State-supported universities and colleges must devise new strategies if they are to weather the fiscal crisis confronting them and preserve their vital role as escalators in our upwardly mobile society.

They are the institutions of first resort for youngsters of modest means, including minorities. And while they train students in every discipline, they are particularly important for those aspiring to professions that communities need badly but pay poorly. Where else can teachers, nurses, librarians and others devoted to public service get an affordable education?

Now, public campuses are becoming less accessible to those who most need them. Across the country, tuition and fees are rising rapidly while programs are being cut. According to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the average hike for in-state students this fall is 12.3 percent. That follows a hefty increase last year. In some states, such as California, increases could approach 30 percent.

The immediate cause is the fiscal woes afflicting most states, prompting legislators and governors to savage higher education budgets. Auburn University, which I serve as president, has suffered similarly, though we remain affordable relative to peers in our region. Thanks to factors peculiar to Alabama, Auburn has coped with anemic state support for decades. History has honed our survival skills.

This experience tells me that while plunging state revenues are the crisis de jour, state-supported higher education faces a more basic challenge. The fact that many state governments have inflicted deeper cuts on our institutions than on other programs demonstrates a deficit of political will to maintain affordable public universities.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley seeks to modernize the state’s archaic tax system. His bold initiative is up for voter approval in September. Like most Alabama educators, I support it. However, none of the additional funds to be generated would be earmarked for higher education. Authorities have made clear that we must stake our claim by demonstrating anew the value of investing tax dollars in us. This need is emerging in many states. Priorities vary with venue, but I suggest that five measures apply widely.

We must reverse the trend toward program duplication. Just as hospitals with many empty beds drain scarce public health dollars, redundant campuses consume education funds inefficiently. Alabama has six engineering schools, for instance, while Georgia, with nearly twice the population, has just one.

Research must remain one of a public university’s three basic missions, along with instruction and community outreach, but we can better focus research on projects that demonstrably promote economic development in our states. The vigorous role played by Duke, the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State in Research Triangle Park — a great asset to their state’s economy — is a model to be followed.

In practicing community outreach, we should concentrate on programs that broaden our support base by serving appropriate constituencies in meaningful ways. Universities should pursue more programs similar to our College of Agriculture’s contribution to catfish farming. It helped make Alabama a world leader in catfish production.

All state universities want some students from elsewhere and charge them higher tuition. But schools that have difficulty finding enough qualified recruits often lower that differential to the point where the host state’s taxpayers, in practical terms, pick up the tab. This is a mistake in both academic and political terms. If a school’s merits are insufficient to attract the right mix of applicants, that institution’s viability must be reconsidered.

Too often, a state’s higher education establishment vies for public dollars in a zero-sum game that pits it against those who represent primary and secondary schools. This divisive approach should give way to a holistic one. We should create alliances to make the case that public education at all levels serves the public interest.

Accountability has become a buzzword in several sectors of society for good reason. The polity demands it. Public universities and colleges must accommodate that demand if they are to prevent the current fiscal crisis from becoming a chronic condition.

— William Walker is president of Auburn University. Readers may write to him at: Auburn University, Samford Hall, Auburn, Ala. 36849.