks and sat on boards of trustees. On June 1 Berkey accepted the role of vice chairman elect of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts (AICUM). The independent organization supports higher education through its recommendations to state and federal legislators and its management of private funding. Here, Berkey discusses his role as vice chairman, the challenges facing higher education, and how WPI's partnership with Worcester impacts economic development.
What are your responsibilities as vice chairman and what do you hope to achieve?
I've been on the AICUM board for several years so the role of vice-chairman elect is really continued training for my chairmanship next year. Because Massachusetts is such a technical state, the more we can transfer education in the form of intellectual property, the stronger our economy will be. Massachusetts is the only state in the county that educates more students in private universities and colleges than in public. We need people to become more aware of the importance and needs of private institutions.
Do you think the 2008 budget Governor Patrick has signed will be effective in helping to reduce the cost of higher education?
It's not enough. We need a lot more money for students' financial aid. State financial aid in Massachusetts has declined roughly 13 percent over the last eight years since 1999. It's one of only four states that has decreased, in general, its state aid for financial assistance. We have a lot of work to do, but it won't happen over one or two fiscal cycles.
What the public needs to understand is that higher education is expensive. People ask, "Why does it cost so much?" Just look at any college campus. Higher education is expensive because of the technology housed there, the equipment and facilities that are required to educate our students. At the same time, higher education produces graduates that can drive the economy. We have to help those students to be able to afford that education.
The principle problem facing higher education is the lack of financial aid. The private education sector is using a large part of its own revenue, $275 million a year from their own funds, to reduce that cost. That represents a large amount that state and public tax revenues don't have to contribute. People tend to look at tuition and say, "$32,000 is a lot of money." But to get to that figure, for example, WPI is putting up about 40 percent of total annual educational costs.
What, besides government funding, should be done to offset the cost of higher education?
As a matter of national and state policy, we should be offering affordable student loans with low interest rates and liberal terms for repayment. WPI prepares students to start in jobs that pay in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, and that allows them the ability to repay their student loans. Mom and dad shouldn't have to write a check for the whole shooting match all at once. Back in the 1970's, Boston University president Silber was talking about a tuition advance fund that worked on a sliding scale. Loan repayments would be made through annual income tax filings so that the repayment coincided with income levels. I thought this was a really attractive idea because it made loans payable over the course of your workable lifetime.
How is partnering encouraged within AICUM schools?
The organization has just pulled together a report on how all of our private colleges and universities are providing public services, which will be interesting to review. At WPI, what I have been so impressed with, and would encourage, is a respect for putting knowledge to work. It's really about, "I have a project coming up and how can I apply this concept?"
What other initiatives will you promote as vice chairman of AICUM?
Under the current chair there is a great interest in increasing the discussion around faculty research and making sure that the Massachusetts legislature understands the importance of that research. It focuses on identifying where economic needs intersect with research capabilities and then meeting those needs. I would emphasize the funding of these initiatives because this is where the economic impact can really be justified. The goal is to ask what are the needs of society and to find ways that higher education can collaborate. That's what we want to focus on.
The interview was conducted by Darlene Darcy, and edited for length by Matthew L. Brown.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments