By SUSAN JONES
The new state Performance-Based Funding Council, which is working on metrics that would be tied to some state funding for Pitt, Penn State and Temple, came to Pitt on Feb. 20 — the last stop on its tour of the three schools. (Find recordings of all the hearings here.)
Council chair Rep. Jesse Topper (R-Bedford and House Republican leader) said, “We’re looking at doing this for a particular subset of our schools that we think are vital to what we offer here in Pennsylvania, not just from an academic standpoint, but also from an economic development standpoint, and what that means to the people of Pennsylvania, and also to demonstrate a return on investment for the tax dollars that we in the legislature appropriate to these fine institutions.”
For this year, Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed a total of $60 million for Pitt, Penn State and Temple to be distributed based on the council’s recommendations, which are due by the end of April. This would be in addition to the same general support the three schools received last year (and since 2019). For Pitt, that’s $151.5 million, which the University uses to give tuition discounts to in-state students.
The new money would ideally be used to promote programs that align with the state’s strategic direction. Dwayne Pinkney, Pitt’s executive senior vice chancellor for administration and finance and chief financial officer and a non-voting member of the council, told the panel that Pitt agrees that the performance model should be based on new dollars, rather than reallocating existing funds.
“We’re excited to engage this work and join you in the identification and design of the appropriate elements and the metrics that demonstrate what our universities are doing today to move the needle on behalf of the commonwealth and the achievement of the outcomes that the state considers the best reflection of performance and value,” Pinkney said.
“We take seriously the concerns and questions regarding the value of a college degree,” he continued. “While the data and research are clear that completing a course of undergraduate study yields significantly more income for graduates over the life of a career, we know that students and families remain skeptical. That’s why performance matters. And we need to demonstrate that we’re focused on outcomes, success factors like graduation rates, persistence, degree production in related areas and placement rates.”
While several of these metrics would be the same for all three schools, Pinkney said it’s important to include one or two that reflect the specific areas of excellence at each school that align with the state’s priorities.
Pinkney said Pitt’s programming “has been very intentional and has really worked hard to align its resources with the things that it does well. … We’re turning over every stone to make sure that we are as efficient as we can be, so that we can redirect, or certainly make sure that we are emphasizing the core mission of the institution.”
Sen. Wayne Langerholc (R-Cambria, Clearfield and Centre counties) asked Pinkney whether the new money would go toward tuition discounts, as most of the state funding does now, or be used elsewhere.
“I think that the model that the commonwealth designs should reflect the direction that you want to take,” Pinkney said. “I think that there is alignment among at least the three research-related institutions that we would recommend a focus on the go forward, and that would be on really thinking about new programs that really expand or accelerate the strategic direction of the state and its priorities.”
Rep. Pete Schweyer (D-Lehigh County) was very direct in questioning how universities attract not just Pell Grant recipients and first-generation students, but also Black and Latino kids, like those he represents in the Allentown area. “We’re not talking about folks that are historically underrepresented and come from school districts, whether they’re like mine or others, that have a higher disproportion of frankly overlooked kids.”
Pinkney noted that there has been considerable discussion over the past several years of the coming enrollment cliff and that there are factors that weigh on an institution’s ability to enroll students from minority populations. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that universities could not use race-based criteria in admissions.
“Given the concerns that we’ve expressed nationally, and given our concerns with our national competitiveness, it is a challenge for me to reconcile how we could contemplate leaving any players off the field,” he said. “I think we should be fielding the most competitive team nationally that we can and members of that team will come from all quarters of our society. …
“We don’t have the luxury of leaving individuals on the sideline,” he continued. “The costs of that are high. The benefits of including individuals as productive members of our economy are significant weighted against the cost of exclusion. I think our institutions work to that end, to try to make sure that we remain places that are accessible. The specifics of that are being worked out. We can do that in ways that do not discriminate against individuals or groups, and our efforts will be focused in those ways.”
Florida system metrics
The council also heard from Tim Jones, senior vice chancellor for finance and administration and CFO for the board of governors of the State University System of Florida, which has had a performance-based funding system in place for 11 years.
The Florida state system oversees 12 schools, ranging in enrollment from 800 to 70,000, with a total of 430,000 students. Previously, funding was based on enrollments, but when the recession came the state decided to focus on quality, not quantity. It took two years to develop a set of 10 metrics that align with the state’s strategic goals.
The money allocated through the metrics system is new funding. The 10 metrics are all weighted the same (10 points each) and include retention, graduation rates, degrees in areas important to Florida, and post-graduation rates of job placement and salaries.
Initially, if schools scored less than 70, they only received half of the new funding available and the remaining money went to the top performing schools.
“Now we’re focused just on improvement. So long as your score is going up, you’re OK,” Jones said. “But if you decline two years in a row, you have to do a student success plan. … We hold funding from those schools until they submit a student success plan. We measure those plans over a several month period, and if we feel like they have implemented those plans, we will release funds to them.”
He said that they look at the metrics every year and make changes as needed. “Our board just adopted a new strategic plan, so we will be spending the summer updating our model to align with those goals,” he said.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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