Cornell President David Skorton, Ithaca College (IC) President Peggy Williams and Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) President Carl Haynes settled in behind microphones in Fall Creek Studios in Ithaca on Monday evening, March 5. One photographer stood atop a 10-foot ladder, while another shot from between the leaves of a fake plant.

Ten minutes later the three panelists were live, both on radio and television, discussing rising costs in higher education in the premiere of Skorton's radio show, "Higher Ed in the Round." The purpose of the show, which may become a monthly program on central New York public radio, is to generate dialogue on important issues facing higher education. Future shows, for example, could focus on admissions or financial aid.

Skorton, a radio veteran (while president of the University of Iowa, he hosted a weekly jazz program on the university's public FM radio station), served as moderator, taking questions from callers and from e-mails, and directing topics to the panelists. He began by saying that no one disputes the value of higher education, how education raises lifetime earnings and how central New York's educational institutions not only offer job and career training but also access to higher education, and provide multilayered boosts to local economies.

And later in the program he added that although the ability to pay should not be a factor in the admissions process, schools must provide adequate financial aid and, at the same time, do a better job of controlling costs.

Keeping costs contained is a major challenge, Haynes said in his introduction, because of the many factors involved, including facilities maintenance, labor contracts and rising faculty and staff salaries. It was unfair, however, he said, to compare the price index of higher education with a consumer price index. For example, a college's costs include updating and replacing infrastructure, like facilities built in the 1960s at TC3, he said.

Williams added that rising salaries and benefits are also included in the higher education price index, along with such climbing costs as insurance and the demands of providing an excellent quality of life both inside and outside the classroom.

But, she added, $60 million of IC's $230 million budget goes back to students in financial aid. At IC, 80 percent of students receive some sort of financial support, she said. At Cornell, 42 percent of undergraduates qualify for grants, which are not repaid, Skorton added.

Still, "increasingly, we are seeing the dependence on loans," while federal programs intended to fund the highest need students are underfunded, Haynes said. "The federal policy of shifting the burden from taxpayers to students is causing families and students to accumulate more debt in order to get their college degree," he said.

After their introductory discussion, the three panelists fielded calls and e-mails concerning the costs of higher education. One caller asked about adjunct faculty at American colleges, who she said teach a bulk of the classes, get no benefits and cannot afford basic health care on meager salaries that can be as low as $1,800 a class.

Williams said that IC strives to hire faculty for full-time positions, but adjuncts are hired mostly for sabbatical replacements or because they have a unique expertise that is needed for a few special courses. Haynes added that 70 percent of TC3's instruction is provided by full-time faculty, but he agreed that adjuncts do teach specialized courses that do not warrant a full-time hire.

Another caller asked how the presidents were going to help poor children and poor families afford higher education. Skorton mentioned a combination of three factors:

"First, the ability to pay should not be a factor in the admissions process," he said. Secondly, "on the revenue side we need to help with private and public aid ... to make the actual price paid" for an education more reasonable, and thirdly, "we have to do a better job of controlling costs," Skorton said.

Williams added that people should talk to elected officials about a recent shift by the federal government to fund more loans and fewer grants, which puts a heavier burden on families as opposed to taxpayers and that "these kinds of changes don't help individuals," she said.

The pilot radio program was aired on WEOS-FM, Geneva, and WSKG-FM, Ithaca. In addition, it was TV cablecast on Time Warner Cable Channel 16 and CUTV Channel 100 and live-streamed on the cornell.edu Web site.

The next show is expected to air later this spring, with the goal of eventually making it a monthly program.