11/11/11

HAYS, Kan. -- Citing separate studies commissioned by the Kansas Board of Regents and Fort Hays State University, Dr. Edward H. Hammond said access to quality higher education holds the key to a healthy economic future for Kansas.

Hammond, the president of FHSU, spent the week of Nov. 7 through 11 touring the length and breadth of Kansas to discuss current issues in higher education and to emphasize that support for education is vital for the state during difficult economic times.

FHSU and the other universities, community colleges and technical colleges in the Regents system have faced reductions in financial support since the economic collapse in fall 2008. President Hammond, the longest serving president in the Regents system, announces a theme for each academic year. The theme this year -- Hope: The Silver Lining -- signifies that by implementing an array of efficiencies to deal with the economic downturn, FHSU has maintained academic excellence and continued to make a strong impact on the state economy.

The efficiencies, for example, have included moving to a four-day summer workweek, which has produced a 25 percent reduction in air conditioning bills; developing Virtual College classes in-house, which produced a savings of about $1 million a year; saving another $300,000 through academic reorganization; and saving $875,000 by developing its own student record system.

According to the June 2011 State University Data Book, FHSU is the only Regents university that reduced its cost of producing a credit hour over the past five years. The production cost at FHSU fell by 0.2 percent from $202 in fiscal year 2005 to $201 in FY2010. By comparison, the cost of producing a credit hour on average for the six state universities is $321.

FHSU also continues to offer the lowest tuition in the 17 states of the Midwest at $105.20 per credit hour. The tuition at FHSU is $1,578 per semester for a student who is enrolled in 15 hours. For four years, it would be $12,624. That means a student could attend FHSU for four years at about half what it would cost to attend some other Kansas universities.

"The low tuition is critical because it means Kansans have a high-quality, affordable opportunity to get a college degree by attending FHSU," President Hammond noted.

Kansas high school graduates are voting with their feet. FHSU has more than doubled its enrollment over the past decade and announced another all-time record this fall of 12,802 students, which makes it the eighth largest four-year school in its broad service area, from the Eisenhower Tunnel on the west to the Truman Library on the east. "We had significant increases in all three of our modalities, which are students on the Hays campus, students at our partner universities in China and students in our Virtual College," the president said. "Our on-campus enrollment this fall is up 268 to 4,683 students. The on-campus freshman class is 926, which is the largest since such records have been kept."

The efficiencies and growth have allowed FHSU to maintain excellence.

One example is the student financial planning team, which won first place at the Financial Planning Challenge national competition in September at San Diego. FHSU teams have advanced to the finals for 10 years in a row, and this is the third year FHSU won first in the nation. Faculty provide two other noteworthy examples of excellence at FHSU. Dr. Pelgy Vaz, associate professor of sociology, was selected for the Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program and spent July in Brazil attending lectures, conferences and field trips, and Dr. Avi Kempinski, assistant professor of modern languages, is another Fulbright scholar who will teach next year at FHSU's partner school in Germany, the University of Duisberg-Essen.

Excellence can also be seen in bottom-line results for FHSU graduates. After averaging a 98-percent placement rate for the past decade, the most recent survey, for 2010 graduates, showed that in spite of the recession, 94 percent were either employed or enrolled in advanced education programs within six months of graduation.

All the success at FHSU and the other Regents schools has a tremendous impact on the economic health of Kansas.

The Regents released a study in March of this year showing that for every dollar the state invests in higher education, it receives 12 dollars in return. That study, "The Impact of the Kansas Board of Regent's System to the State's Economy," was produced by Dr. Ernest Goss from the Goss Institute of Public Research in Denver. The study showed that the Regents system as a whole:

· Produced $7.3 billion in overall economic impacts;

· Generated $3.4 billion in wages and salary impacts;

· Created 95,327 additional jobs; and

· Contributed $485 million to state and local tax collections.

The Goss study showed that FHSU caused the creation of 3,833 jobs and had impacts of $256,372,573 for outputs, $110,180,951 for wages, $12,691,283 for proprietorship and $13,071,300 for volunteerism.

The just-released FHSU study, "The Economic Impact of Fort Hays State University on the State of Kansas," was prepared by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs, with Dr. Tom Johansen and Dr. Kathleen Arano as principal investigators. It shows a more conservative short-run economic impact by FHSU than the Goss study, at $163.1 million, but its more significant finding is the long-term impact of an FHSU education to graduates' lifetime earnings.

"We commission the study every two years, but this is the first time the researchers computed FHSU's long-term contribution to human capital in the state of Kansas," President Hammond said. "This estimate of long-term impact is based on the additional earnings graduates who remain in Kansas will accrue as a result of the education they receive at FHSU. The estimated impact of FHSU graduates in just 2010 was $131.5 million. The estimate for the long-term contribution by FHSU to human capital in Kansas is $1.3 billion."

The total economic contribution by FHSU to the state of Kansas, counting both short-term and long-term impacts, is estimated by the Docking Institute study at $1.46 billion.

"We continue to look forward with hope and confidence," the president said. "We recently announced four new capital projects with a total cost of $30 million and a projected economic impact on the region and state of nearly $45 million." The construction projects include the two-phase Tiger Place residential facility; a new road that will create better access in the center of campus; a new academic building, called the Center for Networked Learning; and a new indoor sports facility.

The president pointed to a study from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank that said if the United States could better match skills with today's jobs, unemployment would be at 6.5 percent instead of more than 9 percent. He also cited the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, which said 63 percent of U.S. jobs would require some form of postsecondary education by 2018. Finally, he said the report "Education Pays, 2010," from the College Board showed the annual earnings for a high school graduate at $33,800, compared to $55,700 for a worker with a bachelor's degree.

"What the Goss and Docking Institute studies show is that FHSU and the other Regents institutions play an absolutely vital role in supporting and stimulating the Kansas economy," President Hammond said. "Reductions in support for higher education translate into reductions in the incomes and quality of life for Kansans. There is no better investment we as a society can make for our children than ensuring a high-quality system of higher education."

During his annual weeklong Media Tour, President Hammond visited at newspapers, radio and television stations, and with community leaders, alumni and friends of the university in 16 Kansas cities.