If Charles Manning were running a business, he would be one of the largest employers in Tennessee. As chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, his objectives and concerns are broader. Yet, there are similarities. Like his counterparts in industry, Manning is continually looking for ways to improve performance.
Representing 157,000 students and 14,000 faculty and staff, Manning serves as advocate for the state’s public colleges and universities and works with the state’s legislature on appropriations. The aspect of his job that he enjoys the most is identifying ways the six universities, 13 community colleges and 26 technology centers within the nation’s sixth largest state system can work together to operate more efficiently.
“In a big company, the CEO says: ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and five years later, the last person in that company finally catches on,” says Manning. “In higher education, you spend five years getting that last person to catch on and only then can you say: “This is what we’re going to do.” Getting people organized and mobilized and thinking in the same direction is what I enjoy doing.”
It’s what Manning has been doing in the Volunteer State since April 2000. Prior to that, he spent a decade as CEO of West Virginia’s university system. And before that he was executive vice chancellor in Oklahoma and deputy director of the Colorado commission on higher education. Manning earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Western Maryland College and his master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Maryland.
Public higher education in Tennessee is composed of three organizations. One is the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, which sets policy. Another is the four campuses of the University of Tennessee and its 40,000 students. Then there is the Board of Regents, which Manning oversees, that is the governing body of all other colleges and universities in the state.
Rural folklore and rural reality
John Morgan, Tennessee’s comptroller, says, “We are a state of contrasts. We have some very urbanized areas, and we have many very rural areas. The rural challenge is creating incentives for people with all sorts of obstacles to pursue educational opportunities. Morgan serves on the state’s higher education commission as well as the building commission, which oversees capital outlay projects statewide.
“Expense is one obstacle, and geography is another,” Morgan continues. “There’s also a general sense that their parents weren’t educated, and they did okay. Add to that a feeling among rural parents that if my son or daughter earns a bachelor’s degree, and there’s no job locally, it means he or she will move away.”
Lemonade from budget lemons?
Tennessee higher education is in a prolonged squeeze. State funding continues to decrease. As a result, tuitions are being raised, and more and more needy students are pushed out of the system. “At our high point in 1988, we represented 18 percent of the state budget,” says Manning. “Today, we’re at 11 percent. Health care, K-12, and oftentimes prisons are more politically potent. I don’t know that we’ll ever overcome that.” The system’s operating expenditures this academic year will total $1.7 billion with an additional $111 million spent for construction and maintenance.
Manning would like to see more support shift from the state to the community level. That’s where the difference an educational institution makes is more directly felt, particularly the community and technical colleges.
“We have one really good example of how this can work in Kingsport, Tennessee,” Manning begins. “The community pays the two year tuition cost for any student who graduates from its high school and attends the community college. They do this not so much as a do-good program for students, but to build economic infrastructure. They believe that having a prepared workforce is as important as the community’s roads, power, sewer and water. So the hope is that those graduates will remain. I don’t have exact statistics of how well their model is working, but I do know that theirs has been our fastest-growing community college.”
Another model of local support may be found in Decatur County. Local philanthropist Jim Ayers has provided scholarships for all high school graduates there. “He’s hired two or three counselors to work with students as they go through high school. Their rate of high school graduates progressing to postsecondary studies has increased from 31 percent to almost 90 percent,” Manning states. Ayers says the money helps, but of equal or greater importance are credible counselors.
What can we do together?
Manning also wants to define ways to operate institutions collectively in more efficient ways. He says an acceptable balance comes as a result of offering each institution the opportunity to develop and maintain its uniqueness while identifying joint projects and processes that offer economies of scale.
“For example, students statewide expect to see their grades online, to register and pay online. So one’s ERP system is not a defining characteristic of one institution versus another. Therefore, operating ERP systems in as common a way as possible makes a lot of sense and reduces operating expenses.”
Manning has led his organization through a re-engineering process called “Defining Our Future,” which has produced several standardizations. For example, they have defined a 41-hour core curriculum that eases transfer among schools. They’ve trimmed the number of degree programs. They operate from a common calendar. They’ve standardized degree requirements at 120 hours for a baccalaureate and 64 hours for an associate degree. They are hard at work refining remedial education, moving it out of the universities and trying to implement a more common approach.
What can we do online?
Perhaps a crowning achievement under Manning’s leadership is the launch of Regents Online Degrees. Although institutions are located in 90 of the state’s 95 counties, not all courses are available in each community. Begun four years ago, the online program currently has 10,000 course enrollments and is equivalent in terms of FTE’s to one of the system’s smaller community colleges.
“We use the faculty across the whole system, and every institution can share online,” says Manning. “A student may be registered at one institution, taking a course taught by an instructor at another institution, with coursework developed by a faculty member at a third institution.”
Manning says nursing and teacher certification programs are critically needed online. “For example, my background is in chemistry. You won’t get 15 people in one place who are interested in getting a teacher certification in chemistry. By making that available across the state, we have the opportunity to do it efficiently.”
It’s about people, not turf
One of the things Morgan says he appreciates about Manning is his focus. “Policy makers agree on the need,” he says. “But getting people to pull together to make things happen, that’s a challenge. Charlie is very much about that business.”
Manning’s quiet diplomacy is particularly effective at building trust and gaining cooperation among legislators, educators and community leaders. Shirley Raines, president of the University of Memphis, says her boss is a good communicator with demonstrated leadership ability. “He is very sensitive to the needs of the students and of the state,” Raines adds. “His objective is to raise the educational attainment of Tennessee citizens for economic development and a better way of life.”
Manning views the diverse system he oversees as a pipeline that students may enter after high school and matriculate as far as they want to go. He clearly understands the correlation between educating Tennessee citizens and increasing the kinds of jobs the state wants to attract and keep.
“We just bagged the U.S. headquarters of Nissan just south of Nashville,” he adds. “Nashville will need employees. Nashville will hire employees. Will they be Nashvillians? Or will they come from elsewhere? If you’re not making the educational investment in your citizens, they can actually become a liability and not an asset.”