SSTI Digest

Stan Sokul has been named executive director of the PCAST, the President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology. Sokul formerly served as a lobbyist on Internet policy issues.

Tracy Taylor has been named to serve as CEO for the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp (KTEC). Taylor fills the position vacated by Rich Bendis.

With one of the country's largest concentration of industrial and academic scientists and engineers, it is only fitting that Michigan hosts SSTI's Sixth Annual Conference, October 2-3, 2002. Led by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC), Michigan has consistently been among the leading states for implementing innovative programs and policies to create tech-based economies: the life sciences corridor and billion biotech investment, automation alley, fuel cell commercialization, broadband deployment, university tech transfer, and the list goes on. MEDC, the host sponsor for SSTI's 2002 conference, is itself a product of innovative thinking in 1999 that privatized most of the state's economic development and worker training programs. More information about MEDC's tech initiatives can be learned by visiting its website: http://www.michigan.org About SSTI's 6th Annual Conference SSTI's annual conference has become the premier event nationally for the tech-based economic development community. Focusing on practical tools and policies for fostering economic…

At almost every turn, the important roles played by universities and colleges in a knowledge-based economy seem to be validated. Industry and political leaders across the country are talking of the need for strong institutions of higher education, particularly public research universities, to improve national, state, and local competitiveness.  Whether it is the generation of new ideas or innovations or the development of a skilled workforce, higher education is a critical component of almost every high tech hot spot (see for example, Annalee Saxenian's analysis of Silicon Valley and Route 128, Regional Advantage, or the Milken Institute's report, America's High Tech Economy: Growth, Development, and Risks for Metropolitan Areas) or the most successful state and local tech-based economic development strategies.  Clearly, policymakers have grasped the important role of higher education in building tech-based economies.  One need look no further than the number of initiatives that governors have proposed in their State of the State…

The importance of attaining a higher education resonates with more than three-fourths of Americans today, according to the biennial survey Attitudes toward Public Higher Education, conducted by the American Council of Education. However, the survey points out most people are concerned that future state budget cuts could threaten the educational quality of institutions and limit the economic benefits they provide.  Key findings include:  Nearly 90 percent of the 700 adults surveyed feel that it is "very important" (76 percent) or "fairly important" (13 percent) to have good public colleges and universities in order to have a well-trained workforce in a state. Other economic benefits of good public institutions cited include enabling states to be technologically competitive (85 percent); enhancing research and technology in a state (85 percent); and creating jobs (83 percent).  Respondents also understand the direct connection between state budgets and the financial stability of public colleges and universities (76 percent ). They express "a…

More than $1.26 billion in royalties were collected by U.S. colleges and universities in FY 2000, according to the tenth annual licensing survey released by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). In addition, the FY 2000 Annual AUTM Licensing Survey reported 347 new products were introduced to market and at least 454 spin-off companies were created by the institutions, where inventors filed for more than 8,500 U.S. patents.  Attesting to the localized economic development impact of strong university research, more than 80 percent of the start-up companies were located in the academic institution's home state or province.  Other survey highlights include:  Two-thirds of the 4,346 new licenses/options in FY 2000 were granted to companies with fewer than 500 employees. Start-up businesses were launched to commercialize 626 of the licenses. New licenses rose 11 percent over 1999 survey results.  Invention disclosures rose 6 percent from 1999 to a FY 2000 total of 13,032.  Patent applications grew by 15…

A decline in state appropriations at four-year public institutions of higher education was the single most important factor associated with increases in tuition, according to a report released in February by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education  The Study of College Costs and Prices, 1988-89 to 1997-98 shows that changes in tuition and fees — what colleges charge and the costs they incur to educate students — are related in only limited ways and that many factors have been causing the continued tuition increases at public and private institutions over and above inflation.  Mandated by Congress, the study used data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to examine two main issues: the relationship between college prices (tuition the family and student pay) and costs (what the institution spends), and the relationship of federal and institutional aid to price increases.  Overall, from 1988-89 through 1997-98, tuition charges in both the public and…

Trends in College Pricing 2001, the College Board's annual survey of more than 3,000 schools reported that college tuition and fees in 2001-2002 had increased an average of between 5.5 and 7.7 percent at four-year institutions, and between 5.5 and 5.8 percent at two-year institutions. Undergraduates at American colleges are paying, on average, from $96 to $890 more than last year for tuition and fees this year, depending on the type of institution. Students also faced charges of between 3.9 and 6.6 percent more for room and board.  At four-year private institutions, students are paying $890 more ($17,123 vs. $16,233, a 5.5 % increase);  at four-year public institutions, students are paying $267 more ($3,754 vs. $3,487, a 7.7 % increase);  at two-year private institutions, students are paying $414 more ($7,953 vs. $7,539, a 5.5 % increase); and  at two-year public institutions, students are paying $96 more ($1,738 vs. $1,642, a 5.8 % increase).  Students who attend out-of-state or out-of-district colleges often face additional charges that increase their expenses for…

At -3.6 percent, college endowments posted their biggest losses since 1984 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001, according to the annual endowment survey conducted by the National Association of College & University Business Officers (NACUBO). Fortunately, the decline in investment revenues follows a 13 percent return for FY2000.  Earnings from endowments investment pools are essential to higher education institutions because they provide funds for such expenses as financial aid, faculty salaries, and other operating costs. As a general rule, higher education institutions spend approximately 4.5 percent of the market value of their endowments each year. As the recession deepened last year, alumni & corporate contributions also declined for many schools.  The full Endowment Survey will be available for purchase later this month from NACUBO. The preliminary press release is available at: http://www.nacubo.org/ 

With the latest National Conference of State Legislatures survey revealing 45 states are dealing with falling revenue projections and 37 already report budget gaps in next year's revenue forecasts (see http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2002/021502.htm), the number of states proposing or considering cuts to higher education for FY 2003 continues to grow.  Nearly half of the states — Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin — already have cut current year appropriations to universities and colleges or recommended cuts for next year.  To maintain or create momentum in academic research and tech-based economic development, a few governors are proposing the state borrow money (through bond issuance) to pay for selected non-capital programs like Kentucky's Bucks for Brains initiative, which historically has been financed through $230 million in…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:99), the third in a series, presents the results of a 1998 survey conducted of institutions' policies and practices affecting faculty. Among the findings -- a large proportion, about two-fifths, of all faculty worked part time. During the five year period preceding the study, 40 percent of all institutions (all public and private not-for-profit Title IV participating, degree-granting institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia) took actions to reduce the size of the full-time faculty. Twenty-two percent of them did so by simply replacing full-time faculty with part-time faculty. Other measures included "increasing the faculty course load, increasing class size, reducing program offerings, and substituting on-campus courses taught by full-time faculty with remote site (e.g. video, audio, internet) courses."  Different types of institutions relied on those reduction measures to varying degrees to effect the change. Overall, public research institutions were…

With the release of the President's FY 2003 budget request, five of seven federal programs designed to help state universities in 21 states were slated for cuts or total elimination. Collectively known as the EPSCoR programs, short for Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, the emphasis began in 1979, with an innovative National Science Foundation (NSF) program intended to improve the research competitiveness of those states that have received lesser amounts of federal R&D funding.  Designed around the premise that aiding researchers and institutions in securing federal R&D funding will develop a state's research infrastructure and advance economic growth locally and nationally, EPSCoR investments have become an integral element of many states' strategies to develop tech-based economies.  NSF's EPSCoR is active in 21 states — Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West…