Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of attending the 50th anniversary of our UNH graduation.
We toured the beautifully maintained campus, and its mix of old and new buildings. We slept in a dorm, ate in the dining hall, listened to offered talks and panels, and met with a few faculty.
We have had our concerns about our alma mater given the grumblings we hear about the lack of state support. With great relief, we saw that the flagship of New Hampshire schools of higher education is thriving. UNH is doing well by its students and the communities in which these UNH graduates will live.
The lack of state support unfortunately affects New Hampshire students most. (If New Hampshire doubled its support, it would still be among the lowest in state aid to higher education.) The state’s financial contribution is only about 6 percent of the UNH budget
Our Class of 1966 lived at a time when we benefited from Gov. John Winant’s earlier leadership in ensuring state support of higher education.
We were fortunate more than 50 years ago to find UNH financially accessible. Many of us were children of blue-collar workers who could not add much financial support to our resolve to get a college education. Our summer and vacation job earnings augmented scholarship money, allowing us to attend UNH without incurring unreasonable debt.
None of that is true today.
Many of our Class of 1966 would not be able to attend UNH today. Tuition for in-state students attending UNH is among the highest in the nation. For those who do attend, we know they carry the highest student debt in the nation.
Talking with our UNH classmates, we considered how graduates – engineers, teachers, health workers, business people and more – have contributed to our lives as we raised our families here in Concord. They came from New Hampshire high schools and graduated from the university. Many remained in the state to contribute to the quality of life here.
That may not be true with our future UNH graduates.
Currently, out-of-state undergraduates at UNH outnumber in-state undergraduates. They know what a solid education they will receive. They can afford to pay the high cost of tuition at UNH. Many will likely live their adult lives outside of New Hampshire.
The problem here is that our state schools of higher education have become financially inaccessible to many, so students will go elsewhere or not go at all. This represents a real loss for our communities.
There has been a change in the way New Hampshire’s government values higher education since Gov. Winant’s time in office. We know that this change is reflected elsewhere across the nation. But, here in New Hampshire, the change is more extreme and carries more severe potential consequences.
(Sandy and Paul Dallaire live in Concord.)