I know we want our state colleges and universities to have better reputations and standards. I know they can be tools for economic development. But does this seem the right way to do it?
Students who might easily have made it into Indiana's public a few years ago are receiving rejection letters due to changing admissions standards.
Some students and high school advisers are questioning whether the bar is being selectively raised to attract out-of-state students at the expense of Indiana students whom the colleges were intended to serve.
One-third of this year's 60,548 undergraduate students at Indiana University in Bloomington and Purdue University in West Lafayette are from outside the state. Ball State University also plans on increasing its out-of-state recruiting efforts this year.
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Recruiting out-of-state students is one way to increase the number of talented students on campus, which can lead to high academic rankings, research money and an enhanced reputation. Out-of-state students also pay more tuition than in-state students.
And they receive more financial aid, The Indianapolis Star reported Monday. Seventy percent of the $35 million in university grant aid IU-Bloomington gave out in 2005 went to out-of-state students.
At the risk of sounding parochial, Hoosier legislators should point out that our institutions of higher learning are part of the state's obligation to Indiana students. Let's take care of our own first, then worry about those from other states.
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Free market purists might assert that it makes more sense to let "the market" determine the make-up of Indiana state colleges, as is apparently done now. Or at least, I assume they might say that, logical or not.
But is serving Indiana students first at state-funded schools really a kind of protectionism? I don't think so, even though plenty of Indiana high school grads clearly choose to go to colleges in other states.
Our state is currently obligated to provide excellent educational opportunities for our own residents. That obligation should be discharged before other considerations carry much weight.
If our colleges are successful enough to attract out-of-staters after our kids have been served, then we can afford to be generous.
In fact, Indiana can and should be a center of higher education. In times past we've had an excellent reputation for turning out well-prepared graduates at all levels of schooling.