We have gotten quite a few emails here at WSMV from very concerned college students about the Tennessee Board of Regents new “business model”. Some of the things TBR President Charles Manning outlined at the THEC meeting two weeks ago included the possibility of more online courses and the exploration of a four-day workweek. There is no vote on these today. At this point, these ideas are in the exploration process, as the TBR looks at ways tomeet the needs of students with less and less money from the state. The TBR was hoping the ideas would generate conversation, and it has. Obviously, professors care about their jobs and students care about their education.
So what IS the TBR doing today? The TBR will vote on whether or not to allow institutions to use furloughs as a way to save money in the short term. The other vote is to remove the cap on tuition. This would allow the TBR to charge students on a per credit hour basis. Right now, full time students pay the same amount, whether you take 12 credit hours or 17 credit hours. That would change. It would also allow the Regents to explore different ways of charging tuition. Some of the suggestions include allowing different tuition for lower level and upper level course, higher tuition for high demand course times, and charging different amounts for different majors. The TBR likely wouldn’t make any decision on whether to try those methods until its summer meeting, but today’s action opens a door.
The bottom line, is that the TBR says it can’t do “business as usual and expect to accomplish our mission.” The discussions have started, but we’ll have to wait to see where it all leads.
