Universities are watching their state budgets crumble across the country: The University of Arizona has put a freeze on all state-financed hiring, Georgia’s 14 technical colleges are being merged into seven, and New York will probably have to shelve a plan to create a $3-billion fund to attract cutting-edge research to the Empire State, which faces an estimated $6-billion budget gap.
But in some places, things look much different. States with booming industries, including oil and natural gas, are using their riches to bolster higher education, sometimes at their neighbors’ expense.