Achievements and Challenges Faced by Puerto Rican Institutions of Higher Education

Successes we enjoy, goals we have to meet, and activities that we must carry out to achieve the latter - the personal perspective of a Boricua in exile.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ranks 27^th by population, but 1^st by poverty rate among the political jurisdictions of the U.S. These facts translate into Puerto Rico being the fifth largest recipient of Pell Grants (ca. $600 million) among the states. The impact and (qualified) success of the Pell Grants on Island higher education represent a model for the Nation:

1. the college student population tripled;
   
2. the University of Puerto Rico expanded into regional colleges;
   
3. private institutions became the primary providers of higher education in the Island; and
   
4. the latter established new schools of engineering, medicine and nursing, among others.
   

I will compare these achievements to the situation of Hispanics on the Mainland.

Island residents constitute less than 10 percent of Hispanics in the Nation, but account for about a quarter of Hispanic physicians. The Island, while in need of several hundred engineers a year, produces over one thousand new engineers annually. It is thus not surprising that over half of the engineering graduates end up working in the Mainland. Puerto Rico accounts for over half the Hispanic engineers in the Nation in selected fields.

We excel in educational and training programs targeted at Hispanics. We are experts in the production of professionals in excess of our needs and in significant disproportion to our Hispanic brethren on the Mainland.

Let us compare the consequences of receiving funds appropriations such as the Pell Grants, against those of having to actively search for them such as is the case of prestigious scholarships and National Science Foundation (NSF) research grants.

Puerto Rico, a jurisdiction with a population of over 200,000 college students, is incapable of receiving meaningful numbers of prestigious awards. Many of these programs, such as the Goldman, Truman and Udall scholarships or the Madison and NSF fellowships, require a faculty nominator. In 2005, for example, the nominators did not recommend a single student to these programs, even though hundreds of students in the Island qualified for them. Puerto Rico ranks near the bottom of the list in the number of proposals submitted to NSF. Its success rate is half that of the average for other jurisdictions.

Island institutions are successful at using appropriated funds. They still have to go a long way before they become successful at actively seeking competitive funds. In the absence of robust basic research programs, it is not surprising that research and development efforts in the Island are close to being non-existent. An example of the later fact is the occasional Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant awarded to entrepreneurs in the Island.

Puerto Rican institutions of higher education face challenging goals:

1. establishing graduate programs on a par with successful undergraduate and professional ones;
   
2. joining the National university community as senior, rather than minority partners;
   
3. desegregating the student body;
   
4. desegregating the faculty; and
   
5. conferring power and initiative to each member of the faculty.

The problem is not one of lack of talent – there are plenty of top-notch students and, therefore of faculty. It is not a problem of lack of funds – the Federal government is magnanimous (relatively speaking.) It is a problem of initiative, of (human) capital investment, of recruitment of outstanding faculty. The challenge is to make accountable and to reward each member of the faculty for his/her failures and accomplishments, respectively.

The success of academic programs rests atop the shoulders of each faculty member, not over those of department chairs, faculty deans, provosts, presidents or members of the board of regents.

I propose the immediate implementation of a plan of action.

• Research Infrastructure
  
  
  
  • Proposals to Federal agencies
    
  • New faculty recruitment and incentives to existing one
  
  
• Students
  
  
  
  • Prestigious scholarships and fellowships
    
  • Internship programs in the Mainland.
    
  • Recruitment in Latin America
    
  • Retention and career tracking programs
  
  
• Faculty Assessment
  
  
  
  • Research proposals
    
  • Research program
    
  • Publications
    
  • Graduate students
    
  • Student evaluation

PowerPoint presentation in support of the subject.