Holding steady

On returns on investment, demographic pyramids, and the future of public universities

The good news for Iowa's three state universities is that enrollment has held mainly steady in the face of some meaningful headwinds. But the bad news for them is that total in-state enrollment is down from a decade ago, and the broader demographic trends indicate that high schools are going to graduate fewer prospective college freshmen for a while to come.

■ Iowa has three state schools: A land-grant university (Iowa State), a public research school (Iowa), and a comprehensive university (Northern Iowa). It's a compact arrangement by comparison with some states that have far more institutions. But it's still hard to keep the budgets balanced without attracting out-of-state tuition dollars.

■ What makes a university system worth subsidizing is the return on the public's investment -- though never strictly in terms of dollars. A university can (and should) generate real cultural, civic, and economic returns to the community that funds it. And even though those can be difficult to measure well (if even at all), there has to be a relentless pursuit of both incremental improvement and substantial innovation in everything the institution does.

■ That's a lot to ask, but it's also a fair expectation, considering that a majority of American adults do not hold four-year degrees, yet their taxes subsidize the effort. That investment has to come back in more than just some athletic rivalries. It's imperative that college leaders recognize those needs sooner rather than later; if the demographic drop-off turns out to be as real as expected (and as the population pyramid makes real in black and white), they won't want to be caught flat-footed trying to explain why they need continued support as enrollment drops.