Two days before his inauguration as Baylor University’s 14th president, Ken Starr announced a $100 million scholarship initiative to address concerns about the spiraling cost of higher education, a problem dogging public and private universities alike. The president’s two chief goals: increasing scholarship support for students at Baylor and invigorating overall participation among Baylor alumni.

Starr’s announcement last week came days after regents approved tuition hikes of 6.5 percent, raising tuition next year to $28,720 for 12 hours or more. Graduate, Truett Seminary and Baylor Law School tuitions are increasing by 6.49, 6.56 and 6.55 percent, respectively.

During a summer regents meeting, after the board endorsed the scholarship initiative, Starr made an immediate personal commitment of $100,000 to establish the Ken and Alice Starr Endowed Scholarship Fund, prompting regent Richard Willis to contribute $1 million to the overall initiative.

In this interview with Tribune-Herald staffers Cindy V. Culp and Bill Whitaker, President Starr discussed the student concerns at the root of the President’s Scholarship Initiative; attempts to reverse the dismal record of giving by many of Baylor’s 144,000 alumni; Baylor’s fifth consecutive year garnering the “Best Buy” designation from the Fiske Guide to Colleges; and the importance of student services largely unimagined a generation ago.

Q Your contribution comes as part of a greater initiative to raise $100 million for student scholarships by 2013. What’s the genesis of this?

A It began in conversations last spring, during my transition to president. I had a meeting with representatives of the student body. I was moved by their stories. I heard story after story about students or prospective students being priced out of the Baylor market, and qualified students who desperately wanted to come here but simply could not make the numbers work.

Q Your own family gesture of $100,000 — what is it meant to convey?

A I think it was the right thing to do. But it also sends a message to the entire Baylor family that one of its newest members sees this need and believes it is now a moral imperative for our community. If we love Baylor, then we need to do something about this problem. This is a crisis for American higher education. If we want to have the best higher education system in the world, we have got to pay for it. How do you pay for it? Well, you can ask the government to (help pay for it). But the government has its own share of issues these days.

Q It’s not even helping out as much with state universities these days.

A Yes, they’re talking about cuts. But overwhelmingly we look to individual families and the government. We’ve got to change that model. We’re building an endowed scholarship financial model. That’s our goal, but I want to make this very clear. We are entering a period of strategic planning. We have just entered that process to look to the development of a new strategic plan and at the same time I have asked Dennis Prescott, the vice president, to assist me to think through concurrently what a capital campaign would look like, and that’s the key. I am sure it will have scholarships as well. But we cannot afford to waste any time. We have got to get this show on the road as far as helping our students and prospective students and families who are really struggling so their students can have a Baylor education.

Q The problem of student tuition and the concern that it’s outstripping the ability of traditional Baylor families to pay has been part of the strife at Baylor in the past decade. Where is all the money going? Is it because of Baylor’s aspirations as a top-tier research university? Is it because of the increased demand for student services?

A There are a variety of reasons for this. One is, yes, the demand for student services. It is 24/7 — counseling services, security issues and the like. Generally we care much more holistically about our students in American higher education than was the case, obviously, when I went to school a generation ago. Back then it was like, “Hey, you’re on your own!” Career placement, our Paul Foster Success Center — at every turn there’s a service that needs to be made available if you care holistically about student welfare. Secondly, Baylor faculty and staff were systemically undercompensated. People were serving here out of love for the institution and its mission. But Scripture says you don’t muzzle the ox. (Not to say that our faculty is an ox!) We need to pay people fairly and honorably.

Q How big a priority is all this for you?

A That is my single largest challenge other than maintaining the great culture at Baylor University. We must maintain that culture of a loving and caring community for our faculty and staff and, above all, for our students. But our endowment has been stagnant.

Q How come?

A There are many reasons. It’s been a difficult decade economically. Sept. 11 ushered in a time of uncertainty for our economy at the beginning of the decade and the financial meltdown at the end of the decade has also made it a very tough environment. But that was then. It’s a new decade and we’ve got to march on (as far as the endowment and fundraising are concerned).

Q Baylor earned a “Best Buy” designation from the Fiske Guide to Colleges this year. It’s the fifth consecutive year the school has made the list. Do these tuition hikes threaten that?

A In talking about rising costs, it’s very important that we still remain a best buy. That is so important. But when you look at all the guides, you see that Baylor was also lagging way behind in terms of tuition levels and that was unrealistic. We’re not a community college and we can’t be charging tuition levels as if we are. We’re a national university with very strong ties here and in the great Southwest. Now we need our alumni and friends to help. Our alumni giving percentage is 6.8 percent. That is shockingly low.

Q Wow. That is low.

A When our Robert Cherry professor, Dr. Edward B. Burger from Williams College in Massachusetts, heard me say that at the fall faculty convocation, he said, “I am shocked — this is a great community. Everybody loves Baylor.” He said he didn’t quite understand how giving for Baylor alumni was only 6.8 percent. I said, “I don’t fully understand it, either. We’re getting to the bottom of it.” But I know it’s got to change. It should be 68.8 percent — not 6.8 percent.

Q What’s the average?

A Well, it depends, but when you look at peer institutions, at TCU or SMU, we should be in the 15-to-20 percent range as a minimum. But I view that as unacceptably low — 15-to-20 percent. I’ve heard about people who came here and got a degree and today proudly display a Baylor diploma in their office or at home and even talk about That Good Old Baylor Line — yet they just aren’t giving back to the institution.

Q What’s the problem? Are they still paying their tuition bills?

A Absolutely not because tuition levels have only recently gone up. Think of someone who graduated as recently as 2001. Their tuition level was $11,000, which was kind of a bargain-basement best buy back then.

Q How do you reach alumni if they haven’t been giving?

A Engage them. When I talk to people about this, they say, “Oh, well, we haven’t been asked.” You might say, “Well you should’ve given anyway, you shouldn’t have to be asked.” But that’s not the way the real world works. I’ve seen this at other institutions. I talked to a graduate of another institution in Texas who made a multi-million dollar gift to his alma mater. He had previously given very modest amounts. And I said, “Why did you do this at this stage? I mean, the ship didn’t just come in and you’ve been very successful for a long period of time.” And he said, “I’ve never been asked.”

Q Do you believe three years is a good time period to accomplish this?

A Oh, I’d love to reach that $100 million goal much more quickly, but the real experts who look at these things — my vice presidents Dennis Prescott and Kathy Wills Wright — believe this is a realistic time frame. But I’m very impatient. I want to see us reach that goal sooner.

Senior editor Bill Whitaker condensed and edited this interview.