White wants government to dictate majors to IHL students

Columnist Bill Crawford says State Auditor Shad White is a self-appointed IHL Tzar who wants to take away students’ freedom to choose their majors.

State Auditor Shad White is playing IHL Tzar again. Now he foolishly wants government to tell university students what they can and cannot major in.

“It’s time to stop investing in college degrees that aren’t worth anything and put our money into degrees that can supercharge Mississippi’s economy,” he tweeted on September 12.

Wow! The self-annointed Tzar is for big brother government taking away students’ freedom to choose their majors. He would force them into select majors by eliminating state funding for “useless degrees” in “garbage fields” he said in a follow-up report last week.

Well, it’s not like the state is the big source of funds for those majors. Indeed, students (and their parents) pay more of those costs than the state does.

Page 14 of the FY 2022 IHL single audit (something the State Auditor should be familiar with) shows sources of revenue for IHL excluding the medical center, the IHL Board office, and the center for volunteer service. State appropriations totaled $485 million. Student tuition and fees totaled $639 million. Indeed, state appropriations accounted for only 30% of total revenues.

Clearly, IHL needs all the student tuition and fees revenue it can get. Telling students to go jump in the lake doesn’t sound like a good way to do that. But the Tzar did. “Look, you love German literature?” White tweeted. “Neat. Go to the library and read your heart out. You don’t need a degree in it.”

Wow, again.

The Tzar also seems to think all IHL students are going to stay and work in Mississippi so should get degrees related to Mississippi’s economy.

Well, his own brain drain study shows that to be false. “Mississippi loses half its college graduates to brain drain within three years, and the problem is getting worse,” his April 2022 report stated.

He also seems to think it would be a good idea to tell the thousands of out-of-state students who attend our universities what they can take. IHL 2022 enrollment data shows 35% of enrolled students were from out of state.

The majors our university presidents and faculty offer now attract those students. Getting rid of attractive majors would more likely run off students than shift them to the Auditor’s chosen majors. 

No, we don’t need big brother state government dictating majors to students. If we want more students to choose certain majors, the state should consider incentives instead of dictates.

Meanwhile, the State Auditor should leave IHL business to the trustees constitutionally charged to operate our universities and to the professionals who run them on a daily basis.

“If all you do is talk foolishly, you will destroy yourself” – Proverbs 10:8.