Texas Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, talked to UH journalism students Wednesday about the path for and the importance of emerging Texas research institutions obtaining flagship status.
Coleman chairs the Legislative Study Group, which produced a report that compares the state of higher education in Texas to that of other states, and concluded that Texas needs more flagship universities to be nationally competitive.
‘I believe Texas wins when we have more (flagship schools) or universities of excellence,’ Coleman said. ‘Houston has one, but it’s Rice; we need a public university.’
When Coleman presented the report to the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it received positive editorials.
‘The reason you want multiple schools of excellence is if you only have two (schools) that people consider excellent, then anyone who’s in the top 10 percent is gonna try and go there,’ Coleman said.
Coleman and the UH administration agree that flagship universities attract business to the city, but also give students the advantage of working with top researchers. UH is already an excellent school, but it needs to demonstrate that to the public, Coleman said.
The report’s recommendation for more flagship universities was a blow to the University of Texas, since it has interests in remaining one of only three flagship universities in the state.
‘UT sent a letter to the (Houston) Chronicle saying that the editorial they did was wrong ‘hellip; basically, they said I lied,’ Coleman said.
Coleman disputed their claim by pointing out the report cited sources for its information with statistics from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Web site.
‘I made sure they understood they had to deal with me. I told UT President (William) Powers, ‘Look, you all claim to be excellence in higher education and that you are the best. Why are you trying to stop other people from being excellent? It would seem to me that you would want more and more schools of excellence in the state of Texas. Why aren’t you leading us to a better place?” Coleman said.
Coleman has been working on creating more flagship universities in Texas since 1997. The deregulation of college tuition passed in 2003 and transferred the power to raise tuition from the legislature to universities. Tuition since has been increased by 69 percent.
‘I still oppose the transfer of setting tuition to university boards of regents,’ Coleman said. ‘I believe we ought to cap tuition again. I had a bill last session and it was killed in the Higher Education Committee ‘- Chairman (Dan) Branch would not let it out (of committee).’
Coleman mentioned that current UH tuition costs, per semester hour, are about five times what they were in 2003.
‘Texas always had the lowest (number of) grants and scholarships because it was affordable,’ Coleman said.
When UH was founded by the Cullen family, their mission was to build a college for the working class of Houston. Coleman explained that if UH reaches flagship status that would not change.
‘If the University moves to research and doesn’t think that instruction is as important, then (the) University has failed to teach the students that come here.’ Coleman said. ‘If instruction and learning are not the center of any university, then that university isn’t doing its job.’
UH President Renu Khator also believes flagship status would only improve the University’s image, and will not change the mission.
‘If that purpose changes, it’s not then my type of university,’ Khator said. ‘Just because somebody comes from (a) working class background doesn’t mean they have to be limited to how high they can go.’
