Commentary: Austerity Metrics and the Restructuring of Public Higher Education

• Published date: 01 March 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12207
• Date: 01 March 2014

272 Public Administration Review • March | April 2014

Michael B. Fabricant is treasurer of

the Professional Staff Congress, the faculty

staff union of The City University of New

York, and professor at Hunter College. He

has published nine books and numerous

articles on matters including, but not

limited to, juvenile justice, homelessness,

and K–12 public education. Presently, he is

working on a book about the restructuring

of public higher education.

E-mail: mfabrica@hunter.cuny.edu

Commentary Austerity Metrics and the Restructuring

of Public Higher Education

undergone a sea change, with less than 10 percent

of their budgets now attributable to tax-levy public

money.  e City University of New York has lost more

than a half billion dollars of its public funding in the

past f‌i ve years.  e California systems have also been

targeted for similar cuts. With the politics of auster-

ity policy, privatized forms of revenue, most notably

tuition, have replaced public funding.  e calculus

is simple: as public funding declines, private forms

Michael B. Fabricant

Hunter College at The City University of New York

Over the past two decades, public universi-

ties have experienced a precipitous decline

in government support.  e diminish-

ment of public funds is a national phenomenon with

powerful implications for the restructuring of higher

education. Most dramatically, an expansive cohort of

f‌l agship public university campuses, including, but not

limited to, the University of Minnesota, the University

of Oregon, and  e Ohio State University, have