Year that goes to support faculty and also scholarship support and other things. And those are things, i think institutions have to look at, is to come up with creative ways that fund the operation of the university thats not on the backs of students by imp si increasing tuition every year. Those are the kinds of things we need to do. Diversity to us is on every single dimension. It means that we have a diver diversity of income backgrounds of our students. It means that we have a diversity of representations of underrepresented minorities. It mean wes have a diversity of our age of the students that are here and a diversity of the countries that our students come from. So theres probably not a dimension that we dont look at, when it comes to diversity. Because we believe that the exposure of our students to this kind of a diverse culture within this university can only be beneficial in the longterm when they leaf the university. We achieve it simply by working hard to recruit and find students that we can help us accomplish this. Mr. Steinmetz, we want to thank you for your time and everybody at ohio state university. Thank you very much. Well, thank you for having me on here today, greta. I appreciate it. More now of cspans interviews with University President s and the big ten. This Edition Features university of maryland president wallace lowe, its about 40 minutes. Today we are continuing with our monthlong series of interviews with University President s in conjunction with cspan busses, this morning cspan is on the campus of university of maryland in college, maryland, its about nine miles from washington, d. C. And joining us is University President wallace lowe. Let me begin with the headline thats in the newspapers this morning, its that s. A. T. Scores raise worry about college readiness. What are you finding on this, president lowe . Are High School Students ready for college . Well, good morning, greta and welcome to university of maryland. Glad that our neighbors here in the nations capital. I think whats important to know about standardized tests such as the s. A. T. Is that they are a predictor of college success, but theyre not the most important predictor, what we have found is that High School Grades and the types of courses that they take are a much more significant predictor of college success. When we admit students, we look at a whole variety of factors in deciding an admission, not solely and not priorly on test scores even though the test scores of our students coming to the university of maryland are very high. Has that happened over the years . Has that been the trend that youve looked less and less at s. A. T. Scores . Well, i think people in the business of admissions, educational psychologists always have known that the principle predictor of success are the courses youve taken and how well youve done in high school. And the s. A. T. Compliments it. So, therefore i dont know if any school that relies primarily or significantly on test scores. What about diversity . The state of maryland is 30 africanamerican, the university of maryland is 15 asian, 12 africanamerican, 8 hispanic, 55 white. How do you go about trying to obtain diversity . Well, we have a very diverse student body. Our diversity of the entering freshman class is 40 . Historically its been 42 . People of color were around 10 . Today, of course, because of immigration the demographic is changing. Thats great challenges for Higher Education, how to expand access to people from minority groups, many of whom may come from lower income and are less prepared for college. So, president loh, how are you going about doing that, then . Is diversity a larger criteria for admissions . Sit one of approximately 24 criteria we look at. Its holistic assessment of the individual. The way we do it is we aggressively go out and recruit. We go to high schools. We go to Different Community groups to encourage, talented, young, minority students to come. We have summer programs for them, College Preparatory programs. Its an aggressive process of expanding the pipeline and also providing precollege experiences so that when they come to college they are better prepared. We are talking with the president of the university of maryland, wallace loh as part of cspan buses college tour. Higher education is your topic this morning. You dont have to have any ties to the university of maryland. We want to take your comments, concerns, questions about Higher Education. Students dial in at 2025853880 and educators, 2025853882 and residents, 2025853883. You have a b. A. From grenell college, m. A. From cornell, graduate study from school in belgium, ph. D. In psychology from michigan and j. D. From yale law school. What has that taught you about Higher Education, that experience . What do you think it brings to the table for you . Well, i think education is the great equalizer of conditions in the democracy. When people ask what do educators do, i say were in the mortality business. Were in the business of transforming peoples lives. And opening opportunities for them. And at the same time, making a difference on the major issues of the day by our research and our educational efforts. And this impact, you know, extends beyond the current generation, goes to the next generation, so educators have an impact that lasts through well, eternity. In that sense were in the immortality business. Its one of the most fundamental functions and one of the highest callings that one can have. Lets talk about the university of maryland, specifically. You are nine miles from washington, d. C. How does the University Take advantage of your proximity to federal government, the agencies here . Well, washington has the second highest number of College Students or collegeaged students after boston. Its an Incredible Opportunity in terms of cultural opportunities n terms of interships for the students in federal agencies and for the faculty in terms of verj, we partner with federal agencies, with federal labs. Were surrounded by intelligence and military establishments. So we do joint research. We have contracts with them. So, the opportunities are immense and i think the university of maryland would not be the institution it is if it were not 8 miles from the heart of the nations capital. You have federal grants and contracts worth 310 million at the university of maryland. What type of contracts do you have with the federal government . Well, its actually 500 million and its in all sorts of areas. For example, with nasa goddard, we are engaged with them unmanned space flight. With the cybersecurity with Homeland Security and intelligence agencies we are extremely strong in cybersecurity and just got a huge grant from nist. Were working on Global Climate change. Noah is present on our campus. We have the largest concentration of earth scientists in the world. In fact, right here in college park and the surrounding area, we are very, very strong because of our ties with the federal government in the area of the advanced study of languages. Talking about very es sew tearic, strategically important languages like chinese, arabic. We have a major con sur shum with other universities on the study of terrorism. All of them have something to do with National Security, with economy and it is very closely tied therefore to the agencies of the federal government. If a student is interested in National Security, what sort of majors does the university of maryland offer . Well, areas of National Security interests, of course, go beyond National Security itself. Thats why we have expertise in language, we have flagship language programs, very strong in cybersecurity, one of our strengths, particular strengths are science and technology. Because of the enormous demand for people in stem fields in order to maintain our supremacy, our National Supremacy in science and technology is the seed corn for innovation and for job creation for economic vitality. We are also very strong in the performing arts. So, we are a comprehensive university. The access to the federal government and federal agencies in partnership with other academic institutions is that it broadly extends the opportunity for education for our students a staff. What is the National SecurityHigher EducationAdvisory Board . Im sorry. I dont know what it is. Its well i do know that there are lots of go ahead. Im sorry. Go ahead. I was just beginning to share im not familiar with that particular Advisory Board. Okay. Created and operated by the fib in 2005. Its a panel of approximately 20 University President s and chancellors, meets collectively at least three times a year in d. C. And consults with federal agencies responsible for Law Enforcement intelligence, terrorism and Homeland Security. Im wondering what does the federal government get out of partnering with a school like the university of maryland . Whats the attraction there for the federal government . Whether its the National Security issue or cybersecurity, et cetera . Well, its a partnership by the way, i know remember this fbi group of which i do not belong but i chaired for a couple years the Homeland SecurityAdvisory Committee appointed by dan secretary napolitano dealing with issues of the Homeland Security. And it had a number of president s of universities on that panel. So the kinds of things that the federal government gets is, number one, joint research. Number two, graduates who can move directly into the work force. Number three, doing outreach projects together. In other words, the federal government needs partners, just like we need partners with the federal government because we combine our resources. And if you take, for example, the center for the study of terrorism, we are the lead university but we have 25 other universities in this country and abroad who are working together to study issues having to do with terrorism. The same thing is true for our advanced study of languages, which is funded by defense and intelligence agencies. And in the area of cybersecurity, our latest grant from nist, which is with the private sector, with the other institutions from the university of maryland, setting up standards and protocols for cybersecurity. And this is a grant that is renewable every five years for up to 25 years with a total maximum with as high as Something Like 3 billion. So the federal government needs the universities. It needs to bring in the private sector as well. And all three together it takes a team. It takes a village to address these very complex, very large and very costly issues that face the nation. Were talking about Higher Education with the president of the university of maryland, wallace loh. We have a number of phone lines open. Dial in with your questions and concerns. Well begin with adam. Hi, adam. Caller hey. I wanted to ask two questions. The first question has to do with what things are being put in place for students that are nontraditional students . You know, i personally i have to work fulltime. I have a family. And its exceptionally hard to maintain fulltime school status. Unfortunately theres a lot of things that graduate schools are even dr medical schools and things like that are looking for as far as programs that people are involved in within the school, but i just dont have the time there and im matched up against these other students that do have all these other extracurricular activities. What kind of things are being done at the university of maryland to help those nontraditional students that are trying to go back . And the second question is on the focus of cybersecurity. My actual account has been hacked in the past and im just wondering what are schools and universities doing to step in and warn students about these cyberattacks where people are having access to their Financial Aid material, their student ids and can really cause havoc . Okay. Okay. On your first issues what about nontraditional students, students who are not the traditional 18 to 23 year age range, i think because knowledge is expanding so quickly that people will have several careers during the course of a life time of working, learning has become lifelong learning. So indeed university of maryland as many other schools are addressing the needs of not only traditional age students but lifelong learners. Crafting special programs for them. One specific thing that i think is worth mentioning is the increasing prevalence of Online Education and the uses of blended education together with Online Education. And the technology of Online Education is nothing compared to what it was ten years ago. This could well be a game changer in Higher Education. It may well be i dont know if it will address the issue which i call the holy grail which is how to educate more students of all ages, how to educate them better and how to educate them more cheaply. That is in fact the 64,000 question and i think that combining Online Education with as personalized education, adaptive software, data and analystics to personalize education, to fit the needs of a particular individual, i think that is partly the future of Higher Education. Especially for millennials who are always on their they have internetmolded brains. So hightech, hightouch is the future and i think that is an integral part of addressing the needs of nontraditional students. With regard to cybersecurity, that is a very major issue facing the country. It is not only an economic issue, its also a National Security issue. I think, for example, university of maryland, we have a about 50,000 attempted penetrations and that is found i think at most other institutions as well. So the solution is you have to identify all your sensitive information. After you identify who wr it is, aphthouses of thousands computers logged into our network, you identify it. Then you isolate it by building defenses around it. Then you incrypt it and also want to detect penetration at the boundaries of your network. And all of that is very costly, but its not only about a matter of technical fixes, it is also about the changing the culture of how we approach cybersecurity, namely pretty much has to a be a top down. You cannot have different departments having their own email systems. You cannot have individual people having their own websites that are not centrally monitored for purposes of security. So, it is a very complex issue. Its a multibillion issue in terms of threats to the American Economy and of course also to american security. Lets go to matthew, mansfield, pennsylvania, student. Caller hi. Thanks for taking my call. I would like to ask mr. Loh how he reconciles the phenomenon of mid to highlevel sixfigure salaries for College Administrators while over 76 76 , according to npr, of College Professors work as parttime adjunctions make one to 5,000 per course which they have to cobble together over every semester to get some kind of minimum wage level salary for themselves while they teach the students who are graduating with an average now of close to 30,000 of student debt. How does that shake out for you economically and morally, mr. Loh . Well, i think youre raising several very important questions. Thank you for asking it. Let me address first the issue of student debt, the rising debt nationally its around 30,000. And the reason it is rising and the reason it is becoming an issue of national concern, making it very unaffordable is because state funding has gone down accordingly. That is to say that, what were seeing here is a reflection of political and economic changes. To the extent that were a nation that now is drifting towards smaller government, lower taxes, there is less funding available for Higher Education and the expectation is therefore that students have to pay a larger share. So this is a shift in a fundamental philosophical approach to education. Is Public Education a public good that serves all of society or is it primarily a private good that serves only those who are benefitting from it . Now the state of maryland is fortunate that our tuition is relatively low. At approximately tuition and fees approximately 9,400, which is about 4,000 dollars less than the medium of your peer institutions. And the reason its lower is because our state appropriations are relatively high. It is approximately 12 i think 12,500 or so, so the total cost of education in the state of maryland is around 22,000. Of which 40 is paid by the student, 60 is paid by the state. That is very different than the rest of the country where its the ratio is reversed. That the proportion paid by the student is much higher than the proportion paid by the state. That is a fundamental issue and reflects, of course, political, economic and philosophical trend. With regard to the number of adjunct faculty, we have approximately around 4,000 faculty, about 1,500 of them are under tenure track, the rest are primarily full Time Research faculty, visiting faculty, lecturers. Yes, we have faculty members that come to teach about 3 to 4,000 a course. Most of them tend to be people who have fulltime jobs. Lawyers come in and teach a particular law course. Yes, we have the issue Higher Education has the issue of individuals who do not have fulltime employment. This is part of the a larger issue, other the past 30 years or so, the number of poxes permanent positions has declined as a result of the decline in state funding for Higher Education. This is part of, of course, the larger trend that of an increasing income inequality. Of increasing job stagnation and these are larger issues that the nation must address. We have little over 20 minutes left here with the university of maryland president , wallace loh. Taking your comments, questions, concerns about Higher Education in this country. With my soninlaw university of maryland degree, he had no problem getting more than one job offer immediately. And matt smith says universities have always been a hot bed of independent thought and process. To have the fbi tied in sounds like an awful idea. This from another viewer who says, how do we reverse the trend of our schools deinvolving into sports facilities . There are 20 Ncaa Division i teams a the university of maryland, president loh. Why dont you take that question. You want me to start with the athletic question first . Sure. As opposed to the graduation . Well, yes, we have 20 teams. We used to have 27 and we it was a very painful process to cut 7 teams, to reduce the number, simply because we were unable to support it. Support all the teams. What makes the university of maryland different from many other institutions is the athletics is a totally selfsupporting enterprise. Theres no state funding for stlaeks. But i think whats very important to keep in mind is that the athletics in this country is very different than athletics in Higher Education systems elsewhere around the world. In other places, its a professional club sport, people who are interested and have the ability go into clubs. This country, its part and parcel of the educational system and it is a source of enormous pride, of school spirit, people who are very generous donors in terms of academic scholarships, academic programs are energized by our athletic teams. It becomes it is the front porch of the university. Its not the most important part of the university, but for many, many people its the most visible part. That said, then the question becomes in terms of the funding of athletics is why it is so terribly important to have two things in mind. Number one, that academic funds do not go to support athletics. It has to be self supporting, which means of course that you rely on media revenue, that conferences bring in by their media contracts. And number two, is institutional control, that athletics should always be in the service of the Educational Mission of the institution. Winning is important, but for us, a student athletes and they are students first, what is more important than winning is the success of student athletes. Success on the field, in the classroom and in life. Those are the values that guide our athletic program. We have a few lines open here, so dial in with your questions and comments about Higher Education. Students 2025853880 parents, 2025853881 and educators, 2025853882 and rez debsidents 2025853883. Jeff . Caller i have a question for you. I apologize for calling in on the wrong number. My question is, do you find that possibly our country, since were so strict on trying to beette mically diverse, that not everybody is cut out for college and were trying to provide a ethnically diverse Higher Education platform and in essence were reducing the standards to get into these higher institutions and were also maybe even reducing the standards to graduate from the higher institutions . Well, one of the great strengths of american Higher Education is that there are many sectors. There are like the big ten universities, highly ranked. They are public flag ships. Theyre among the most prestigious and strongest academic institutions. There are liberal arts college, Community Colleges, comprehensive institutions. Theres a whole array of educational opportunities. But whats important to remember is that we live in a knowledgebased economy. A generation ago you can graduate from high school and get a decent middle class job and have a middle class life without going to college. That is no longer possible. Remember that only a generation ago we led the world. The United States led the world in the proportion of College Graduates adjusted by population. We are now 14th or 15th. And in terms of stem fields, science technology, engineering and math, we used to be the preeminent nation in the world, we are now ranked Something Like 20th or so in the world. So we are losing our supremacy in education and in science and technology. If we are to be the most vibrant economy in the world in terms of creating new jobs, in terms of improving the quality of life, in terms of innovation, then we have to make that investment in education. Yes, indeed, there are different types of educational institutions that fit the talents of different people. And i can say with great assurance that among the great public se Research Universities in this country in the big ten, we are still the envi of the world. How do i know that, look at the millions of people who come abroad want to get a degree from an american university. Kenneth is an educator here in washington, d. C. Go ahead, kenneth. Good morning, kenneth, youre on the air. Caller yes. How are you doing today . Good morning. Good. Speaking of people trying to come to the United States from all over the world, what is the percentage of the foreign students at the university of maryland . And you mentioned earlier by statistically the majority of the students there are white americans and the population of maryland was 44 and the population of the students that go to the university of maryland is only 11 . I thought that was kind of a discerning type of statistic. Can you go into that a little bit . Thank you. Excuse me, sir, could you please repeat, what was the 11 that you kboeted . He was referring to when we started at the top, the diversity, 30 africanamerican in maryland thats the population. The university of maryland has an africanamerican population of 12 . He was referring to those numbers. Oh, i see. As i said, our number of students of color, americans or residents is currently around 42 on average and 44 in the entering class. And in terms of International Students is approximately 12 . And about 77 of all our students are from the state of maryland and the rest are from other states and abroad. In terms of the International Students who are coming here, i think its important to emphasize that theres been a dramatic shift over the past 20 years. We attracted some of the best and brightest, we meaning american Higher Education to this country. And 20 years ago, almost everybody stayed in this country. Increasingly were finding that some of the best and brightest are coming here, getting advanced degrees. As you know, 60 of all engineering degrees given in this country are given to students from abroad. In past days, most of them will stay in this country. Now increasingly theres a reverse, theyre going back to their countries of origin simply because they perceive more opportunities. Approximately 40 of all nobel Prize Winners in this country initially came from abroad. This is an enormous talent pool that we have to retain in this country in order to keep our supremacy in terms of Science Education and economy. Sheila, rockville, maryland. Go ahead, sheila. Caller yes. I think that he skillfully avoided answering the question why the disparity between the pay of the administrators and that of the teachers. Okay. The pay of administrators and teachers. Yes. I think if you look at well, there are many, many kinds of administrators. There are department chairs, there are directors of institutes, there are deans and ultimately theres the president. The average Faculty Salary at the university of maryland you have assistant professors starting around 75, 80,000. And full professors may make around 250,000. The average salary of a dean is roughly around between 200 and 270,000. So theres so i will say if theres a difference, its a difference of one to two and a half ratio. President loh, may i ask how much you make . And remember yes, my salary is around 480,000. Okay. Well go on to jean in oregon, wisconsin which by the way happens to be one of the president loh, go ahead and finish. Happens to be what . Oh, it happens to be one of the lowest in the big ten. Okay. Jean, go ahead. Oregon, wisconsin. Parent. Caller 400,000, can you imagine that . So, i guess i have a couple questions. One, i have heard that foreign students get a free ride when they come here for their education. I kind of think thats backwards. And second, why is it it seems the more money a school gets the more money they think they need . And third, do you think that the incredible astronomical pay that is paid to these professors and their pensions is now catching up to them and its getting to the point where we need more money because we have to pay the pensions . Thats it. President loh . Maam, if i can correct you on your first point, that somehow foreign students have a free ride, i dont know about other institutions, but all the foreign students who come to university of maryland, theyre not eligible for stateFinancial Aid. And so, i would say 99. 9 of them pay full rate. So they are not getting Financial Aid. Thats one question. Im not quite sure i understand the other two questions that you were asking. Or maybe you could repeat it . Shes not on the line anymore, president loh. Lets go on. We have other people who have questions and comments for you. Lets go to zach in bethesda, maryland. Zach, go ahead. Caller hi. I have a question about the tuitions at the business graduate school. Im a maryland resident. And it seems to be around 80,000, i think, it might be a little bit more for out of state tuition, not a whole lot. This is in real terms this is a twoyear program if you were going to go full time. If you go part time its about three years. So, that, you know, i know the undergrads at the school is little bit less expensive, but im just wondering about the tuition here zach, youre wondering about tuition for graduate school. Thats correct. President loh, were you able to hear that . Yes. The tuition for graduate school varies significantly from college to college. Unlike undergraduate education is the same across all disciplines which tuition and fees is approximately 9 4. Its very different at the graduate level. A major reason why its different is that graduate students, at least in many fields, have either Research Assistantships or teaching assistantships. So thats part of the differential. Theres no common denominator in terms of the tuition because the structure and graduate education, youre pursuing a ph. D. It usually takes at least four to five years, it could take as long as eight to nine years. During that time, most of them are supported. Thats a very different situation from undergraduates. We have about ten minutes left here, so more time for your questions, your comments about Higher Education to the president of university of maryland, wallace loh. Got some phone lines open. So dial in. Tweet here from maverick who says, without athletics programs, how should we address the wealth inequality which dictates who can afford college . Well, the question of who can afford college, implies that tuition, the portion that the student pays, as opposed to the portion that the state pays, is too high. And that may very well be the case. But when one asks whether it is affordable, whether tuition is too high, it has to be relative to certain criteria. Let me suggest some possible criteria so someone can decide whether or not its too high or too low. One criteria is that you compare the tuition at the university of maryland with the tuition of comparable schools. You have to compare apples with apples. And as identify said in the state of maryland, we have one of the lowest, i believe the Second Lowest tuition of all of our peer institutions, maybe the university of North Carolina is a little lower than we are. But were certainly at the bottom in terms of tuition and fees at 9,400. Because the average of our peers is 13,400. Thats 4,000 more which is a 40 increase over what is charged at maryland. Thats point number one. That may still be too much for some people, but that is a point of reference. Secondly, when you look at 9,400, the proportion that you have to pay, 60 being paid by the state, thats the sticker price. That is not the net price. We have 46 million a year that we give out in grants and scholarships. Partly from state funds, partly from private fund raising and we just raised 1 billion, 250 million of which went to scholarships. So approximately 62 , 62 of our students have some sort of Financial Aid. And the real indicator, whether its affordable, is you look at the debt when they graduate. About 40 of our students graduate with debt and that debt is on average 25,000. To put it in context, the National Average is 72 of College Graduates graduate with debt and their debt is 30,000. And even more refined figure is this afford snbl well, its affordable if you default on it. Our default rate at university of maryland is 2. 8 . The National Average is 14 . The default rate on student debt in the state of maryland as a whole is around 11, 12 . So that gives you some idea. Another way of putting it is, look, if its 9,400 a year, you multiply by four years thats roughly 38,000. 38,000 is the price of a, medium end, highend family car. You can either borrow 38,000 to buy a car, which depreciates in value the moment you drive it out of the dealership. Over the course of a life time, a College Graduate earns 1 million to 1. 5 million more. You can then decide whether or not its affordable. And the final measure is in terms of placement. Somebody else asked that most students at maryland get placed. Yes, indeed. Our placement rate six months after graduate is 85 placement in fields like business and engineering is placement is almost 95 . So when you put all of that together, then you decide whether or not college is affordable. View college not as an expense, view it as an investment that will generate returns over a life time. Okay. Which is not to say that its not expensive. And president loh, we have about four minutes to left. I want to get in some if we can, last three phone calls all from parents. Go ahead, katie in florida. Yes. President loh, i just want to let you know that its a shame sometimes not because of people not wanting to get educated in this country but because of the greed of the corporations who hire foreign students because they get a cheaper price for their product of intelligence. Okay, henry. Ill take that issue and give it to president loh. Go ahead. Well, look, as i said earlier, most or many, many foreign students after getting their advanced degrees or their college degrees, their bachelor degrees are now returning home simply because Economic Opportunities are much greater in some of the emerging nations in the world. That is why we must win the future. That is why we must maintain our preeminence in Higher Education, science and technology. So the days when they would stay here simply because they had more Job Opportunities i think those days are gone in this age of globalization. What i tell my students here is when you graduate from college park, youre competing not only against stuntss who graduated from boston and baltimore, youre competing against students from brazil, bang gor. My question is what does the tuition pay for the teachers salaries as well or is it also the government paying for salaries, too . And the salaries also come with pensions . Do you see that there is a unsustainable track of pensions and pay for professors which then creates a need to raise the cost of education to the student . No maam. Our budget let me respond with a concrete example. Our budget is approximately 1. 9 billion. 25 of that comes from the state, state appropriations and 25 comes from tuition, 25 comes from federal research and other Industry Research grants and 25 from other sources like philanthropy and so forth. So the cost of education is the 25 from tuition and the 25 from state government. So that is 50 of our budget goes to pay education, it goes to pay salaries, it goes to pay for fringe benefits. It does not include, of course, the cost of facilities. Thats a totally separate budget that is not paid by the student, thats paid by the state and private donations. Diane, knoxville, tennessee. Hi, diane, a parent there. Im good. How are yall today . Go ahead. Caller my question is, i would like to go back to my question is, im going back to high school, when a child enters high school, there are two curriculums, one for those who aspire to go to college and those who they deem not college material. I happen to find out when my child went to school that he was automatically put in the category of not continuing his education. Someone needs to look into this and see if thats why the black and brown enrollment is so low. Okay. President loh . Well, that is whats so great about american Higher Education, why is the envy of the world. If you go to europe, you go to asia, they track students as early as their Early High School years, theyre put in College Preparatory track or vocational track. We dont do that in this country. The reason we dont do that is because we believe we want to create as much Educational Opportunity for everyone. So therefore there are Community Colleges if youre not ready to go to a fouryear institution. Theres a whole wide range of types of fouryear institutions and so on and so forth. But the