Q&A: Meramec President Talks Performance-Based Funding

Gov. Jay Nixon outlined his plan for implementing a performance-based funding model for state colleges and universities at his second Governor's Summit on Higher Education held last week in Jefferson City.

The event drew more than 100 leaders from Missouri public colleges and universities, including George Wasson, president of .

The Missouri Performance Funding Model would allocate funding to institutions of higher learning based on quantifiable academic goals with Fiscal Year 2013 serving as the baseline year for establishing goals and metrics, a press release states.

Wasson shared his views on the plan and his experience at the summit in a Q&A session with Kirkwood Patch.

Patch: How is Meramec currently performing academically?

George Wasson: Some things we are doing very well, some other things we need to improve. Meramec has done well in the areas of licenses and certifications. Our pass rates on that are extremely high, in the 90 percentiles. We do well with our placement of students and our internships. We do well with our students transferring to a four-year university and them doing well or better than the students who started at those institutions.

Where we are still struggling, along with the rest of the (St. Louis Community College), is moving our students through developmental educational courses such as elementary math and English. We are doing a little better in language classes like English comp., but we still need improvements there.

Patch: How do you improve on this performance?

Wasson: I think you have a lot of different variants there. If there was an easy fix, all the community colleges would do it.

 We are reviewing our developmental programs. We are reviewing how students learn about the process of going to college.

I think that we have to look at professional development for faculty as far as helping them to learn new tools and new methods that help students become more successful. We have increased our tutoring (as well as) our academic support and our supplemental instruction.

Patch: Will Meramec make an effort to increase enrollment?

Wasson: We are looking more at persistence and the retention. We are pretty much stuffed here. We are looking at how to keep the students here and help them be successful.

Patch: Do you think performance-based funding is a good incentive for colleges?

Wasson: Performance-based funding has somewhat of a checkered past. The assessment of performance is very difficult. It's very hard to assess, but it's something that is popular politically because everybody is accountable. And we should be accountable too, and we put our numbers out there, but will the dollars be the carrot that motivates colleges to perform better? I don't know. I would hope that in many ways seeing the numbers, knowing your performance, that would be enough motivation.

Patch: If a student chooses to focus his or her studies on art, music or theater as opposed to math or English, will that harm the college's performance?

Wasson: We have certificate programs where you are not taking some of those courses, but you are taking courses in your specific area of discipline. But, if you want an associates degree, then you have to study those subjects. Not everyone has the same path. What we have found out with employers though, is that they want to hire individuals that know how to write, read and communicate well.

Patch: What have you told instructors about the summit?

Wasson: I have not met with the faculty groups yet, but we will be talking to instructors and the whole college staff. I have talked to some faculty, just not formally yet.

Patch: What would you tell instructors about this performance-based initiative?

Wasson: I would tell them this won’t be a negative experience. We are just going to look at how students do at our college, and we are going to see what we can do to help them be more successful.

Patch: Did you get to talk to Governor Nixon?

Wasson: Not one-on-one, but I had a chance to speak and told him I appreciated his support of higher education in very difficult times. Since he has been governor, the state has been in times of economic downturn. He has done very well in trying to support us in our efforts.

Patch: Is there anything else you wish you would have told him?

Wasson: We are being very proactive. We are with you. We are trying to do the best we can for our students and we support this.

Patch: Any message to students?

Wasson: The initiative, even though it is coming from high up, is about looking at student success measures. We are not looking at how many students we bring through the door. We are looking at how well they are able to meet their goals when they get here. Our success is tied completely to theirs.

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