Just as Adams State finds its footing on enrollment, government funding threatens the university. An end to federal funding shuttered Adams State’s long-established CAMP program for students whose families toil in the Valley’s agricultural fields. Other federal funding under the Title V program that has been a staple of the university’s operating budget for the past 20 years is drying up and going away.
To top it all, state budget writers are sending a worrisome signal around state tax dollars that can be committed to public higher education in the coming years. The idea of future state appropriations not keeping up with the cost of running a university and may even result in reduced levels of state funding creates a heavy burden on the man running Adams State, President David Tandberg.
Alamosa Citizen sat down with the president this week to talk more about Adams State’s financial picture. The university prides itself in its mission as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, which in federal government parlance had led to increased federal funding these past two decades. Until now, the result of dramatic changes under the Trump Administration.
Here’s the conversation, edited for clarity and brevity:
Alamosa Citizen: Let’s start with the HSI funding, if you could clear that up first.
David Tandberg: So as far as the identity as an HSI, I’ve frankly always said the Title V, the HSI, federal program’s great. It allows us to compete for these grants. We have been successful pretty continuously in getting the HSI grants, technically Title V grants, but people just say HSI. And we were the first HSI, the first in Colorado. So that federal program has been really important to us. It’s allowed us to implement some best practices in serving students. And as you know, this is all students. There is no race or ethnicity test. We serve all students through that grant. So it’s been really foundational to a lot of really cool programs that we implemented and then continued beyond the life of the grant and also to do cultural programming and education. We just had a big HSI week and rolled right into Hispanic Heritage Month. A lot of that was funded through Title V.
And that’s important given our location and who we are, our history, our culture, that everyone has an appreciation and education on Hispanic heritage culture, and the HSI grants have helped. And that said, we ought to be and believe that we are an HSI, whether that program exists at the federal level or not, and we should always be Hispanic-serving. Whether that program ever comes back or not, it is not up to the federal government whether we frame ourselves and define ourselves as Hispanic-serving. And I always will. And that’s not exclusive of other ways we serve as being a rural-serving institution, a first generation-serving, but given who we are and where we’re at, we should always be Hispanic-serving also.
AC: Do those monikers, Hispanic Serving Institution, rural-serving institution, an institution for first generation students, all those things, do those monikers help you or confuse the market or the student?
President Tandberg: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think they help. It would be hard to quantify that. I know our most prominent would be Hispanic-serving, and I think part of that is not only where we’re at, but also that federal designation and that it was federal, national. I think from a leadership and policy perspective, having a limited number of monikers, as you put ’em, can be helpful in clarifying and advancing our mission. Our new strategic plan really focuses on that idea of being a steward of place, of place-based learning, of service to the region. And I think within that, the idea of being Hispanic-serving and being a rural anchor institution are pretty pivotal. And then we serve such a large share of first-gen and low-income students that, and there’s that intersection of race, first-gen, low-income certainly, but there are unique needs of each population, too. And given our demographics of our students in the Valley, I think those are three areas that we can’t lose sight of. And so maybe those monikers help. Do they confuse external audiences? Maybe. I don’t think so, but maybe. I think they help internally for sure.
Our capacity to mobilize, come together, rise above and deal with our times, like that seems to be built into who the Valley is and so I have complete confidence in the people here to get through this in a way that allows us to continue to serve our students in the Valley.
President Tandberg
AC: Do you have more clarity for yourself as you have seen these months unfold? Do you have more clarity of what you need to do as president for Adams State to keep Adams State strong in this environment of reduced federal support, reduced partnership at the federal level, the asks that the federal government is making of higher education? Where’s your clarity on all that?
President Tandberg: We as an executive team, I think, relatively quickly realized that there were risks to some of the grant programs and have tried…it’s a long unguaranteed process of going after alternative funding. And we see some of that kind of coming through. Hopefully that will help offset not entirely and no guarantee, but at least provide services for students. It can’t replace the Title V program. It was very unique, but also looking internally for alternative revenue sources. And so like the CAMP program, that’s a one-year program for a cohort of students and they get significant financial assistance scholarships. And so we had already funded through the CAMP funds the fall semester, so they were whole there. And we pulled the money necessary to keep them whole in the spring from the foundation.
And so then we moved them from the CAMP program onto student support services so that they continue to get the support that they were used to in the fall semester. They’ll get it in the spring semester through another program. And the CAMP program and Title V, we don’t do a lot of research, so that’s where most university’s exposure was. And we were worried about migrant ed. Luckily that’s continued. But the need to be aggressive in going after alternative funding sources is an obvious strategy forward. It’s not like we weren’t doing it before, but sometimes you get a bit of a fire lit under you when the context changes. For the next several years, I don’t think we can depend on the federal government in the way that we have in the past. I think that’s clarity. And I will say the foundations have been receptive, but we always want things to move quicker and more money is better.
You’re not just funding Adams State, you’re funding the Valley, and there is no place like the Valley in Colorado other than the Valley.
President Tandberg
AC: When you’re talking about alternative funding, are you largely talking about philanthropy and then your own foundation, Adams State Foundation? Is that where you’re going?
President Tandberg: Mostly philanthropy. The foundation has limited unrestricted funds. Most of them are specific and donor intent. And so we did have a pocket of unrestricted money that was just scholarships that allow us to define it. And we defined it as CAMP students for those that there was a promise made and we want to keep it. We’ve kept the CAMP program going for a couple months off of reserves, with the hope we appealed, we lobbied the federal government. We wanted to keep it going as long as there were available funds. I think CSUP and Metro ended theirs a couple months before we did. They also lost their funding.
AC: So I guess the question is how, this is what Trustee Karen Middleton I think was alluding to, is that Adams State has to figure out other funding sources somehow, whatever that is, whether it’s philanthropy or…
President Tandberg: Individual donors. Yeah, I mean a lot of it is philanthropy as an alternative, but that can be, there are also continuing to be other grants at the federal government. They’re not in the areas that we’re used to, they’re not defined in the same way. The challenge of course, when it comes to government funding is we’re facing some scarcity there, and that’s why philanthropy and individual giving are going to be a larger area of focus for the university for at least the next few years.
AC: Do you hope or want that strategy to be around unrestricted funds?
President Tandberg: We love unrestricted. Yeah, of course. But foundations want to fund a program and so we’re talking with a couple of them about something that would be very similar to the CAMP program. Right now we’re talking with another national foundation that I had connections with about a really intensive student wraparound support services program. Like what we were trying to do through the current Title V grant. Foundations like programs, individual donors is where you can get hopefully some more unrestricted funds that would go into the foundation and allow us to use it as we determine the need.
AC: What is your big concern at the state level in terms of appropriations?
President Tandberg: It’s the overall budget shortfall that the state is facing. And so the concern is what does that mean for higher ed writ large in the state and then specifically for Adams State? And we’ve had the luxury the last few years, because the state had a more positive budget, we could play offense and be like, all right, how are we going to get an increase, let’s get the biggest increase possible. Now it’s more of, all right, let’s see what we can get and how much we can protect the institution. And so it’s going to be an all-hands-on-deck. We’re talking with other Valley leaders about what we want to do. We’ll be talking with, trying to get a coalition in the Denver area because, and we probably have talked about this at some point, we get 52 percent of our operating revenue from the state and CU probably gets single digits.
And so when pressing upon the state that let’s say they were considering an across the board, 5 percent cut, that hits differently when you get 52 percent of your operating revenue [from the state]. And the joint budget committee has been very receptive to those kinds of arguments and the story of Adams State. And so we’re not headed into a positive budget with the state compared to what we’ve had in the last several years. But I am confident that our story will be heard, appreciated, and that we’ll be doing the best we can. It won’t be until May till we really get clarity, but we’ll be working hard that whole time.
The need to be aggressive in going after alternative funding sources is an obvious strategy forward.
President Tandberg
AC: The other thing that ties into this is you recently put out your economic impact report to the Valley. And so that obviously is on your mind of the ripple effect Adams State has on the local economy. But if you have a university that’s seeing reduced funding in certain areas and has these concerns that you’re echoing, that then translates into the health of Adams State and the health of the local economy because they’re so intricately tied together.
President Tandberg: And that’s a key component of our strategy is there is no university as connected to its region as Adams State is. And there’s an external classification of rural universities as to the extent to which they’re interconnected with their local economy region. And the highest classification as the most connected is a rural anchor institution. And we’re the only rural anchor institution in Colorado. Meaning that the entire way of life in the Valley would be altered if we weren’t here, right? Economically, culturally, socially, et cetera. And that’s a great thing. It’s a point of pride for me, and that enables us to use a Valley-centric advocacy strategy because to say you’re not just funding Adams State, you’re funding the Valley, and there is no place like the Valley in Colorado other than the Valley.
Financially, Adams State hasn’t been in as positive a position in a very, very long time. We’re operating a balanced, very healthy operating budget, very healthy reserves. And with those dramatic increases we got from the state, which were record-setting, we’ve never got that level of state support in the history of the university. We didn’t spend it all and we’ve budgeted a 2 percent hedge into our operating budget just for downturns or whatever, whether it’s downturns in the state budget, downturns in enrollment, whatever. And so we’ve been incredibly conservative. So yes, we’ve hit some challenging external times, but at least we’re coming in from a position of strength. And that’s kudos to the faculty and staff here.
AC: It’s not just Adams State, either. It’s county government, municipal government. Every government is starting to feel that pinch.
President Tandberg: Yep, they’re all connected. You know the federal government is in large part what put the state government in the fix that they’re in, and then you know how connected county government is to fed and state. The thing is, and you’ve been here longer than I have, but hard times are not unknown here, and I, reading and observing and being in the Valley for a very long time, our capacity to mobilize, come together, rise above and deal with our times, like that seems to be built into who the Valley is and so I have complete confidence in the people here to get through this in a way that allows us to continue to serve our students in the Valley. And that’s completely sincere.