Recent political action by the Higher Education Assistance Foundation, the largest student-loan guarantee agency, has highlighted the increase in contributions by administrators, faculty, owners of proprietary schools, and lobbyists to legislators' campaigns, and the growing sophistication of the process. Supporters call it prudent; opponents…

Higher education must tell legislatures how the state should raise the money the colleges want to spend--even if it means higher taxes--and then lobby on behalf of those proposals. This also means addressing new and potentially controversial issues about the role of colleges in state politics. (MLW)

Two-year colleges are trying to change legislators' perceptions about their institutions, demanding increased state support, and working together to lobby as a state system rather than as individual institutions. (MSE)

Leaders of urban public universities and many state legislators are challenging the high status of states'"flagship" institutions, saying local institutions can serve local needs best, and are unwilling to defer to premier research universities in requests for general support and new programs. (MSE)

Many campus administrators in Alabama also serve in the state legislature, participating in debates and votes affecting their institutions. The potential for conflicts of interest has damaged state policy on higher education. Some recent incidents are described. (MLW)

Changes being made in public college governance are increasingly motivated by state governments' desire to have state boards exercise more policy leadership on some difficult higher education issues, including setting up productive university-industry economic development ventures, minority student recruiting, and improving teacher education. (MSE)

A new survey by the Virginia Council of Higher Education found that five states have imposed a ceiling on the number of out-of-state students who can attend their public institutions. Many people fear that their own state students are being denied admission because of nonresident applicants. (MLW)