One of the concerns atop the national consciousness these days is the rising cost of higher education. I do not intend to analyze most of the costs contributing to these rising costs. In fact, I will not mention most of them. Many of those I won’t mention suffer from snotty insider arguments and petty disputes over the proper direction of education, and while they are worth fighting over, they are not worth boring you with them today.
However, one of the costs of doing business these days centers on constructing and maintaining buildings, sidewalks, roads, and so on. Universities have a lot of these. This is where I say some awfully nice things about my former employer, the University of Southern Indiana (USI). My friends will wonder about me, concerned I might need to tweak my medication. I have plenty of beefs with USI, but it gives me a peculiar pleasure to compliment the university where it richly deserves it.
And that is how it handles its buildings, grounds, and pretty much anything inert and responding to gravity. As a university, USI cropped up in an unlikely place in Indiana, and thereafter its cheer existence irritated other state universities. So, in its defense, the university must consistently present itself as one of the best buys in higher education. USI also must impress stingy legislators as the best place to invest taxpayer dollars if they want voters to believe they are fiscally responsible. These are the same legislators, of course, who stumble over each other bequeathing millions to Indiana and Purdue universities.
USI designed new buildings as the best possible blend of good looks, efficient usage of space, and low maintenance. Professors helped determine the need and design of classrooms. When a new building opens, things work. Ceiling mounted projectors operate. Screens descend quietly. Light switches dim. Toilets flush. Thermostats work. Internet flows. Doors fit. If something failed to work, someone fixed it. Its entry to the flow of campus activity is nearly seamless. Even better, you can walk through the building 10 years later and still marvel at it.
The same attention to detail rules outside. If a sidewalk cracks, workmen replace a section. Door jammed or bent? It will not suffer long. Streets and parking lots get new pavement or sealant as needed. Security lights never seem to fail. Trees – the university, unlike too many places in the state, actually likes trees – get trimmed regularly and replaced if needed.
Overall, USI spent money on its physical plant as though it may never get another dime. We could only wish more public institutions approached spending in a similar manner.
While I saw most of this over the years, my students began to see it when we visited other universities. For example, as we stumbled along a sidewalk nearly destroyed by heaving tree roots, students began to wonder out loud how Western Kentucky University could brag. We had just left an assembly hall the university was damned proud of, though it was five years old. On the hall’s front floor were two dusty large speakers. They did not work. They had yet to be mounted on the wall and connected to wires poking grotesquely two feet into the room. I wonder if they still adorn the hall’s floor. The students wanted to “write this up” for our student newspaper, but I suggested kindness. WKU might not host the regional Society of Professional Journalists conference again if we offend them.
One more thing helps USI as it would any regional college. I was helping erect the outfield fence at a girls’ softball field a couple miles outside Evansville. I asked the other guy why it had been so difficult to schedule our work. Well, he’s an electrician, he reminded me, and his company was wiring the new Liberal Arts Center. He said they were taking considerable pride in their work because USI was our university, and they wanted the work to be the absolute best they could do. I had to smile.
The main point can get easily lost. Some colleges and universities spend wisely on their physical plants while others act as though everything is temporary. Taxpayers seeking a fiscally healthy institution for their children should examine parking lot care and the hallway floors in classroom buildings. An institution ignoring upkeep might use a similar approach for faculty recruitment and development.
