Extract from spring 2024 extension
When James Rhodes ran for governor of Ohio in 1962, he said he wanted to establish a public college or university for every Ohio resident within a 30-mile radius. After the Republican won office in 1963, new schools opened: Cleveland State in 1964, followed by Wright State in 1967, Northeast Ohio Medical University in 1973 and Shawnee State in 1985. Today, Ohio has 14 public universities, 23 community colleges, about 50 independent, nonprofit private schools and about 30 for-profit schools.
When Rhodes made his pledge, about 70,000 students were enrolled in Ohio’s colleges and universities. Fifty years later, in 2012, there were about 527,000. But the upward trend began to reverse around that time. By 2022, enrollment in Ohio’s colleges dropped to 463,000, according to the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
“We saw a decline of about 12% in the public sector from 2012 to 2020 – both at four-year and two-year (schools),” said Chancellor Mike Duffey of the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
Duffy blames the decline on basic demographic factors: declining birth rates nationwide and in Ohio, and declining college attendance rates. “Fewer and fewer students are choosing to go to college after high school.”
According to the Pew Research Center, 39% of 18- to 24-year-old men who graduated from high school were enrolled in college in 2022, up from 47% in 2011. During the same period, female enrollment fell from 52% to 48%.
While Ohio is not the only state experiencing declining enrollment, the state’s decline is even greater than much of the country. In Ohio, just over 30 percent of adults ages 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher. That’s below the national rate of 35 percent and the 15th lowest of any state.
Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors, points out that support for higher education in Ohio lags behind the national average.
In 1980, Ohio spent an average of $11,700 per full-time student, adjusted for inflation. In 2022, that figure was $14,890, an increase of 27.3%. However, nationally, the average was $12,102 in 1980 and $17,393 in 2022, an increase of 43.7%.
Instead of increasing financial support for higher education, the Ohio legislature seems to believe that schools need to tighten their belts by cutting programs and staff. Senate Bill 83 would allow schools to lay off teaching staff through program cuts. It passed the Senate and is awaiting a vote in the House.
Kirkpatrick of the AAUP is concerned about the future of faculty collective bargaining rights. University presidents come and go, but faculty typically stay at a university their entire careers, and with that longevity comes unique insights, she said.
“It’s really important that faculty retain their right to collective bargaining,” she said. “Aside from government disinvestment, we’ve seen mismanagement at many institutions, and many people believe that colleges should operate like businesses. But it’s exactly this top-down business model that has created problems at colleges and universities.”
