Mission drift: SEMO, Three Rivers are both guilty

The dispute between Southeast Missouri State University and Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Mo., can be partly blamed on mission drift by both institutions.

In the 1990s, the state required all 26 higher education campuses to be identified as highly selective, selective, moderately selective or open admissions. Quality segmenting is supposed to increase graduation rates by matching student abilities with institutions, but in Missouri it has created a class structure with selective University of Missouri schools perceived as superior to those outside the UM system.

Some non-UM institutions have countered this perception by differentiating their programs. Truman State University, the only highly selective campus, has pursued a liberal arts mission, while selective Southwest Missouri State University will change its name to Missouri State University.

If Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Mo., is successful in joining the University of Missouri system, the only moderately selective colleges in the state will be SEMO, Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, Mo., and Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, Mo.

Many believed that the moderately selective mission would forestall competition in a market regarded as too small to support both a university and a community college.

Consistent with its mission, SEMO increased service to at-risk students. These are students less likely to graduate and more likely to require remedial instruction. The additional oversight associated with at-risk students is reflected in faculty online reporting of six-week grades as well as one-, two-, three- and nine-week attendance. Few public universities devote as much effort to monitoring students.

While some regard such oversight as nurturing, others believe it fosters spoon-feeding at a time when young adults should be developing the self-reliance required to compete in a job market that rewards personal initiative.

Because high achieving students enhance classroom learning for everyone, some argue that diverting the best students to selective colleges negatively affects instruction on less selective campuses.

The choice of "moderately selective" was partly influenced by politics. Twenty-nine rural counties in Southeast Missouri are part of the 219 counties in seven states designated the Lower Mississippi Delta Region and characterized in 1990 as "the poorest rural region in the U.S."

When Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas and chairman of the LMDR Commission, he believed higher education could be used to engineer social change and promote regional development. This view was embraced by then-Missouri governor Mel Carnahan and widely accepted by all but a few conservatives who argued that public universities should focus on academic quality and leave economic development to the private sector.

In a paper William Weber and I published in the Review of Regional Studies, we found that the factors most important in explaining poverty in Southeast Missouri and the delta were teen pregnancy and high school drop-out rates that approached 50 percent. College graduation rates were irrelevant.

As SEMO focused more on at-risk students, Three Rivers Community College has concentrated more on college transfers. However, a community college is not a junior college. Junior colleges prepare students to transfer to four-year institutions, while community colleges have a much broader mission.

Although some students transfer, the primary mission of a community college is to provide job training that can be completed in two years or less.

Community colleges offer service programs on infant care to first-time mothers, retrain displaced workers and prepare people to take exams like the GED. Contrary to assertions, two years at a community college is not the same as two years at a university. While some make an easy transition, the percentage of community college students enrolled in transfer programs who go on to earn a degree in four years is typically low.

Poverty in the delta derives from complex historical forces that have little to do with higher education. If there is a rural region in Missouri that would benefit from a traditional community college rather than a junior college transfer program, it is the Bootheel.

"Stuck in the middle" is a phrase used to describe companies like Sears and Kmart that are undersold by price discounters at the low end of the market while being squeezed at the top by competitors with a superior quality image. SEMO's comprehensive slate of services may have been appropriate in the absence of local competition. However, if Three Rivers is going to be a permanent presence in the market, then Southeast should consider a change in strategy. Now is a good time since the baby-boom echo is fueling college enrollment that is expected to peak in 2009 before declining.

Like Harris-Stowe State College in 2004, SEMO could trade-down from moderately selective to open admissions. Because it is not economically feasible to travel long distances to attend an open-door college, open-admission schools serve a local market while higher quality institutions draw from a larger geographic area.

Unlike Harris-Stowe's greater St. Louis market, the Missouri Bootheel is one of the slowest growing regions in the state with many counties experiencing declining population over the last 15 years. Open admissions would still not resolve SEMO's cost disadvantage relative to Three Rivers. Growth in graduate programs, the projected increase in performing arts majors at the River Campus and a Division I sports conference that includes universities in five states appear to conflict with the mission of a local, open-door institution. Except for SEMO, all other state universities that fund Division I sports have a selective admissions.

Given its comprehensive slate of services, demographic trends and higher enrollment growth at selective colleges, SEMO should consider expanding its geographic market by becoming a selective campus. Despite the efforts of Jefferson City educrats to slice quality segments as thin as salami, the market defines higher education in Missouri as selective institutions versus all others.

Comparisons with Three Rivers suggest that SEMO has a quality image similar to "all others" but without the discounted fee structure. Alternatively, SEMO offers most of the same services as selective colleges but at a lower cost.

Southwest designates its West Plains campus as open door while retaining selective status on the main campus. Similarly, SEMO's Cape Girardeau campus could be identified as selective while Malden and Sikeston could be designated as open door. In addition to transfers, both selective and moderately selective campuses can admit up to 10 percent of their enrollment as open admissions, thus providing a large number of openings for local at risk students.

Public schools in poor neighborhoods typically have lower educational standards than those serving affluent suburbs. Lower standards for the poor do not make learning more accessible, foster a more egalitarian society, remedy past racism or improve America's competitive advantage.

SEMO can best promote economic development in Southeast Missouri by providing students an education that the market perceives as equal in quality to other state universities, while Three Rivers should focus on the mission of a full-service community college.

Michael Devaney is a finance professor at Southeast Missouri State University.