Survey: Time is money at most schools

College presidents overwhelmingly ranked financial – not educational – issues as their highest priorities, in a survey released last week by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Experts cite a lack of government funding as one of the reasons for the strong emphasis placed on financial issues by current presidents of higher education institutions.

The study, conducted by Bedford-based Maguire Associates, was sent out over the summer to 1,338 university presidents and chancellors, of whom 764 responded.

The survey is seen as the first of its kind to broadly study the jobs, political views and personal lives of presidents at institutions of higher education.

The survey found that university presidents regard financial issues as a higher priority than educational issues. According to the results of the survey, most presidents spend an average of 53 percent of their days raising funds. About half of the presidents who responded said they meet with financial advisors every day.

The presidents ranked rising tuition, increasing health care costs, inadequate faculty salaries and student retention as their biggest concerns.

Martin Snyder, fundraising director and director of planning and development at the American Association of University Professors, said currently, the boards of trustees at many universities are looking to hire people who are primarily fundraisers, not educators.

“The problem that college presidents are having is that finances are very tight right now,” Snyder said. “College presidents are involved more and more with fundraising. Everything about that is wrong. Students are going to school for education, and education should be top on the minds of the heads of higher education.”

Snyder said the problem stems from lack of government funding.

“State legislators have been cutting education funding,” Snyder said. “Higher education budgets are big, so it’s a tempting target for them to aim at. But the politicians are very shortsighted. Their goal is to get re-elected in the next two or four years and they are not thinking about long-term benefits.”

Snyder cited the University of Virginia, a state school that receives 90 percent of its funding privately, as an example of the nationwide problem.

“Many state universities are finding more and more that 75 to 80 percent of their budget is coming from fundraising and research,” he said. “Private universities get very little funding from the state. They are largely driven by tuition. … This has been the standard for private schools, and now it is becoming more and more common for public schools.”

According to the Chronicle survey, only 18 percent of respondents said they spoke to their heads of student affairs every day.

Luke Howe, President of Boston College’s Undergraduate Government, said university presidents are in a very difficult position.

“One of the most difficult jobs one can hold these days is that of a university president,” said Howe, a senior. “It is a job that requires a person who has many talents, a great vision and who also has the ability to be responsive to a variety of different parties with vested interests in the school, including students, parents, faculty, administrators and trustees.”

Howe recognized that fundraising is becoming a big part of university presidents’ jobs.

“As a student, I would love to have our president on campus at all times, completely focused on student concerns,” he said. “But as someone who wants to see Boston College continue to become a better and better institution, I recognize the importance of all the other activities that, as president, he must do.”

Howe added that financial and educational issues tend to be linked today more than they were in the past.

“You can’t attract the world’s best professors without raising the money to do so,” Howe said. “You can’t offer more classes and smaller class sizes without the buildings to house those classes, so I think financial issues and educational issues can be seen as equally important.”