Public Policy Challenges Facing Higher Education in the American West

Public Policy Challenges Facing Higher Education in the American West is the first regional public policy study of American higher education. Presidents of the Western State Commission for Higher Education and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, alongside nationally recognized policy analysts and current western campus presidents, provosts, and administrators, tackle seven key public policy issues facing postsecondary education in the American West: student access, federal research funding, state governance, state financing, state appropriations and their relationship to institutional tuition, distance education and technology, and the role of community colleges. These analysts, researchers, and administrators offer a clear and complete analysis of the facts of each policy situation, the public policy options, and their connections to state and university relationships. Fifteen western states, including Alaska, California, and Hawaii, comprise the expansive region under discussion. With its companion volume, Higher Education in the American West: Regional History and State Contexts, this book is essential reading for higher education policymakers, scholars, and anyone who wants to know what the relationship between states and universities in the West has been and where it is going.

Table of Contents:
Editors' Preface Introduction; Lester F. Goodchild, Richard W. Jonsen, Patty Limerick and David A. Longanecker PART I: PUBLIC POLICY DEMOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND 1. A Demographic Profile of Higher Education in the American West; Cheryl D. Blanco PART II: SEVEN REGIONAL PUBLIC POLICY CHALLENGES 2. Assessing College Access and Success in the West; Mikyung Ryu 3. The Federal Government, Research Funding, and Western Higher Education Policy; David A. Longanecker 4. State Policy Leadership in the Public Interest: Is Anyone at Home?; Aims C. McGuiness, Jr. 5. Higher Education Finance Policy in the Western States; Dennis P. Jones 6. Public Financing of Higher Education in the Western States - Changing Patterns in State Appropriations and Tuition Revenues; Charles S. Lenth, Kathleen J. Zaback, Andrew M. Carlson, and Allison C. Bell 7. Technology and Distance Education: Challenges Facing the American West; Sally M. Johnstone and J. Ritchie Boyd 8. The Growth of Community Colleges in the West: Conditions and Public Policy Challenges; Cheryl D. Lovell PART III: A CONCLUDING COMMENTARY 9. Afterword: Where Do We Go From Here: The Policy Nexus between the West and the Federal Government; David A. Longanecker

About the Author :
Lester F. Goodchild is Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA. Richard W. Jonsen is former Executive Director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, USA. Patty Limerick is Faculty Director and Chair of the Board of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, where she is also Professor of History. David A. Longanecker is President of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, USA.

Review :
"Although the volume has a regional theme, it should interest policy analysts not only in the affected states but also in other states and in national groups. The authors also analyze the influence of the region's 'political culture,' institutional arrangements for higher education, and attitudes toward public taxation astutely, while making appropriate distinctions among the states." - William M. Zumeta, Professor of Public Affairs and Higher Education, University of Washington, USA, and former President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education "The editors and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education WICHE are to be commended for the substantive and cogent narrative and analysis presented. I am confident that scholars interested in regional history and public policy will eagerly embrace these works and that they will use them in their own teaching, writing, and research." - Amy Wells Dolan, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Mississippi, USA