Plan to Have State Universities Trade Flexibility for Funding Not Going Anywhere

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Several years ago, Jim Petro first pitched the idea of allowing Ohio’s public colleges and universities to get freedom from some regulations in exchange for giving up some of their state funding.

Then last year, Petro, now chancellor of Ohio’s Board of Regents, formally pitched a legislative plan to create so-called “enterprise universities.” Ohio colleges liked the idea of less regulation. They didn’t like the idea of less money.

And now the enterprise university plan seems to be, in general, “stalled indefinitely,” the Dayton Daily News reports:

Wright State University President David Hopkins said there were many concerns about the proposed funding cuts. During a meeting Monday with the Wright State faculty senate, he said the plan had “met its end for a while.”

“The idea is we need to be less regulated so we can respond to the needs of our community,” Hopkins said following the meeting. “The concept is good. It’s just how we visit it in the future, and how we put it into existence that really works without taking money.”

Gov. John Kasich’s spokesperson tells the Daily News the enterprise university plan was one way to help higher education “reduce its cost,” a concept the governor believes is “absolutely critical.”