Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Valpo Univ. Pres. Agrees: No Development without Higher Education

The President of Valporaiso University -- a private university -- has been the one to finally show the courage to state what the public university chancellors have not: The NWI public university system needs to be developed into a real universities -- not glorified high schools. 

Read the following to see some real honesty; do not listen to those appointed by West Lafayette or Bloomington.  Furthermore do not listen to local elected officals like do nothing Aquilera or dufus Dobis.  They have been the source of all our problems.

Northwest Indiana residents need more schooling

by Alan Harre

Everyone instinctively understands that people do not welcome bad news.

Sometimes the bearer of bad news is faulted for sharing the information.

However, if people are unaware of problems, they can do little or nothing to correct them.

The difficult news we must confront is that residents of Indiana are not on a par with the residents of the other 49 states and the District of Columbia when comparing the number of citizens who are at least 25 years old and possess at least a bachelor's degree. According to a 2003 U.S. Census Bureau report, Indiana, with 21 percent of its citizens over age 25 possessing bachelor's degrees, ranks 46th. Only Nevada, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia rank lower.

Current data about the educational attainment of all the citizens of Northwest Indiana are not readily available, but data compiled by the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission based on 2000 census data revealed the region to be below the statewide average in number of citizens 25 or older who possess at least a bachelor's degree. The three-county region had a combined educational attainment rate of 17.1 percent, more than two percentage points below the state average of 19.4 percent.

While the educational attainment level of local citizens has risen since the 2000 census, there is evidence that the rate of improvement has not significantly closed the gap between our region and the rest of the state. Specific data about the educational attainment of the citizens of Porter and LaPorte counties are not readily available, but data for larger population centers such as Lake County are included in updates to census data.

The 2003 data indicate that 18.1 percent of Lake County's residents older than 25 have earned at least a bachelor's degree compared, to the statewide average of 21 percent.

For Indiana to reach the 26th (median) rank among the 51 geographical areas in the United States, Indiana would need to increase to 25 percent the citizens possessing a bachelor's degree, and to 26.5 percent to reach the average (mean) of the citizens of all the states. By way of comparison, the numbers in the higher ranking areas are 44.2 percent in the District of Columbia, 35.8 percent in Massachusetts, 34.57 percent in Colorado, 34.6 percent in Connecticut and 34.5 percent in Maryland.

Business leaders considering locating their operations in Indiana take note of these numbers. For Northwest Indiana to become a more attractive site for businesses that offer higher paying jobs in a global economy, the region must be able to provide the educated work force that such businesses seek.

Hoosiers need to make sure they complete their bachelor's degrees and that they promote the highest educational attainment possible among their peers, neighbors and relatives who reside in Indiana. The result of such improvement will create a more attractive location for businesses. It will assure higher wages for workers and a better quality of life for all.

Alan Harre is president of Valparaiso University. The opinion expressed in this column is the writer's and not necessarily that of The Times.

If not for mediocrity, NWI wouldn’t have too much

Sept. 22, 2005

By Maurice M. Eisenstein
Post-Tribune guest columnist

It is often suggested that I criticize in a more genteel manner: use honey, not vinegar. Privately, thinking individuals have agreed with me.

But some have argued that leaders will listen to my arguments if only I state them in a nicer fashion.

Nonsense. I spent 10 years being nice to Northwest Indiana leadership. After a decade, little has positively changed, while much has deteriorated.

Kindergarten through 12th-grade education exists in name only, and public higher education is a joke — reflecting an acceptance of a statewide, two-tier higher-education system — one for whites and one for minorities. While our leadership makes excuses, this reality is beyond question. It is a funding comparison.

Excuses are irrelevant. As University of Chicago political scientist David Easton indicated, what matters is output, i.e., results, leadership and effective policy. What has been the local output?

Last week, 150 Northwest Indiana business and civic leaders were informed by Tim Sanders, director of Northwest Region for the Indiana Economic Development Corp., that there is great interest in NWI by businesses, but once they find out about our lack of work-force quality, we don’t hear from them again. The response by our leadership is to get a $300,000 grant to study what skills we should develop to attract business.

That room must have been filled with the very incompetence and mediocrity that plagues NWI. A $300,000 study? Have any of them heard of reading, writing and arithmetic — areas in which we are the lowest in the state? What did they not understand about Sanders’ data, which showed NWI with the lowest percentage of college graduates in the state? NWI’s public universities are mediocre because they are underfunded.

Lake County government tried to reduce its work force by two positions, out of 2,500, but could not. It is the most incestuous place in NWI. The result is the largest budget ever for the Lake County government. How can one not call this mediocrity, if not downright incompetence?

Gary’s leadership wants to spend its political capital on an irrelevant license bureau, while the state holds back tens of million of dollars for higher education and the Gary leadership has never made a squeak. Looking at outcomes, it would be difficult to find a state legislative delegation as mediocre as the one representing Gary.

Hammond’s mediocrity follows Gary. Retail development is fine if it brings money in to cronies of Tom McDermott Sr., like Dean White. But where education could bring real money — like $10 million annually in tax money just to match what Fort Wayne receives for higher education — the junior McDermott is speechless. Ditto for former Mayor Duane Dedelow.

Our new Regional Development Authority requires advanced transcripts for testifying in front of them. Why would anyone believe these people were picked because they have a track record of results, rather than because they are political cronies, when they can’t answer questions without preapproving the question? Just as gambling made promises but achieved nothing, so will the RDA.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in mediocrity among NWI leadership. By their very nature, the only way to move these people is like what you do with mules — hit them with a 2-by-4 to get their attention.

That, sadly, is the nature of mediocre people.

Maurice M. Eisenstein is a professor at Purdue University Calumet. His opinions do not represent Purdue University. Contact him at [email protected]

PUC professor takes issue with chancellor over funding

Thursday, sept. 8, 2005

By Maurice M. Eisenstein
Post-TRibune guest columnist

In a recent Post-Tribune letter to the editor, Howard Cohen, Purdue University Calumet’s chancellor, called my Aug. 25 column on higher education in NWI “unfair and uninformed.”

The feedback I received from colleagues about this fell into three categories: The chancellor’s comments seemed personal, his comments did not address the issues raised and, finally, only in NWI would a chancellor blast a citizen’s column requesting more funding for local students in our local universities.

The public attack against my professional credibility is inappropriate because Cohen is my “boss.”As far as his motivation, one can only speculate that having gained the political position on the Regional Development Authority from the McDermott family, he has adopted the modus operandi for NWI politicos: when you cannot answer the issues, destroy the personal-professional lives of the questioners.

Cohen states “a political scientist who professes expertise on state and local government affairs, (Eisenstein) knows very well this was not a session in which there were excess revenues available for distribution.”

Putting aside my professional credentials, one did not have to be an expert to know that Indiana’s budget was tight. While the chancellor congratulates our legislators for “helping to minimize our reduction in state funds,” that does not answer the question of why, during this legislative session, only PUC and Indiana State had reductions?Although, ISU remains first in funding.

Chancellor Michael Wartell of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne has raised the following question to the State Board of Accounts: “Why does it take $4,000 (yearly) more per student to educate an English major in Kokomo and Indianapolis than it does in Fort Wayne?”

I ask the same question for NWI that Chancellor Wartell asked for Fort Wayne.Why does it take $4,200 more yearly in public funds to educate a student in Indianapolis and Kokomo than it does in NWI?

IPFW has been in the forefront of developing higher education outside the shadow of Indianapolis.Officials there began student housing at regional campuses; the rest just tagged along. They have become part of the Interstate 69 State Higher Technology development corridor.And, they compete in 16 NCAA Division I sports.

IPFW also receives over $10 million more yearly than PUC (plus three instructional buildings), which is worth more than the RDA and/or Cabala’s in economic development value.

But if PUC can do this for $4,200 yearly less per student than Kokomo or Indianapolis, and $6,500 less yearly per student compared to Lafayette or Bloomington, what are these other campuses doing with all that extra cash?

Don’t be fooled. The extra money isn’t needed for housing or athletics, which have to be self-supporting.

Other campuses get more money per student every year to do what Cohen says PUC is doing with less.Either the other campuses are getting too much or NWI is getting too little.

Underlying this question, NWI’s campuses educate more Hoosier minority students than all other state-funded universities in Indiana.

How is this disparity not racist?

Maybe our legislators and the chancellor are trying to tell us that minority students don’t cost as much to educate?

Maurice M. Eisenstein is an associate professor of political science in Purdue University Calumet’s Department of History and Political Science.

Contact him at [email protected] or 989-2688.