As posted by: Wall Street JournalRegarding your editorial " 'Shovel-Ready' on Campus" (Dec. 18): Universities around the country have ready to go infrastructure and major repair projects that will create immediate employment and have long-term benefits. No group is entitled to anything in the stimulus package. But Congress and the new administration should consider what campus investments can do for the country as they put together their legislation. Higher-education institutions are a critical part of our physical and human infrastructure. Many students need Alternative Student Loans or Federal Student Loans to attend public colleges.
Many states are deeply cutting appropriations for public universities. Note that for 20 years public universities have received in tuition and state appropriations about the same amount of money, inflation adjusted, on a per student basis. This may seem counterintuitive because of tuition increases, but on the average those tuition increases have been used to cover the falling per student state appropriations.
Peter McPherson
President
National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges
Washington
Mr. McPherson is a former chairman of Dow Jones & Co.
Perhaps they should dub this bailout: Higher Education Investment Shovel Technology, better known as HEIST.
Monty Loud
Aspen, Colo.
