Q&A with President and CEO of the New Hampshire College and University Council Mica Stark

Mica Stark has made higher education his calling — when he’s not on the golf greens.

Stark spent most of the last quarter-century working in higher ed, beginning with the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, where he served as managing director for five years. After that, he logged nearly 15 years in communications roles at the University of New Hampshire.

Stark, who can trace his lineage to New Hampshire’s Revolutionary War hero Gen. John Stark, says he’s come full circle in his new role as president and CEO of the New Hampshire College and University Council. The nonprofit consortium works to expand educational opportunities in the Granite State.

“What’s been really enjoyable so far in my first four months has been traveling around the state to meet with all the presidents and chancellors,” Stark said in May during a taping of NH Business Review’s “Down to Business” podcast. “We have 19 member institutions, and I’ve now gotten out to most all of them.”

For his LinkedIn profile, the avid golfer left out his side hustle: hosting “Granite State Golfers,” a podcast that focuses on the state’s amateur golf scene. We talked about that subject during the podcast from which this interview was adapted. (Check out nhbr.com for that part.)

Q. You arrived just in time for the latest round of having to defend the value of an education in New Hampshire as the state looks at potential cuts.

A. Certainly there are a number of headwinds facing higher education. And enrollment is probably at the top of that list for many institutions. But as you noted, there’s a lot of additional stronger headwinds facing education coming from Washington. You’ve got the Trump administration looking to really disrupt higher education. And then here in Concord we have a budget process unfolding that, coming out of the House budget, were some pretty severe cuts to the university system and a lot of disruption in reduction of money to the UNIQUE scholarship fund our member institutions care a lot about. It’s a politically intense time for higher education. It’s certainly a busy time to defend and advocate for the key roles that higher education plays in New Hampshire right now.

Q. Let’s talk about the UNIQUE scholarship fund and the scholars in the programs who are going to be affected by this.

A. The UNIQUE scholarship fund was started in the late 1990s. With the Fidelity 529 plan that parents or guardians can invest in, there’s a small administrative fee that has kicked some money into a trust fund that sits with the state treasurer’s office. Over time, that’s grown quite a bit. It’s given out over $215 million of scholarships over the years. In this current year alone, we’ve got 7,700 New Hampshire students who are benefiting from a UNIQUE scholarship. The New Hampshire House budget writers are looking to divert $15 million a year from that scholarship fund into the university system to help reduce the cut that they’ve passed on to the university system. We are advocating against that taking of the UNIQUE scholarship funds.

There are no state general fund tax dollars in the UNIQUE scholarship fund. We think the original purpose and intent for UNIQUE should stay intact. Again, this has benefited thousands of students. These scholarships are going to Pell (grant) eligible low-income students. And it is the only statewide scholarship program we have in New Hampshire.

(Editor’s note: The Senate Finance Committee recommended moving $12 million of UNIQUE funds to the general fund and restoring the remaining $18 million to UNIQUE grants over the biennium, according to the NH Fiscal Policy Institute.)

Q. You must spend a fair amount of time talking with businesses who are frustrated (with education funding) because they’re trying to bring people in. They may like the low tax environment or are here for other reasons. But when they’re trying to get employees, it doesn’t necessarily work out.

A. I think across the board, the business community members I speak with it’s “talent, talent, talent,” and we need the talent here. We got to bring in the talent. We got to keep the talent here. A lot of the other issues related to that like housing are very important, but the business leaders are concerned about their future workforce.

I’m really proud of our institutions where we are right now. There are about 66,000 students across our institutions, so our schools are the main importers of talent from other states. And we’re keeping a lot of them here. We’ve got to keep working to keep more of them.