Gov. Mark Sanford last week called for a hand-picked task force to create a �statewide higher education plan,� but added he already knows what he wants to hear that task force recommend.

Most states that have created panels to develop a �statewide plan� for public higher education have done so without pre-determining that the plan should include creation of a new layer of bureaucracy that will drive up costs to taxpayers without educating additional students. The more accepted approach across the nation is clearly to determine first what functions are needed, then let those functions dictate structural form.

While I respect the governor�s prerogative to advance policy proposals of his choosing, I am concerned that the approach he has taken at times may be filtering out important information that legislators � and the public � should take into account when considering his recommendations. These important discussions lately are being framed more around issues of ideology and goals for certain bureaucratic form, rather than around the level of quality and value delivered functionally by our institutions.

Of particular concern is the continuing blanket allegation of higher education �inefficiency.� My institution�s record on that is clear: The governor�s own budget document cites Winthrop�s administrative costs as well below average. Nationally, Consumer�s Digest has named Winthrop one of only 50 �Best Value� public institutions in America.

The governor in his press conference acknowledged that he wants to drive �public opinion� his way on the issue of structural form by talking first about tuition. Good � South Carolina should keep talking about tuition, particularly what has driven up tuition in recent years. And that clearly has been the massive cuts in state appropriations made since 9/11. Those cuts reduced institutional support statewide to the level of 10 years ago at the very time when higher education has been facing the added challenge of preparing the state�s citizenry and workforce for a rapidly changing global economy. After management efficiencies, tuition increases have been the only alternative �fuel� available for meeting that challenge.

The public need not take the word of college and university presidents on this cause-and-effect relationship. The highly respected Southern Regional Education Board, which Gov. Sanford selectively cites in regard to tuition, also speaks succinctly to the causes of those tuition effects. In its report, �South Carolina Featured Facts 2005,� the SREB reaches the following conclusion: �Tuition and fees were the largest source of new funds � appropriations have not kept up.�

So while �Cap tuition� may make a good bumper sticker, it isn�t responsive to what the SREB objectively confirms as a key problem: that state appropriations to four-year institutions in South Carolina fell 22 percent overall from 2001 through 2004.

Winthrop University has invested its resulting tuition increases in the three priorities that are the lifeblood of high-quality higher education in these times: faculty, technology and facilities. That�s why blaming solely institutions for increasing tuition is a bit like blaming a hemorrhaging patient for seeking a blood transfusion.

Many states across the country are beginning to return state appropriation support to institutions as the post-9/11 economic rebound continues. Gov. Sanford instead proposes continuing cuts � $769,000 at Winthrop next year, which alone would take a $90 increase in tuition to replace. And the governor said again that he wants to create yet another layer of costly bureaucracy to government.

After scrutiny, South Carolinians last year rejected proposals that they deemed injurious to public education at the K-12 level; they may want to give similar scrutiny to these public higher education proposals as well.

South Carolina leaders of all partisan and philosophical viewpoints with whom I have spoken at length agree that our state needs to focus on how public education can best prepare South Carolina to compete in the 21st century. Inherently, the shared vision for higher education means focusing not so much on bureaucratic form as on the following key functions:

� Creating a well-educated citizenry.

� Improving the quality of life and standard of living of all South Carolinians.

� Meeting changing workforce needs.

� Providing for a new generation of public and private sector leaders.

� Positioning the state to be competitive in a global economy through quality scholarship, research and public service.

Those of us responsible for delivering higher education services to the state look forward to having the level of state support that allows us to do what times demand without asking the students and their families of this decade and the next to shoulder more than their fair share of the costs.

Those intertwined goals may not fit so easily on a bumper sticker, but surely all public-spirited South Carolinians can agree that they are the important functional goals for higher education � goals that should transcend individual philosophy or bureaucratic form.

Dr. DiGiorgio has been president of Winthrop University since 1989.