11-22-2005, 05:42 PM
Make it more like MUO
OHIO'S helter-skelter system of public-supported higher education cannot be rebuilt from scratch, but if a merger between two such diverse institutions as the Medical University of Ohio and the University of Toledo is to take place, careful attention must be given to what kind of school will emerge.
Put plainly, the surviving institution would better serve the educational needs of Toledo and northwest Ohio if it were more in the progressive mold of MUO and less like UT, which we believe has not done enough to escape an ingrained culture of mediocrity.
The medical school was developed through the leadership of the late Gov. James A. Rhodes and Paul Block, Jr., The Blade's late publisher. It has a unique geographical niche and educational mission in northwest Ohio. Under the leadership of its president, Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, the school has enhanced its reputation both as a teaching hospital and as a research institution.
The medical school is ostensibly smaller than UT, although its budget is about $300 million, including its hospital operation, while UT operates on a budget of $257.6 million. MUO has 2,000 medical, graduate, and nursing students, and the school has successfully weathered its growing pains.
UT, often rated in surveys in the lowest quartile of national universities, has 19,201 students, and has been seeking to redefine its mission after a period of unrest stemming from unwise leadership decisions promulgated by Republican governors who have appointed political hacks to serve on its board of trustees. Its enrollment has been declining, partly because of competition from other schools, including Owens Community College, which offers two-year programs at a lower tuition rate.
Mergers sometimes create more problems than they solve, as some of the unfortunate marriages in the corporate world demonstrate. If the surviving culture of a merged entity reflected the strengths of MUO, that would be one thing. However, universities are large bureaucratic organizations, and a merger, at worst, could end up mirroring UT's shortcomings, including lack of a strong research tradition and a shortage of distinguished faculty members.
Both institutions serve the same geographical area, a large metropolitan portion of Ohio that has to fight for every dollar it gets from the state. We heartily support Dr. Jacobs' belief that the merger could be a stride toward greatness, but in the current budgetary and governmental climate in Ohio, such a goal is more easily preached than reached.
In any case, the two institutions would not necessarily have to merge fully in order to achieve some of the benefits of a union. For example, the nursing school at MUO is a cooperative venture, involving the medical college, UT, and Bowling Green State University.
Examples of synergy exist in other cities in the region, such as in the study of human and machine intelligence, language technology, the use of computers in the field of astrophysics, and other cooperative ventures in high-tech fields by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Both are important research institutions that benefit from extensive grants from federal health and scientific agencies.
Much research into the pros and cons of merging MUO and UT should take place before the plan advances. One goal of UT and community leaders should be to persuade the politicians in Columbus that its board of trustees should not be a patronage plum for party loyalists.
What must emerge is an institution that can serve its multifaceted task of education and has an academic culture that not only aspires to excellence in scholarship, research, and teaching but has the combined administrative vision and resources to make it happen.
In other words, it must be less like UT and more like MUO.
OHIO'S helter-skelter system of public-supported higher education cannot be rebuilt from scratch, but if a merger between two such diverse institutions as the Medical University of Ohio and the University of Toledo is to take place, careful attention must be given to what kind of school will emerge.
Put plainly, the surviving institution would better serve the educational needs of Toledo and northwest Ohio if it were more in the progressive mold of MUO and less like UT, which we believe has not done enough to escape an ingrained culture of mediocrity.
The medical school was developed through the leadership of the late Gov. James A. Rhodes and Paul Block, Jr., The Blade's late publisher. It has a unique geographical niche and educational mission in northwest Ohio. Under the leadership of its president, Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, the school has enhanced its reputation both as a teaching hospital and as a research institution.
The medical school is ostensibly smaller than UT, although its budget is about $300 million, including its hospital operation, while UT operates on a budget of $257.6 million. MUO has 2,000 medical, graduate, and nursing students, and the school has successfully weathered its growing pains.
UT, often rated in surveys in the lowest quartile of national universities, has 19,201 students, and has been seeking to redefine its mission after a period of unrest stemming from unwise leadership decisions promulgated by Republican governors who have appointed political hacks to serve on its board of trustees. Its enrollment has been declining, partly because of competition from other schools, including Owens Community College, which offers two-year programs at a lower tuition rate.
Mergers sometimes create more problems than they solve, as some of the unfortunate marriages in the corporate world demonstrate. If the surviving culture of a merged entity reflected the strengths of MUO, that would be one thing. However, universities are large bureaucratic organizations, and a merger, at worst, could end up mirroring UT's shortcomings, including lack of a strong research tradition and a shortage of distinguished faculty members.
Both institutions serve the same geographical area, a large metropolitan portion of Ohio that has to fight for every dollar it gets from the state. We heartily support Dr. Jacobs' belief that the merger could be a stride toward greatness, but in the current budgetary and governmental climate in Ohio, such a goal is more easily preached than reached.
In any case, the two institutions would not necessarily have to merge fully in order to achieve some of the benefits of a union. For example, the nursing school at MUO is a cooperative venture, involving the medical college, UT, and Bowling Green State University.
Examples of synergy exist in other cities in the region, such as in the study of human and machine intelligence, language technology, the use of computers in the field of astrophysics, and other cooperative ventures in high-tech fields by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Both are important research institutions that benefit from extensive grants from federal health and scientific agencies.
Much research into the pros and cons of merging MUO and UT should take place before the plan advances. One goal of UT and community leaders should be to persuade the politicians in Columbus that its board of trustees should not be a patronage plum for party loyalists.
What must emerge is an institution that can serve its multifaceted task of education and has an academic culture that not only aspires to excellence in scholarship, research, and teaching but has the combined administrative vision and resources to make it happen.
In other words, it must be less like UT and more like MUO.