the cspan bus's big ten fall tour kick off this week with washington journal interviewing university presidents on policy issues that impact higher education, including costs, admission policies and curriculum and academic standards. coming up, university of arizona president eric caleb. >> and here on washington journal this morning, we kick off the first of our big ten college tour with visits to big ten college campuses and talking to presidents of the big ten colleges and universities.

the colleges that educate some half million people each year and allocate some $10 billion a year to research throughout the country and beyond. we're joined this morning by eric kalor. and and on wednesday, james lindher, and joining us on our cspan bus is eric kalor, thank you for joining us this morning here on washington journal. >> very glad to be with you. >> tell us about the university of minnesota system. is it a public system? a land grant university? >> sure. it's minnesota's land grant university. we have five campuses across the state, our twin cities campus,

minneapolis and st. paul, duluth, morris, christian and rochester. all together about 59,000 students, so it's a big operation. >> the university was founded in 1851. how long have you been president, president kalor? >> well, less than that for sure. i'm just starting my fourth year, i'm the 16th president of the university so people tend to serve in this job for a long time. >> what are some of your priorities as president? >> well, it's really pretty simple for me, i'm very interested in accessibilities and affordability. and i'm interested in the university providing a truly excellent education for those students. also interested in being sure that we help drive the economy of the state of minnesota, that we're the home of inventions and innovations in medical care, science and engineering and we also have a critically important

responsibility to maintain the liberal arts and be a place where creative work of all kinds takes place. so it's a pretty broad span, but at the end of the day we're interested in our undergraduate student, ensuring they get an excellent education. >> our bus will be visiting almost all of the big ten college campuses. where does the university rate in terms of size, just size alone? >> well, first off, we're really glad that you started with minnesota. we're appreciative of that. we on the twin cities campus. technically we're the fourth, fifth, sixth largest campus in the country. so the only one that's physically larger than we are is ohio state. but again, an important breadth across our system as well. so the twin cities campus is about 51,000 student this is

year. >> and for our cspan viewers, alumni and students, just a quick snapshot in terms of the size, you mentioned this a little bit earlier n terms attendan attendance, 48,000 plus, that's 28,000 undergraduate, 12,000 graduate. 3,800 postgraduate. and 3606 nondegree. let's look at some of the costs too in terms of on campus versus off campus for on campus students, the total is 25,374. off campus, loving off campus, $19,386 in terms of in state versus out of state, the total of tuition and fees in minnesota, if you're an in state student, is 12,060, an$12,060, 0 for out of state students.

in preparing for our conversation, the system has frozen the tuition for this year, why was that? >> well, we had a very productive conversation with our state legislature and with the governor at the beginning of the last -- we decided to put forward tuition free if we were able to get appropriate funding from the state of minnesota to make that happen. and we were able to do that. so at the beginning of this biennium, we see the great -- we have taken a pretty heavy cut during the great recession and as a consequence, we had to raise tuition to maintain the quality of our program. our conversation with the state governor let us reverse that. so the state allowed us to reinvest as we should, and we were able to make the deal to be able to freeze minnesota

resident graduate tuition. student debt is something i'm sure we'll falk about this morning, it's important to us to have our students leave with a great education but without a great amount of debt and this tuition freeze is a great step in that direction. >> we have broken our phones down a little bit differently as you can see on your screen. if you are a parent, the number to call is 202-585-3880. that would be the parent of a student, not necessarily the university of minnesota. for educators, the number is 202-585-3881. for parents, and for minnesota residents, we have set aside a line as well. that is 202-585-3882. back to the subject of

university tuition costs. when you talk to your colleagues at big ten and other universities, what is the number one priority in terms of keeping those costs low? what's the number one tool you can use to keep college costs low? >> well, it's clear that the great land grant institution state supported institutions have a historical relationship with their state. and for years, the state of minnesota and other states in the big ten supported their universities well. when i was a graduate student here 30 years ago, the state of minnesota provided over 30% of the university's budget and this year they provide about 16% of the state budget. so that state disinvestment has meant a shift of costs to students. so as we look at ways to make the burden on students easier, the first conversation with state government. the other side of the coin, so

to speak is our ability to control our cost. we're in an industry that requires us in order to be competitive to hire a great faculty and great staff to do the work that we do. and those personnel costs are expensive. but we also need to drive our administrative costs as far as possible. we need to operate as effectively and efficiently as we can so that those funds we do have are not administration coscost s and we're working every day at the university of minnesota to make that happen. so really it's maintaining a -- being in partnership with the state to fund the whole enterprise. >> for the student coming in that's accepted the university of minnesota, where does that conversation begin on affordability and how is it tracked? >> well, first off i should tell you about a third, 37% of our students graduate with no debt at all. so they are able, with their

resources and the family's resources to appropriately pay for college. of the students who graduate with that, the average dead is about $27,000. again, that's for students with debt. that's the price of a nice, new car. and you need to make that balance of your life decisions, about making an investment in yourself as a young person, getting that college education versus doing something else with that money. so i think students and their families have their conversation. we provided last year well over $300 million in financial aid, so we're eager to help qualified student who is don't have the means to come to the u to be here with us and that balance of financial aid, taking some loans at the end of the day, a young person making a decision to invest in college, that yields the outcome that produces the 5,500 first-year student that we welcomed to campus last month.

>> 75% of stuchblts receive some form of financial aid. and 25 varsity sports teams, the system also has campuses in duluth, morris, cookstown and rochester. how many athletic scholarships do you give out per year? >> we have 750 student athletes at the university of minnesota at the twin cities and additional student athletes? duluth. most of,eze them receive some k of financial aid, ranging from a full scholarship to a partial scholarship across all sports. and again, the revenues that support that athletic program are to a very great extent media revenues, ticket sales, fil philanthropy and other

sponsorship sites, so the impact on our overall budget is a million or two million this year and hopefully a little bit more than that next year. >> as we kick off our cspan bus college tour this time through the big ten conference starting with the university of minnesota. if you are a parent of a student whether at minnesota or elsewhere. college students or others, 202-585-3882. we would love to hear from some high school students who are planning to go to college next year. let's hear first from capital heights, maryland, a student, john, where do you go to school? >> hello? >> john, you're on the air, yes do you go to school? >> caller: i go to university of maryland.

>> go ahead with your question for eric kalor. >> what is the university, what services and what are they doing to help students who may have gone to a high school that didn't really orient or have the resources to help students that want to go to college help them? >> john, hang on the line for a quick second and we'll hear from president kalor. >> i didn't quite get all of that, but i think the question was what does the university do to provide resources for students that need help to come to the college. we have a broad spectrum of financial aid, both need based and merit based. we work hard to make the university affordable. so for example, if you come from a family who has income of $30,000 a year or less, that means that the expectation is your family will not contribute to the cost of your education. and we package financial aid

grants and scholarships that more than cover the cost of tuition. so we're very affordable for students from very low income families and we grant that up and again give need-based financial aid to families who have adjusted gross income of up to $100,000 a year. unlike many of our competitors, we put financial aid on the table, recognizing that the cost of college is a burden to many families and we're eager to make it possible for their students to come to the university of minnesota. >> what about on the academic side, in terms of help for incoming freshmen who may not have excelled or they need a little bit more help. they have made it into the university but they face a fairly daunting fall schedule or whatever. what sort of resources does the university of minnesota offer? >> just this year, we have begun a program called the president's

emerging scholars program. that's a program that consists of a summer activity before the first year, to get them squared away in a dormitory, we give them a little bit of a head start. we provide an additional $1,000 of financial aid in the first year and $1,000 in their fourth year to be sure they get over the finish line. we offer a variety of programs, really for students who are the first-generation in the families who come to college, who are really not familiar with a college culture, we have a great program around financial literacy, this is a way for students to stub their toe when they get away from home. it's called live like a student now so you don't have to later. it's the idea of affordability in the decisions that you make with your money. we have programs hosted like that and with the president's emerging scholars program, we think we have ways for students from disadvantaged backgrounds

to succeed at the university of minnesota. >> the fall tour of the big ten campuses, a tweet from laura who asks you president kalor, what decides a college as a big ten besides their football teams? >> well, that's a great question, i'm glad it came up because the football teams are actually the least of what we do, the backbone of the big ten is a committee for institutional cooperation, the so-called cic. that's a program run by the university, it's the most comprehensive association in the country where best practices are exchanged, where leaders of various parts of the institution come together to learn from each other. it's a model for how academic institutions should collaborate and work together. and of course we do play football and a variety of other sports, but i think if you ask

our new members, maryland and rutgers, what the important attract fors for them to the big ten was the academics that we do. it's really a remarkable group of institutions when you look at the quality of the academics that is done, together with the competitiveness of their sports teams, they're really a very special group of institutions. >> and the cspan bus will be visiting those big ten universities in new jersey. here's steve who a's parent, steve, where's your child in school? >> caller: my child is not currently in school. she got a wonderful education at the university of wisconsin and many of her friends were from minnesota and the reason for that is, minnesota and wisconsin has this wonderful reciprocity program where they go to each other's colleges and universities, i guess, for in state fees and i wanted to hear

what dr. kalor thinks is the advantages and disadvantages of that. because i think this is a fantastic program. these people that my daughter met have become lifetime friends and have made my daughter a better student. >> reciprocity is a wonderful opportunity for wisconsin students to study in minnesota and vice versa and it also applies to north and south dakota and manitoba in canada. and it does enable students to come to a similar school. and have that experience while being a little bit further from home. it is interesting for those listening who have had college aged students, as was the case in my family, being away from home was an important part of the decision of where to go to

school and being able to go to wisconsin if you're a twin cities student, it's far enough away and you're still getting your great education at the price you would pay in minnesota. it's a wonderful program. about 16% of our students come from wisconsin under that reciprocity program. >> here's a student on the line. this is kevin who's in west sacramento, california. kevin, go ahead and where are you in school? >> caller: where am i in school? actually i'm not in school right now. i was trying to find out more about his college, the location, where it might be located? >> the school's in minnesota. any other question about the university there, kevin? all right, we'll let you go, here's catherine, who's a parent in falls village, connecticut. good morning. >> caller: good morning, i'm fortunate to have two students in college right now.

one went to wpi arngd one is at mt. holly oak. i have deviled into the issues of climate change and domestic abuse and now we're hearing about college accountability for sexual assault and i'm wonderering if we could share the resources such as civic resource institute that has rather expensive but comprehensive research done for educators and people in all professions, if all students could know about that, because there seems to be a lot of confusion about what is, you know, either assault or in a divorce or custody plan, what is a fair, appropriate outcome, particularly for women. because unfortunately, this is highly often the case that the women and children are being victimized, even by some of the system. so we need a major turn around. >> let's find out, president, kalor, in terms of campus sexual assault. there's a lot of talk obviously on capitol hill and elsewhere.

what are some of the things the university of minnesota is doing to address the issue? >> well, we have been a long time leader in battling sexual assault on our campuses. women's center is a national center of how to respond to accusations of sexual assault, how to help victims, how to pursue justice in that space and in fact they have been consulted by the white house as this freshman conversation has moved forward. we take the issue very seriously here. we have, again, a variety of programming, a variety of structure that we think educates ying people, both men and women about making smart decisions about no means no and again as i mentioned, we are a robust support system for victims. we're by no means perfect, there's obviously opportunity for improvement, but we are in

that space as a leader by many people in the country. >> question for you on twitter, by the way our 457kdal the cspan wj. how do profits from athletics break down in fund parts of the college in nonathletic scholarships to renovations. >> our athletic program, like all but a small handful of athletic programs does receive a subsidy from the university. as i mentioned earlier, it's an amount that nets out to be about $2 million a year, so that support for the athletic programs are big revenue sports, football, basketball, and in minnesota, our hockey program, both for men and women, do carry a lot of the budget tear load and provide opportunities for student athletes in the nonrevenue sports and again as i mentioned, we have 750 athletes all together. but as of now, our athletic

program does not turn a profit to the university and we continue to move towards that. i would like to see our twin cities campus be self sufficient, but we also need to be excecompetitive. so there's a balance to be made as is the case in most schools like that. >> you can find president kalor on twitter. jim from gadsden, alabama. jim, good morning. >> caller: good morning, i have a general request about educational opportunity because i'm all three of the above in your categories. just recently finished seminary after going to harvard and birmingham southern down here in alabama and my wife recently got her phd at uva and is now a college professor, but we both came from poor families, i mean a generation ago we were dirt

poor. and we received opportunities, but we studied in high school and subsequently. now my question is, i hear so much about the poor people in america and the meinority group in various big cities, they can't get education, they have no opportunity to go to college. but with all i hear, even from your discussion this morning, and all i know from my alumni schools and my wife's, there is so much opportunity, we both worked during our college and graduate school. but we studied our books in high school, we did fairly well on the s.a.t.s, but here's my question, if a person, no matter what area of america they come from, no matter what their race, no matter what their background, if they can pass minimally an

entrance example to the average college in america, is there any reason that person, no matter what their background or what their neighborhood was, should not be able to go to college? >> thanks, jim. president kalor? >> no, absolutely, qualified students obviously should be able to go to college. that's why we spend so much time and effort on financial aid and a variety of structures to enable students from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed at the university of minnesota. i don't think there's anything more critical for our country's future than to have an educated population. and that means everybody needs a-degree of education. sometimes a four-year college is the right fit. sometimes it may be a professional or a trade school. but everybody needs a post secondary education in order to thrive in our country. i think the data on that is pretty clear and we're committed

to that at the university of minnesota. >> just looking at some of the statistics in terms of the number of ying people in college, in particular between 18 and 24, a 30-year and 32-year comparison here. there's more going to dlej in 2012, up from 26% in 1980. there are fewer in the -- that's down from 75% in 1986. as you graduate students from the university of minnesota, how do you prep them for the workforce, beyond just their course work? what's the most important thing that you do at the university to do that? >> i think employers will tell you that the single greatest predictor for success for a student coming out is that they have some prak kl experience, they have an intern shirp in their company or their field so

they understand what that's like or they have experience beyond the course work. we have the third largest study abroad cohort of students in the country, that provides a great opportunity for students to see other people in the world and give them a deeper, richer experience. many of our major capstone cowses, they'll spend either a semester or a senior year pulling together in the elements in the discipline, learning to think more critically about what their discipline is about. but at the end of the day, that internship experience, east in the summertime or over a semester is important. and that's something we work on aggressively. we're fortunate in minnesota, that twin cities is the home to 18 fortune 500 countries and a very active economy beyond those companies, so there are lots of opportunities for young people to go out and get experiences relevant to them as they search

for that first job. >> i want to get your reaction on that issue to the fiscal times survey of hiring managers and other employ. the surprising reason college grads can't get a job, they write that nearly 3/4s of -- aren't prepared for the job market and lack an adequate work ethic. those hires managers aren't alone in their assessment either, a wide range of business people, according to recruiters, academics and others interviewed for the study agreed that college graduates deserve a grade of c or lower for their preparedness for their first job. how do you counter act something like that? >> well, that is a challenging situation and it reflects of course the input that that young person has had for the first 22 years of their life and we're not responsible for all of that.

we do insist on a rigorous education, we do insist on work at the university of minnesota, the quality of our programs, i think, is at a level that our students are prepared to go to work once they succeed. but at the end of the die, there is a general expectation of students graduating now that's different, than, for example my generation, an expectation for quality of life, expectation for a work-life balance, it can be different from other generations so i think it's a function of society that's a little bit overa university's genera. >> hello in missouri, go ahead. we'll move on to st. joseph, michigan, arlene is a parent there. go ahead. >> caller: yes, i am a parent.

and my daughter has been out of school for 22 years now. but i do not understand why people say they can't afford to send their children to school. i was divorced, making about $23,000 a year at the time, daughter went to western university which ran around $12,000 a year. and she did go full-time and she did live on campus. but when my daughter turned 16, she didn't have a car. i didn't have to make car payments, i didn't have to make car insurance payments. she started working at mcdonald's at 15 and when she got her check on friday, most of it went into the bank. she didn't have it spent the next day, between her -- after her senior year of college, she worked at the company i was

working at because they would hire kids of parents that were going to school. and they could work for the summer and so they made better than minimum wage. >> now arlene, did you wind up paying her bills or did he take her care of her tuition, her student loans? >> caller: it was pretty much half and half. she did get two scholarships which also did help. but when she was working in the summer, there were several other kids working there, they would get paid on thursday, those other kids, their money would be gone by friday. >> eric kalor, is there a magic number of how much debt a student or a student's parents should be carrying? >> first off, i would like to congratulate the caller on a very successful management of resources and a good outcome of her daughter getting an education. that's a degree of responsibility i think that's

commendab commendable. and to go to your question, and you look at a college debt, i think there's not one size fits all. i think unfortunately, sometimes what you hear about in the media, are really the horror stories of somebody that's racked up $100,000 or $150,000 in debt to get an undergraduate degree. i don't think there's any reason in the world to have that person. that's a series of bad decisions that person has made in my opinion. you can get a very high quality degree. lets just take the numbers again at the university of minnesota. for a resident student, the total cost of attendance per year is $25,000 roughly. so 100,0$100,000 for four years again, you would have the expectation, if your family is of limited means, which would give you financial aid, a new base aid that would cover at least half of that amount. you would expect that a student

should work during the summer, you could expect perhaps your parents would help out to some degree. so it feels like to me that even under difficult conditions, a $25,000 total amount of student loan is something that should be in the upper end of what people are carrying. yet i do know people graduate from our university with more than that debt. which means they've been spending those funds on things beyond the cost of coming to college and that's a personal decision. a person a person wants to have a particular lifestyle, they need to the make that decision at the end of the day on ways to way for it. >> how much do you think the federal government should play in additional student loan aid? >> that's an interesting question. i think the balance there is really tough to see.

on one hand, there is an argument that as we make more lower cost financial aid available, federal financial aid available, students take that and therefor incur more indebtedness without having the conversation about is that something that really is in their long-term interest. on the other hand, obviously for students who need that financial aid, having it available and having it available at a low interest rate is a huge advantage for them going forward. so there's not really an easy answer to the right level of federal financial aid. i certainly am -- you might want to have some financial counseling involved to make sure that people are making good decisions about their ability to repay those future loans. >> the big ten tour, eric kalor is president of the university

of minnesota. just under ten minutes left. let's hear from fred who's in lexington, kentucky. a student there, fred where do you go to school? >> caller: i go to eastern kentucky university. >> uh-huh. >> caller: my question to the president kind of concerns my question. the president had some proposals, different options and so on, as the president of a university, i was wondering what kind of insight you would kind of include in this process? i know like in other countries, australia, canada, they have advanced systems for some of their graduates from foreign countries, that sort of thing. i was wondering what's your insight into this question?

>> thank you, fred. >> my view is that a person who's gained an education in the united states should be able to stay in the united states. ive it was up to me, i would begin to address the shortage of people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by stapling a green card to a diploma for anybody in that field. i think america is richer by having a strong immigrant population, and i think america is stronger by having trained individuals part of it. this country grew by innovation and i'm in favor of continuing to do so, particularly with earning a college degree, regardless of the institutions those individuals have gone through, there's been some -- benefitted them and i think you have to allow those people to stay in the united states and reap the economic benefit of their labors. >> call from minnesota next from

hopkins, dorothy is there. who's a parent. hi, dorothy. >> caller: good morning. >> good morning. >> caller: i'm calling because i'm interested in the stem influence that is part of the college curriculum now and i would like to add an a to that, for arts. how important are the arts in minnesota? >> well, i think the university of minnesota has a core value and a core responsibility to maintain the arts, the creative arts of all kinds in minnesota. and actually to the points of real strengths. in the performing arts, we have a wonderful relationship with guthrie theater, and we have students who are part of that trooup. we have terrific facilities for many of our visual arts activities and our performing arts activities with the new

york auditorium. so i'm a huge fan of support for the arts. at the same time, we have very tight budget constraints and the challenges of providing enough for everybody are always there. but i think as an institution of higher education, as the state's only -- we have a core requirement to maintain that degree of activity. and they benefit not just students who happen to major in one of the fine or performing arts. i visited a pottery class recently that was filled with students from all disciplines who were interested in it. to be able to strengthen the arts at the university of minnesota and as aadditional resources to be able to make wise investments. >> to our students line next, this is chris who's in leewood,

kansas, chris, where do you go to school? >>. >> caller: i go to student hall university in new jersey. i sort of object to a few of the things that have been discussed on the program so far. i think the major root of the problems in secondary education involve critical thinking, so many of my professors and even high school teachers said the kids are being taught incorrectly. and the way i have been able to do that is outside of class and i know other students have alternate means for that. i guess my question is what do you think the confines of learning in the classrooms are and how do we educate them? >> thanks, chris, go ahead. >> that is a per accept tiff question and i think escaping the class room is actually one of the most important things that a college student does. and that's actually one of the important reasons that that place education so important,

because it's those out of classroom activities, the caller mentioned debate, which is just a wonderful way to build a rigorous way to think and analyze, think about and analyze a problem. and we encourage our students to be involved in those kinds of activities. it is true that sometimes in a classroom, you're so consumed with taking knowledge that we don't always have the time to think about it in particularly to apply it across different disciplines and an extracurricular activity like debate lets you do that. and again, i mentioned some of the capstone courses that we have in our majors also enables you to have the space and time to think that way. back to the secondary education, the second part of his question, sure, i was just going to comment that we at the university are working to strengthen post secondary education in minnesota from

prekindergarten all the way through high school and these are problems that we all need to lean into together. >> headline from the "boston globe" this morning on their front page, as harvard gets 350 milli million for health efforts, they say it's the biggest gift in the school's history, $350 million. not to make you jealous or anything, president kalor. but how big is the endowment at the university of minnesota and how do you decide where to allocate those funds? foundation endowment is right at $2 million and the university maintains it's own endowment of about a billion dollars, so we have about $3 billion of endowments and resources it's one of the biggest endowments in

the country. it's divided into a myriad of activities. professor ship support for faculty members and support for probably hundreds if not thousands of activities that donors have contributed through the years. so philanthropy is an important part of our budget and will continue to be a part of our public institution going forward as we balance state contributions and our desire to keep tuition revenues as affordable to students as they can be. >> one more call on our students line. good morning. >> caller: good morning, how are you doing. >> fine, thanks. >> caller: i have a comment with regard to universities in general. do you think it's appropriate for the universities to discrimination on campus in regards to veterans being on

site there and or things of that nature, in regards to, i just know from my personal experience in evanston, illinois, sometimes the presence of veterans or what have you is frowned upon by universities in the northwest. i think that's inappropriate. >> robert, we'll get an answer from eric kalor, thank you for your call. >> we have a very robust veteran's program at the university of minnesota, we welcome them with open arms. we have three strong rotc in programming and accessibility for veterans. i myself grew up in a military family so we are open and welcoming to people who have served our country. >> eric kalor is president of the united statversity of minne. this is the first stop on our

cspan big ten bus tour. thank you for being on the show this morning. >> thank you for having me and good luck at your next stops. >> interviews with university presidents on issues impacting higher education. coming up university of nebraska interim president dr. james linder. >> this week on the washington journal, we kicked off our month-long series of interviews with university presidents as part of our cspan bus's big ten college tour. this morning joining us on the cspan bus at the campus of the university of nebraska in lincoln is the interim president dr. james linder. thank you, sir for being with us. let us begin with the size of the university of nebraska lincoln and also the cost. >> well, thank you very much greta. it's a pleasure to be with you today and i appreciate the fact that you're doing this service

to educate students and the public at large about the importance of higher education. the university of nebraska system as four campuses, one of which is the university of nebraska lincoln, which is a big ten school. it has a little over 25,000 students. there are 51,000 students in the entire system. and that actually represents record enrollment for us. and the cost of an education at the university of nebraska lincoln is around $8,000 a year. which actually that's the lowest in the big ten. >> out of state tuition comes in at $22,000 a year. how much financial aid is there available? >> we made a serious effort to provide financial aid for our students. particularly on the side of grants and scholarship. about three-quarters of students receive some type of grant or scholarship within a year of education.

>> the gallup recently just did a poll back in april, young adults cite college costs as their top money problem. i'm wondering, and this has sparked a debate in our country. is college worth it? how do you answer that question, dr. linder? >> well, i think the university of nebraska regents and our state legislature have had access and affordability among its priorities for many years even before the recent discussions on costs. and we believe in nebraska that college is worth it. really, the opportunity to educate the next generation of nebraskans, that go out and form companies, service businesses, and have degrees that can support higher technology is really a central for both a growing economy and having an informed senry. -- citizenry.

>> how much majors are available at the university of nebraska? >> wow, that's a stump the president sort of question. you know, we have -- we have many colleges and many degree programs, some of which actually lead to a b.s., then of course graduate programs and certificate programs. it probably exceeds 100 in total and that includes both online education as well as education that occurs on campus. >> how do you address at the university of nebraska lincoln, this issue of job placement. after kids graduate, what's the rate of them getting a job and how do you encourage or do you encourage kids to pick majors, professions that will get them a job when they graduate?

well, there's a lot of important questions that you have asked there and i'll dissect that a bit. first of all, in terms of the colleges experience, we want our students to be aware of the fact that they should obtain some skill during college, that is valuable to a potential employer. now that doesn't mean we want to provide a technical education, we want to make sure that students first of all have the range of experiences that lead them to have a full and productive life. so that implies there would be good counseling for those students, as well as opportunities for internships, working with companies, seeing what it's like to be in the workforce so they can develop those critical thinking skills and having experiences at other campuses or outside the country in terms of study abroad. >> the "boston globe" recently reported with this headline that business leaders downbeat on

workers prospect. and despite an improving economy and record corporate profits business leaders are skeptical about their ability to compete abroad and down right pessimistic about the prospect increase pay are improving living conditions for american workers. and in this report, they cite issues of higher edges indication, what are some challenges you see in higher education that impact our economy? >> i think there are several challenges as you have alluded to. one is a changing social compact between companies and the workforce and companies are increasingly looking for individuals who have some important technical skill which is why there's so much dialogue about stem education, we are fortunate this year at the university of lincoln to see an 8.6 increase in our enrollment

of students in the engineering program. and i think students are realizing that having these skills is important because it is what employers are looking for. >> we're talking to the president of the university of nebraska. part of cspan's big ten college tour. we will continuing next week a month long series here on washington journal, talking to university presidents about higher education issues. we want to get your thoughts as well. so we have divided the lines by students, parents, educators and nebraska residents. there they are on your screen. parents, 202-585-3881. educators, 202-585-38882. and nebraska residents, also send us an e-mail if you would like. interim president dr. james

linder is aboard our cspan bus in lincoln, nebraska to talk about the university of higher education. james are you a former student at the university of nebraska? >> caller: in new jersey but if i may, i wanted to comment on the kind of culture around career resources and providing things for students. take lot of students in my experience in the past felt as if their career service offices didn't offer them that much and that with the fact they may be be aware of the resources in addition to the fact a lot of students lack a lot of confidence in thoughing themselves and how they belong in the workforce. a lot of it has to do with career resources, juggling part-time jobs after college and factor in the fact that searching for jobs is a part-time job. with that said, it's a

management of time and management of really understanding themselves and having confidence in themself afterward. >> i agree with you completely. it's a process as one goes from being an entering student to graduating and it can be very enlightening for students to have the either individually or as a group walk into a workplace and feel the excitement of a team trying to say they are trying to bring a new product to market. it can open their eyes what it will be after they graduate. we try to provide that xper experience to our students. >> dr. linder, we want our viewers to call in and we've divided the lines by nebraska residents and students and educators. nebraska residents, talk about your outreach to the state of nebraska and how much support resources the university of nebraska gets from the state.

>> so, the university of nebraska has always felt we have a strong mission to educate the next generation of nebraska. our state is geographically very long, 500 miles. we often talk about a 500 mile campus. we have resources in every county in the state through our extension services and through telehealth and teleeducation and variety of programs that bring the university to every community. we're very proud of that. we're humbled by actually the opportunity to shape our future in the state. >> you have an annual budget at the university of nebraska lincoln of 1.2 billion, endowment of 1.3 billion and alumni contributing little over 188,000. can you talk about those numbers and what is the cost? how is the money spent?

>> t of nebraska lincoln is as you say, $1.2 billion. of that money, it is spent principlely on instruction. there's a strong outreach program in our service activities through the state through extension. of course the research budget is substantial approaching $300 million in itself. we've been very fortunate in the state of nebraska to enjoy solid support from our state legislature, which has helped us keep tuition rates low. we've also had a very successful campaign through university of nebraska foundation to raise funds for student scholarships, campaign that just end created more than 1,000 different scholarship funds. as well as building the infrastructure that supports the university. so really you see a broad gamut

of people in the state of nebraska working together to support higher education. >> caller: -- from work and got a degree, associate's degree in engineering. and half of my classes were classes i didn't need for that degree like history, music, p.e. i want to go back and get a degree in engineer technologies, the first two classes i have to take, u.s. history 1 and 2. i think that's a big problem. they all have classes in the degree programs that you don't need to do that job. and i think we want well rounded students out of high school but when we go to college, well trained students in that profession. i think it would drive the

college cost down if they would get classes you don't need out of degree programs and colleges don't want to admit that. my associate's degree was classes i didn't need for the degree. you could get the degrees in half the time. >> all right, dr. linder. >> the caller makes several good points, first of all, if you can get a lot of courses in high school, you can shorten your college experience. here in nebraska we offer what's called the university of nebraska high school. this provides university level courses to students throughout the state that are basically dual credit. they are satisfying some of their college requirements while they are in high school. the other important point you make is the issue of transferability. once you've had certain courses in one educational experience, you should have systems that allow those courses to transfer

into your next degree. and we have such programs here in nebraska, between our different campuses between the community colleges and our state and university, and we actually have a unique program where we are piloting reverse transfer of credit back to community colleges so someone who did not complete their associate's degree, can actually use some of their university courses for that purpose. the more dialogue there is between educational institutions, the more efficient it is and more cost is reduced as you point out. >> dr. linder, you said earlier, 300 million for research at the university of nebraska lincoln. what is the university researching? what are the different areas? what's the main focus? >> well, obviously there are a variety of areas but being that we're in an agricultural state, some of our focuses are on how

you properly use water resources and how you grow food with less water. we face a population crisis in this world where you'll have more and more mouths that need to be fed to ensure political stability in the world. we have a strong initiative with the water for food program and nebraska innovation and focused on food and water and this is a handful of programs faculty are working on but key ones given our ago kul tooral roots. >> you're a professioner of microbiology here, this is a headline in the "washington post" this morning. u.s. lacks personnel trained to fight ebola. shortage will hamper the military's efforts against the disease. that's the headline in the "washington post." there is also a recent roiters

story, the third to become infected was wheeled from a gurney in the center in omaha for treatment. why the nebraska university hospital? >> yeah, just so for clarity here, we have four campuses and the university of nebraska medical center is based in omaha, not at the university of nebraska lincoln. we have in recent years worked hard at the medical center in omaha to address some of the threats posed by infectious agents. and so many years ago when there was the sars outbreak, we developed a very comprehensive biocontainment unit to provide care for patients who might be affected by infectious agents. and the u.s. state department recognized that capacity at the university of nebraska medical center and asked if we would

provide care for this physician. now, that has been an important learning experience for our staff at the medical center. and they are currently discussing with government officials cdc and others how we can take what we've learned in caring for this patient in our biocontainment unit and provide educational programs for health care providers throughout the country so they are better prepared to deal with this type of infection. it's a critical issue right now. >> dr. linder, another issue for many universities is their athletic program. roger green on twitter wants to know, how do you feel about college athletes forming a union and being compensated for generating millions for the universities? >> well, the university of nebraska lynn coop has had very successful athletic programs. i believe we had 23 different sports represented both women and men. over 620 athletes.

the athletic department is entirely self-sufficient from the revenue that it generates. the question about student unionization and how money is spent in athletics is in the headlines. we try to focus on student athletes first being students and as students we'd like to see that they are fairly comprehend sated with full scholarships and support of their expenses. we think that some of the dialogue happening now to better support those students is very important. but in terms of actually compensating students as if they were employees and unionization, that carries many downsides for the student experience. >> dr. linder, jody on twitter quotes a strong mission to educate, is that why the football coach makes more than the top three teachers at every big university in the united states?