Senate to take up bill to cut USNH chancellor
University System Chancellor Edward MacKay in November 2010 testifies during budget hearings in Concord for
more money for the university system. AP photo
By Holly Ramer
Associated Press
April 29, 2012 2:00 AM
CONCORD — Where Ed MacKay sees benefits, Robbie Parsons sees bloat. Anything the
University System of New Hampshire chancellor points to as efficient is quickly deemed
excessive by the lawmaker.
The tug-of-war playing out at the Statehouse highlights both the national trend of declining state
funding for higher education and the newly strained relationship between the New Hampshire
Legislature and the state's public university system, which includes the University of New
Hampshire, Plymouth State University, Keene State College and Granite State College.
Parsons, a Republican representative from Milton, is the sponsor of a bill that would eliminate
MacKay's office and transfer the chancellor's duties to the volunteer chairman of the system's
board of trustees. The bill also would reduce the size of the board from 27 to 21 and prohibit it
from hiring more than 12 central administrative staff. The chancellor's office has 71 employees,
25 percent fewer than it had when MacKay took office in 2009.
But Parsons argues the chancellor's office hasn't shouldered its fair share of the burden since the
Legislature cut state funding to the university system by 48 percent.
"We cut (the system's) budget, and the chancellor's office didn't cut theirs," he said. "The
chancellor's office uses an awful lot of money that could go toward defraying the cost of tuition at
our four colleges and universities."
Nearly every state reduced funding for higher education last year, but New Hampshire's decline
was the steepest, according to the annual Grapevine study by the Center for the Study of
Education Policy at Illinois State University, which found overall spending declined nearly 8
percent nationwide. The study also ranked New Hampshire last in state support for higher
education per capita and per $1,000 of personal income.
Against that backdrop, Parson's bill came as a surprise, according to MacKay, who said his office
and the board of trustees led the effort to offset more than 80 percent of the cuts with spending
reductions.
"One would think there would be an acknowledgement of that tremendous effort to mitigate the
impact on students," he said.
The chancellor's office was created in 1963 to provide a well-coordinated system of public higher
education. For example, one of the office's responsibilities has been to track the state's workforce
needs, and it has worked with the community college system to make it easier for students to
transfer to the four-year campuses. The office also has partnered with the state on a program to
get more money for the construction of science, technology and math buildings, resulting in a 50
percent increase in graduates in those areas in the past decade, he said.
"That's the type of coordination that would not necessarily exist without the presence of a system
office to drive that process," he said. "I believe most residents of the state would look at the
evolution of our four institutions as extraordinary. They're really what I would call four first-choice
institutions and provide a place within the university system for any New Hampshire citizen to
earn a four-year degree, regardless of their physical location or level of income."
MacKay and top officials at the four colleges and universities also reject Parson's claim that
eliminating the chancellor's office would save money. While the budget for the system office is
$11.2 million, they argue it would cost more to have each campus assume duties now handled by
the central office. Its responsibilities include so-called "back office" operations, such as
overseeing benefits, payroll and debt management — functions MacKay said are performed more
efficiently by a centralized office.
Just because the individual campuses have employees with job titles similar to those at the
system office doesn't mean they are doing the same jobs, MacKay said.
"The heck they're not," answered Parsons.
The amount spent on administrative overhead at USNH was about 5.9 percent last year, MacKay
said, lower than comparable systems in other New England states. But Parsons said that is no
reason to keep the USNH system in place. "That only shows how ineffective and inefficient and
costly those other systems are," he said.
Because there is so much variation in how states structure and pay for higher education, it's
unclear whether other states have also tried to eliminate their chancellor's offices. In Georgia, the
chancellor is consolidating several campuses to save money, but no movement toward getting rid
of the university system office altogether. And Ohio's governor has turned over a host of duties
typically handled by the chancellor to the president of Ohio State University, the largest university
in the state.
At the American Council on Education, senior vice president Gretchen Bataille said she isn't
surprised by the New Hampshire bill given that legislatures, colleges and universities across the
country all are trying to do more with less, or at least maintain with less. She wasn't aware of
other states looking to abolish their main governance structure, but changes aimed at saving
money and boosting efficiency have become common.
The bill has passed the House and is scheduled for a Senate vote Wednesday. The Senate
Finance Committee is recommending that instead of eliminating the chancellor's office, the state
require it to submit annual accountability and transparency reports.
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