Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Commission of Higher Education Minutes on Institutional University Racism

From the minutes of the Commission of Higher Education meeting on October 13, 2006:

VII. PUBLIC COMMENT

Dr. Maurice Eisenstein, Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University Calumet, stated that he was speaking on behalf of the citizens of Northwest Indiana. He stated that, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, Indiana ranks number one in the maldistribution of funds to its higher education institutions. He said that the state has continually neglected the upper third of the state and is short-changing itself and the citizens of the northeast region in terms of economic development and tax revenues.

He proposed that the Commission consider some level of dollar equity outside of the four major research universities, change institutional racism, and change the regional campus’ missions.

Dr. Eisenstein said it is his understanding that the current institutional budgets are illegal.  He said public law (PL 20-12-16), passed in the 1970’s, reads that a separate Advisory Board of Trustees was to be created for the regional campuses of Northwest Indiana because the legislators believed that the regional campuses were not being fairly represented by the regular Board of Trustees at the main campuses of Indiana University and Purdue University.  He said that this procedure has never taken place.

Due to time constraints, Mr. Murphy requested that Dr. Eisenstein submit any further comments to the Commission in writing.

The time constraints were only applied to myself not to any of the big time university presidents with their slick presentations that cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars all saying the same thing over and over.  None of them addressed the abject failure on their part to promote economic development in the State nor address the disparity in minority funding for higher education, i.e. institutional racism.

There was no response to my requests.  Therefore I will be attending the next meeting with written information and the support of everyone in NWI that has the guts to stand up: elected officials, civic and religious leaders, educational leaders, and you and me -- NWI citizens.

University Presidents Destroy Indiana Economic Development

My earlier discussion of Indiana higher education highlighted two pieces of important information about the condition of higher education in Indiana and, in particular, Northwest Indiana. This was during my presentation to the Commission of Higher Education.

First, Indiana is No. 1 in the country in the unequal distribution of tax dollars to higher education campuses. Second, the northern and southeastern parts of the state have been ignored in developing higher education. The obvious next question is, so what? Or, put another way, what really are the consequences to the state?

The consequences can be found on the Commission of Higher Education's Web site study, where Indiana is compared with eight other states: Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, Virginia and Massachusetts. This is heavily weighted toward to Midwest, making the comparison of like apples clearer.

When combined with the Department of Education study, the conclusion that must be drawn is, the officials deciding the distribution of higher education funds in the state are responsible for its lackluster economic performance and its continued inability to grow as a mature, self-sustaining economic powerhouse. In the process, they have uselessly drained the state's coffers, with no measurable serious advantages to Hoosiers.

Of all the states studied, Indiana is No. 2 in higher education operating expenses and scholarship spending for each citizen. For each Hoosier citizen, Indiana spends $275 on higher education. Only Minnesota spends more. Indiana also comes in right behind Minnesota when it comes to spending level per higher education student. For each student in a public university, Indiana spends $5,359 --higher than all its nearby states except Minnesota.

This would be commendable if it was equitably spread across the state -- as Wisconsin does, for example -- but it is not. More than 40 percent of all the higher education funds go to two places: Bloomington and West Lafayette. If one includes Muncie and the professional schools, more than 60 percent of all funds are allocated to four places.

What is important to understand is that none of the three campuses (Bloomington, West Lafayette or Muncie) has stepped up to the plate and provided economic development for Indiana. According to the commission's study, when measuring federal spending on university-based research and development, Indiana is at the bottom of all nine states. These campuses are getting too much taxpayer money, are bringing in the least research money and are starving the rest of the state when it comes to higher education.

The consequences are real. Of all nine states, Indiana has the highest dropout rate at 13 percent, double the other states. In addition, Indiana has the lowest per-capita personal income of all the states. The economic demise of Indiana is not due to lack of funding; Hoosiers do more than their fair share. It is the result of what the Department of Education identified as the selfish distribution of these funds, without concern for their consequences on the state.

The fault lies first with the presidents of the universities, who never have performed to improve Indiana, only their résumés. Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas must assume part of the guilt because he sits on the Commission of Higher Education; so must our elected state legislators for not being awake enough to understand the consequences of their actions of just going along to get along.

No more Lying to the Higher Education Commission

Last Friday, Friday the thirteenth, the Indiana Commission of Higher Education met in West Lafayette to review the 2007-08 and 2008-09 budget submissions for the various Indiana public university campuses. This is one of the legal steps in preparation for the budget request to the Legislature, which eventually provides the actual tax money to the campuses.

I addressed the commission. Unlike the boards of trustees of Purdue and Indiana universities, they allow Hoosier taxpayers to address them. I went as a taxpaying citizen of Northwest Indiana. NWI has more than 850,000 people and makes up about 14 percent of the state's population.

My question was, are we getting our fair share in the benefits allocated for higher education in the state? I was alone. There was no support from any local or state elected officials. No Mayor McDermott of Hammond, no Mayor Clay of Gary, and no Senator Mrvan, they were no shows for the most important job they had to do.  Just me.

I told the commission I was there to speak for the people of NWI who were not being represented and do not have a voice. I said I didn't have fancy PowerPoint presentations or the slick handouts university presidents gave commission members. I told them I brought facts and the interests of NWI.

According to the Department of Education, Indiana's higher education funding ranks first for its inequitable distribution across the various campuses. This dire statistic has been known for two years, but nothing has been done by the commission or our local legislators.

I told the commission three changes that need to occur. One, funding needs to be greatly equalized between the center of the state and the northern part, in particular NWI. The president of Indiana State University earlier told the commission that each incoming freshman gets a free laptop computer. A great idea, I said, but we in NWI cannot even keep our campus libraries open past 5 p.m. because of lack of funding.

Two, institutional and structural racism must end -- now. Most Hoosier African-Americans and Hispanics attend campuses in NWI. But they receive less than half the public funds of their fellow white Hoosiers in the center and southern parts of the state. Although this has been historical reality, it must end, because it is illegal.

Three, the mission of NWI's largest campuses -- Purdue University Calumet and Indiana University Northwest -- needs to be changed from the current low-level status to an equal mission with Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. IUPUI has the mission of a "metropolitan university," with greater quality, status and funds than the lower status of regional campus given to PUC and IUN. Why is this the case?

The ISU president's presentation included a map of Indiana that inadvertently quickly showed the inequality. The northern third of the state had nothing. Everything was in the state's center and south. I could feel the university presidents' daggers aimed at my back as I presented the truth. Sadly, it is the presidents of the various Indiana universities who have let down the state and undermined its economic development and continued the brain drain to promote their own interests.

This is not new. In the 1970s, the Legislature created independent trustees for NWI campuses. This has never been implemented, even though the law clearly states that no budget be presented to the commission for PUC, IUN and Purdue North Central without the approval of these trustees.

In this process, NWI has been severely damaged.

NWI and Commission of Higher Education

Press Release

For immediate release

Presentation for NWI Higher Education before Indiana Commission of Higher Education

On Friday, October 13, 2006, Dr. Maurice M. Eisenstein will be making a presentation before the Indiana Commission of Higher Education. The Commission will be meeting in West Lafayette, Indiana on the Campus of Purdue University. Commissioner Stan Jones knows of this presentation and it has been ok’d.

Dr. Eisenstein will be presenting the NWI citizen’s perspective on the higher education needs. Specifically, he will be showing how the northern part of the State and in particularly NWI is not equitably represented in the State’s distribution of higher education benefits. Secondly, he will indicating that it is time to end the institutional and structural racism that have characterized higher education in Indiana for the past 30 years.

Finally, Dr. Eisenstein will inquire as to why Indiana’s Public Law creating an advisory NWI Board of Trustees for Purdue University Calumet, Indiana University Northwest and Purdue North Central has never been implemented by the universities.

In the Northern half of the State there is no serious institution of higher education with the exception of Notre Dame, which is strictly a private institution. The northern part of the State and in particular Northwest Indiana has waited long enough to gain benefits for its future from having serious higher education institutions not just “regional” campuses. For example, Purdue University Calumet receives about half the State tax dollars per Hoosier citizen student that West Lafayette, Bloomington, Ball State, or Indiana State receives, all located around Indianapolis. There is not substantive justification for this spread in funding of tax dollars to fund Hoosier students. Purdue University Calumet receives $3,500 per student per semester from Hoosier Tax Payers to educate its students. The other campuses receive over $7,500 per student from the Hoosier Tax Payers. Even Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis receives over $5,000 per Hoosier Student (not including the medical or the law school). Let us not forget that the size of those other campuses gives them economies of scale that IUN and PUC do not have.

Further promoting the inequality between the middle of the State and NWI. Why does not NWI have a medical school and a law school? There is more than enough demand in NWI and in Chicago-land generally, certainly enough to be equal to Indianapolis. Why is the Purdue Board of Trustees asking for twice the percent increase for West Lafayette as for Hammond? Is it because the Hammond Campus has the highest level of African-American and Hispanic students in the whole State? This is the very nature of institutional racism. The Commission of Higher Education must put a stop to it immediately. Where is the 11,000-student growth promised by the president of Indiana University for IUN when there is no money in the budget for it?

NWI cannot develop economically without the level of higher education investment that is occurring in Indianapolis and without the leadership mission that a metropolitan university undertakes as opposed to the lowest rated “regional” campuses.

Finally, the State Legislature passed Indiana Code 20-12-16 Calumet Trustees Advisory Board, which requires no budget be proposed for PUC or IUN without recommendation of this Board. Where is it?

For Questions Contact Maurice M. Eisenstein at 219 513-0196 or 219 614-7353 or by email at: [email protected]

Catholic College Tries to Halt Higher Education Development in NWI

A recent column written by Calumet College of St. Joseph's Vice President for Academic Affairs has specifically requested that yours truly be shut down as a commentator on public affairs in NWI.  (They also called for the silencing of conservative columnist Ann Coulter, but that is a different issue.) 

In attempting to assess why this silencing was all of sudden an important issue for Calumet College and its Vice President, I was truly stumped for a while.  The viciousness of the attack was beyond anything that was readily explainable as a consequence of any recent development.  That is, there seemed to be nothing new that I had criticized or uniquely revealed that would call for this sort of response.

I then realized that there was one new development that did threaten Calumet College and the new $150,000+ position of their Vice President.  For over 15 years, I have become active in promoting metropolitan status for the universities of NWI, Purdue Calumet and Indiana University Northwest.  This would change their mission and improve their overall funding profile per student to match other universities.  This requirement would include a drastic change in governance of the two institutions to reflect the needs of NWI not the needs of Bloomington and West Lafayette as is the case currently.  It would also end the inherent discrimination against Hoosier African-Americans and Hispanics students in higher education in Indiana.

After fifteen years of lobbying the State Legislature and the Boards of Trustees of the major universities, the local political system for once has finally gotten on board this summer.  There is a bill being developed to go in front of the State Legislature for its next term.  The Mayors of Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago are supporting the proposal because they have finally realized that it the only way to gain economic development, to end racism in their communities, and bring tax dollars back to the community.

What I now realize is that the only people who will loose is Calumet College.  At best, it has always been marginal real college.  With PUC and IUN growing to 20-30,000 students each, there is no place or value any longer for Calumet College (there may not be any now).

That is why I believe the whole school, Calumet College, decided to come after me.  If they can discredit me in any way, they hope to stop their ultimate demise even if it is at the expense of the future of the people of NWI.

IU and Purdue Again Insult NWI's Intelligence

My predictions in an earlier blog about the shortcomings of higher education in NWI and the resulting inaction by the Presidents and Trustees of Indiana and Purdue University is coming true.  I promised that once they were exposed for their failures, then the full scale public relations machine will go into full swing -- and it has.

After I exposed in the newspaper and my blog that IUN and its Chancellor and IU President "have no clothes on," all of a sudden President Herbert comes through NWI in a whirlwind promising everything; but producing NOTHING.  Remember public relations does not achieve anything, it only tries to pretend and fool the people into thinking that something is going on when it really isn't.

The first things he promised is that IUN will double its enrollment to 10,000 students and will move to build a dormitory.  These are all vacuous promises and both Bergland and Herbert, B & H, know it.  It is only important for them to make promises that answer my criticism and then they are betting on the public and their political representatives to forget about it. 

The plan for 10,000 students was hatched two weeks ago out of thin air by Herbert to show he cares.  After talking to a number of faculty members and administrators at IUN, I found out that they have never heard of this before and almost fell out of their chairs when Herbert announced it at IUN.  Even Bergland had to hang his head.  Not only had they not heard about it; but, for over two years Bergland has been arguing to the faculty that they need to get ready to DOWNSIZE because there will be a drop in enrollment from the current level.  This was also reflected in the re-organization plan that Bergland unveiled this summer, after an administrators retreat, to re-direct IUN into becoming a glorified DeVry Institute; but certainly not a serious university campus that has the stature to represent Gary on its centennial birthday and certainly not a credit to NWI.

As far as a dormitory at IUN, it is a great idea so why is it not being done?  Dormitories are self financing (no State funds) and even a campus as small as Purdue North Central, half the size of IUN, now has a dorm.  If you mean it, just do it; don't just promise. 

Why the sudden change?  Only because I went down to the Trustees meeting and showed up what charlatans they and the President are.  Herbert commits to getting 10,000 students to IUN and said publicly that he will direct his administrators to pursue this goal.  Since Bergland has been doing the direct opposite for over two years there seems to be no sense in keeping him on.  He has served his purpose.  It is now time for a growth Chancellor.  The President specifically said he would unequivocally direct his administrators prioritize the increase of enrollment at IUN; but we all know that this is going to take additional funds. 

This is the part where the show becomes solely a big public relations lie.  The budget for the next two years, 2007-08 and 2008-09, is already put together and is on its way for approval by the Commission of Higher Education and then the State Board of Accounts and then the State Legislature.  No where in that plan is there money to grow IUN.  After two years President Herbert will not be here since he has already said he is leaving at the end of his current contract.

Again NWI is left holding the proverbial bag.  Now Bergland and Herbert did say they would be happy to do all kinds of new things at IUN, in Glen Park, etc. if Gary comes up with the money.  How dumb do they think we are?  How much money did West Lafayette come up with or Bloomington or even the City of Indianapolis?  Why Gary?  Do I smell a little racism here or am I just paranoid?

Now Purdue has been on the same public relations attack ever since I criticized them.  President Jischke was in NWI on Wednesday doing his whirlwind tour explaining how the favoritism for West Lafayette over NWI really benefits NWI.  Now there is a dance.  During the April Board of Trustees meeting in West Lafayette, President Jischke, with Chancellor Cohen present, said that the Merrillville Leaning Center was an "unquestionable success story."  Now everyone in Hammond knows that this is a complete fabrication and yet these administrators plant a story in today's local paper about the great number of students that the center serves and what a success it is. 

It is all a big lie and a complete public relations campaign.  It is true that there are 1,200 students or so who attend classes down there; but few if any of them are new.  Since Jischke and Cohen must know this they therefore must be making up the success story to justify their expenditure.  If any of these students were new then the overall enrollment at Purdue Calumet would increase.  In fact it has been flat for over ten years during the whole time in which PUC has taught classes at "south county."  So the Merriville Learning Center has had a zero consequences on the bottom line of increasing enrollment, even though that was its sole justification and the claim that the previous classes held in south county had contributed a significant number of new students.  This was all make believe by the previous Chancellor Yackel, the current one, and the President.

It was a Friday when I heard about this success in South County from President Jischke as it was presented in front of the Board of Trustees, who like minarets sat with their thumbs up their . . .uh .. uh nose and applauded.  None of the Trustees had sufficient brains to ask the simple questions I am asking here: show me the numbers.  The Trustees of Purdue University must have learned their management skills from Enron U.

When I came back to Hammond that Friday I did a simple thing.  I looked at the numbers.  PUC was then over 50% through for enrollment for the 2006 fall semester, so how was south county classes doing.  The result was astonishing.  Few of the classes had more than one or two students in them.  This had been consistent with the campus's experience over the past ten years.  What the administrators at the Chancellor's and President's orders were doing is shutting down classes in Hammond or limiting their size and numbers so that by the beginning of the semester there would be enough students "forced" to take classes in south County.  Let us not forget that that whole building sits primarily empty for four months of each year during the summer.

This also concurred with IUN's experience when they were invited to share the space and offer classes at the new Merriville Learning Center.  They offered the classes and no one came.  It was a complete financial and educational failure and they put a stop to it. 

If anyone were to ask why this was building was built then it is up to the proper agencies to investigate whether it was incompetent stupidity or greed. 

In the meantime, IUN and PUC are on a full court press PR campaign to undermine the development of NWI.  As part of this the Chancellors and the Presidents will attempt to stifle free speech by attacking me personally and attempt to hurt my family's ability to make a living.  What is surprising is that these so called leaders will not blink at people on their campuses advocating the end of the United States and killing of Americans.  That they defend as free speech.  But try to improve the lives of people in NWI and they are willing the go after the jugular of my family's ability to earn a living.  That is truly low and they somehow think of themselves as intellectual "elites".  G-d save us from such leaders.

Again how stupid do they think we are?  President Herbert of IU announces that Mayor Rudy Clay of Gary is on board for new buildings at IUN.  Who thought he was not on board?  Or that anyone opposed it or stood in the way of IUN growth?  The only impediment was the President and the Board of Trustees.

They continue to play a smoke and mirror game with NWI in favor of their own careers and the middle section of the State.  It is time for NWI to assert itself as an independent important financial resource for Indiana and we should be treated with the respect we deserve; not as children to be wooed by magic tricks.

Thursday, Day for Mayor Clay to "bitch-slap" IU President Adam Herbert

As I mentioned on my previous blog here, the Indiana University administrators are going into a full court press to help their image in NWI while they proceed to dismantle meaningful higher education here.  The President of the University is coming to NWI on Thursday to dedicate "a" new building and meet with the faculty and administrators.  Now remember Bloomington (and West Lafayette) have been building dozens of new buildings over the past couple of years so don't be so impressed that between the two campuses, IUN and PUC, we have one new building and one new parking garage in over four years (only the building is actually funded by the State in any way).  In the grand scheme of things for higher education in Indiana this is less than giving us peanuts.

As my experience with the IU Trustees has shown, only the high paid administrators are being invited to a taxpayer underwritten lunch, not your every day faculty and workers.  They are going to try to tell the faculty and the citizens of NWI that they really care about us and our economic development.  This is why they plan to do this during the summer; they know that most of the faculty who may ask the hard questions and who know that neither campus is even a third rate university are not on campus for the two months of the summer.  These are the same people who may ask the President of IU, why the Chancellors wife is running the campus and designing its makeup?

But like my visit with the Trustees, the President who showed his lack of grasp of the issues at the Trustees' meeting, will have dodged a bullet again.

By the way the President of Purdue University is going to be in NWI on Wednesday to do the same thing to a private group of business people.  He needs the same "bitch-slap"; but, from a different mayor.

What we taxpaying citizens of NWI need to understand is that these presidents have no, I repeat no, interest in NWI.  They have absolutely no reward structure for success in NWI only in having us believe that they care so we leave them alone.  This belief that they care is to be nurtured by their hires the Chancellors of the campuses.  All of these people only, and I repeat only, care about is what is happening in West Lafayette or Bloomington. 

Now is the time for Mayor Rudy Clay, and the other Mayors who may care about any development in NWI, to take these presidents aside and literally "bitch-slap" them and let them know in no uncertain terms that we are the taxpayers who are underwriting their success and we are not going to take our third class citizen status in higher education any longer. 

That would be an example of true leadership by Mayor Clay.  The first time that has really happened in NWI.  With all of Mayor Hatcher's claims, he was never a leader except in his own eyes; it is time for Gary to have a leader.

I drive this challenge to all the mayors and political and economic leaders of NWI.  It is not necessary to repeat all the dollar figures and the possibilities and what might have been if we had received all the tax money returned to us for higher education.  All one can do anything about is the future.

All of the NWI leadership knows that there is no such thing as economic development without a first class university.  That is why Indianapolis has encircled itself with a ring of over five first class universities with IUPUI in the middle.  NWI taxpayers are paying for it and Indianapolis is reaping the economic development.  When are our leaders going to wake up; or stop doing as John Aguilera does getting paid under the table for representing Indianapolis and not the people who elected him.

If there is ever to be economic development in NWI, the "bitch-slap" needs to occur.  Now is the time for our good mayor and Lake County Democratic Leader to show what we are made of:

WE ARE DAMN MAD AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE

IU Trustees Disrespect NWI

To the middle part of the State we in NWI are only children who require their proper parenting.  I never knew how true the level of disrespect was until I faced the Indiana University Trustees.

Last Thursday and Friday the Indiana University Trustees held their monthly meeting at IU Kokomo.  For those of you who may not know, that is about 120 miles south of Hammond, north of Indianapolis (another of the many campuses, almost all of Indiana's, that create a 60 miles circle around the City of Indianapolis).

To show them respect and to be treated as an adult, I followed the direction provided on the IU Trustees web site.  The following is a direct copy of their Secretary's statement on the IU web site:

What are the guidelines for public comments at IU Board of Trustees' meetings?

Public comments on specific topics will be heard at the appropriate committee meetings. To find out where and when a given subject will be discussed, please consult the agenda at www.indiana.edu/~trustees. Agendas are posted seven to 10 days before the meeting.

Trustees are interested in your comments, but face full agendas at their regular meetings. Speakers are asked to observe the following guidelines in the interests of time:

• Please confine your comments to about three minutes.
• Plan on arriving in the meeting room before the start of business, and identify yourself to board staff before the meeting begins.
• Please do not bring overhead slides or PowerPoint presentations.
• If you have handouts, please bring 30 copies. If several speakers wish to address the same topic, please delegate one or two to represent the group.

After leaving at 5am (they are 1 hour ahead of NWI) I arrived for the first meeting and requested from the Secretary of the Board an opportunity for three minutes to address the Board.  I told her I was available all day and would be willing to wait and address them at any time during Friday on issues concerning the needs of higher education in NWI in general and in particular as they relate to equity and minority education.

Once they found out I was from NWI and wanted to talk about equity, I was completely flat out refused any opportunity to publicly address the Trustees.  This was especially true, after the Board Secretary talked to Chancellor Bruce Bergland, the one person in the room who I believe knew me, I was treated like a Biblical leper -- not allowed to get close to anyone.

For all the effort I had made from following their direction it is the height of disrespect to leave me, after investing my time and money as a taxpaying citizen, without an opportunity for even a minute to publicly inform them of issues in higher education that we face here from the perspective of the citizens of NWI.

I was finally "allowed" to have a two minute exchange with the President of the Board in a hidden corner of the room, I presume so no one would see us nor hear us, since it had to be after everyone had left for lunch (on the taxpayer's dime of course, i.e. people like me).  I was not invited if anyone wonders.

This President, although acknowledging disparity between campuses, was totally disinterested in the fact that NWI's campuses are third class citizens in the hierarchy of IU and the Commission of Higher Education.  He acknowledged that Bloomington was number one, Indianapolis a close second and finally Gary somewhere at the bottom; but that was not something he, or the Trustees cared to address.  I then tried to inform him that it was commendable for the Trustees during their last meeting to try to get more minorities specifically Blacks and Hispanic to attend IU Bloomington; but the fact is most of the minority students wanted to attend the NWI campuses, specifically IUN. 

This the Trustees didn't care about.  They only want minorities down in Bloomington, irrespective of where they come from (are any of them Hoosier citizens?) or what this focus on Bloomington does to the State's economy.  That was the extent of my two minute meeting.  I was thanked by the President of the Board, essentially for being a snitch, and telling on my fellow citizens of NWI that we were not happy.  This now will allow him and all their high powered consultants to start a PR campaign to show how good they are. 

I was insulted but more importantly because I was not given an opportunity to say anything to the Board these individuals with whom we have entrusted our State's welfare were not forced to answer anything in public.  When you ask something in public it is recorded for everyone and it lacks deniability.

If history repeats itself then the "powers that be" will again try to go after my family and hurt me or my family in our employment or our pursuit of careers.  This is how these people continuously work.  But so be it.  Sometimes someone has to say the emperor has no clothes on.

When I first planned to go down to talk to the IU Board of Trustees I was very favorably disposed toward them.  They seemed to be much more open than Purdue's and much more interested in the long term economic development of all the State of Indiana and all of its citizens; this obviously did not turn out to be true.  In watching the IU Board of Trustees I was amazed by two things. 

First, the President of IU, Adam Herbert, who is being forced to leave in two years, is the most unprepared and ineffective manager/administrator of a large public institution I have ever seen in my life.  Now it is true that I have a number of policy disagreement with President Martin Jischke of Purdue, but, I have to always give him credit for his and his staff's complete preparedness and professionalism.  Purdue's President has management talent and ability that serves Purdue exceptionally well; whereas, IU's President should have been fired instantly after the faculty rebelled because the next two years will be a disaster for IU under his ineffectual leadership.  It was embarrassing and frankly painful to sit and listen to him and the fact that the Trustees were willing to do it shows their lack of understanding of what lies in front of them.

The IU President was too busy reminding the Trustees of the consultants he was hiring to study the "motor pool", "the bookstore", and the "auditorium usage".  This is what replaced economic development through higher education in NWI and the support of minorities in higher education that I was going to talk about.

My second surprise is the lack of support for NWI higher education and our desire to have a comprehensive metropolitan university like Indianapolis's IUPU or University of Illinois Chicago that Mayor Daley fought for. Sad to say this lack of support came from not only the Trustees whose fiduciary duty applies to ALL the citizens of Indiana, not just the ones in Indianapolis, it was also evident on the part of IUN's Chancellor who should be representing NWI, not Bloomington or Indianapolis. 

The disrespect shown to me by these individuals is not only meant for me, or even possibly at all for me.  It is aimed at the Hoosier citizens of Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond.  It is aimed at the Mayors of those Cities: Mayor Clay, Mayor Pabey, and Mayor McDermott.  And most importantly, it is aimed at our minority citizens and our citizens who are first generation university attendees.  In many many ways it was disrespectful of all of NWI.

If any of you think that it was me alone who was disrespected then think again.  If it was only about me, they would have let me speak and then ignored me, as they have done to others before.  What they don't want is for you, citizens of NWI, to think that somehow NWI should think of themselves as a civilized part of the Hoosier State like Indianapolis.

Get it through your head you were "dissed".  Not only by the IU Trustees (and in the past the Purdue Trustees) but also by the people who are here representing them who claim to look out for your interests and welfare.  It is the lowest of disrespect when NWI is treated by these people like children who need to be taken care of by these people in or hired by the southern part of the State.

Mis-Directed Higher Education Undermines Economic Development

Commission of Higher Education is Destroying Indiana Economy:

Indiana's brain drain and lack of economic development can be laid directly at the feet of the Commission of Higher Education, its Commissioner Stan Jones, and the overall structure of higher education in the Hoosier State.

The structure of higher education in Indiana has not kept up with the Twenty-First Century, leaving it structurally focused on the 1950s, and it continues to promote the racist policies of that time, although not as overtly nor as openly, but the consequences to Hoosier minority communities is the same.

The fault lies in three places.  First is the Commission of Higher Education and its Commissioner Stan Jones.  Second, is the Board of Trustees of Indiana University and Purdue University who together have no idea about higher education and are generally so overwhelmed by the administrators of their respective institutions as to be incapable of asking any appropriate questions.  Finally, the fault lies with the Governor and the State Legislature for allowing for this mis-structure and for not requiring any accountability on the part of the Trustees or the Commission of Higher Education.

Commissioner Stan Jones is at Fault:

Commissioner Stan Jones is a true example of the "peter principle".  He was promoted to this position some twenty years ago by then Governor Evan Bayh.  He had no previous experience, except for functioning as a State legislator and staff aid to Governor Bayh.  The problem is that the section of the State he represented was West Lafayette.  Therefore most of his time was spend protecting the West Lafayette campus of Purdue and indirectly the complementary large campus of Indiana University at Bloomington.  The man literally has no idea of what is required to have higher education support a state's development economically and culturally.  He only knows what he was told for years by a succession of presidents of Purdue University's large campus. 

Further it needs to be remembered that Mr. Jones has never held a serious job.  He went straight from his undergraduate degree at Purdue, West Lafayette to the State Legislature.  So his whole career has been spent living off the public dole and not in in position that requires management or critical creative policy decisions.

Mr. Jones as Commissioner of Higher Education in Indiana over the past twenty years has achieved two questionable goals: 

Indiana Fiftieth out of the Fifty States:

First, he has achieved the dubious distinction of having Indiana ranked number fifty of the fifty states by the National Center for Educational Statistics of the Federal Government for having the most inequitable distribution of State higher education funds between the large campuses and the rest of the State.  This is not just a small mal-distribution, this is fifty out of fifty, the bottom of the heap.  It basically means that he has kept his former "clients" happy as commissioner; but destroyed any ability of the State of Indiana to develop economically as a whole and to stop the drastic brain drain from which it suffers. 

By the way the only place that does not suffer from a brain drain is the areas surrounded by the large university campuses.  There is no surprise there.

The second disaster attributed directly to Mr. Stan Jones is the creation of a "junior college" system for Indiana in the first decade of the Twenty-First Century.  Now that is truly a day late and a dollar short.  In the process, Indiana neither has a legitimate junior college system nor a legitimate regional campus system.  This new junior college that combined Ivy Tech with Vincence University was a disaster and that agreement folded.  We now have a half-assed junior college, Ivy Tech, that everyone realizes is lacking of any academic quality while simultaneously the State of Indiana through its Commission of Higher Education has left the regional campuses without a well defined mission, or any real mission at all, and no serious funding to carry out that none existent mission.

End Indiana University Regional Re-Organization:

We now have the strange situation that Indiana University President, after a vote of no confidence by the real universities at Bloomington and Indianapolis, is focusing on "restructuring and re-organizing" the regional campuses.  These are the only ones who cannot fight back.  It has resulted in the strange situation where Indiana University Northwest's Chancellor Bruce Bergland has decided to emphasize excellence and quality in such programs as ethnic studies which by definition cannot be of quality without a graduate program and graduate students (which IUN is not allowed or funded to have).  There are so many such programs across the country that it is a meaningless exercise for IUN, except for the fact that the Chancellor Bergland wants to punish the campus for exposing his sweetheart deal with his wife's gardening contract and the "outing" of his attempt to get a presidency position at another institution.  He is further creating a new School of "Health".  That is completely meaningless without the graduate component of research that Indiana University asked for before and was rejected for NWI.  This again would require graduate education and graduate students.  By the way where is the public law school for three-quarter of a million Hoosier citizens in NWI?

What is most pitiful is that SPEA at IUN, the one school with a national reputation and one that is not duplicated anywhere is not, I repeat NOT, being designated as a source of excellence for NWI for IUN.  Now if NWI does not need improved public affairs and quality public officials, I do not know what does.

Commission and Boards of Trustees Destroying Northwest Indiana:

But the reality is that the programs that have been put forth by the Commission of Higher Education, lead by Mr. Stan Jones, with the cooperation of the Board of Trustees of the two major universities in Indiana, has specifically targeted the demise of economic development and advancement in the northern part of the State.  The specific places that have continued to be damaged are: Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, South Bend, and Fort Wayne (plus all the cities and towns in between).  Essentially all the northern part of the State.  This are the areas of the State that ONLY have regional campuses and now they have only a half way effort at smoke and mirrors to make it look like something is moving when it is not   One cannot, no matter how much mumbling one does, equate campuses getting $7,500, or $5,500 per student per semester with the campuses in the northern part of the State that are only getting $3,500.

They are also Racists:

It is also representative of institutional racism.  It is discriminating against Black, Hispanics, and first-generation whites who are the majority of those attending the northern regional campuses.

The only solution for this problem is for the Governor to first remove Stan Jones as Commission, for incompetence if he has to.  Second, the northern regional campuses need to have their mission re-defined to the equivalent of a metropolitan university such as IUPUI is designated.  Third, the governance of the regional campuses, especially in NWI, needs to be reorganized with new chancellors, not the current ones enslaved to Bloomington or West Lafayette, reporting directly to the Board of Trustees or the creation of a NWI University Board of Trustees for these campuses.  Finally to achieve this financially, Bloomington and West Lafayette need to zeroed out for any increase in the 2007/8 and 2008/9 budgets and those funds need to be utilized for the intensive unprecedented improvement of the regional campuses in accordance with their new mission of metropolitan universities with full graduate programs and graduate professional programs.

New Program Requires New Governance:

The State of Indiana must immediately put in place a new governance system for its regional universities especially in the north and NWI whose fiduciary duty is those campuses and the Hoosier citizens that they serve.  This will overnight end the brain-drain in Indiana and result in economic growth and population increase unheard of in the history of the State.  If this is not undertaken during the next session of the State Legislature there will be no hope for Indiana recovering its place economically in my life time.  The brain-drain will continue and Indiana will continue to suffer a slow economic demise through a attrition of qualified population.

IU Trustees join Purdue's Trustees Promoting Institutional Racism

Indiana University's Board of Trustees last week officially adopted a position of openly promoting institutional racism.  In this they have joined Purdue's Board of Trustees when they adopted a similar posture in their last meeting two months ago.

I have not laid out the details of this egregious action because I wanted to wait to see what IU would do.  It has been very disappointing.

This attitude also effects all of Indiana because the actions of the major universities in Indiana and the Commission for Higher Education under the liberal Democrat Stan Jones is the major cause for the Indiana "brain drain" over the past two decades.  The "brain-drain" and lack of economic development and population growth can be laid squarely at the feed of Stan Jones and the research one universities, IU and Purdue.

The full story of this is being written to be out on the blog on Thursday of this week.