April 3, 2017 by Philip Lewenstein

State Higher Education Leader Richard C. Hawk Developed Programs and Policies to Ensure Access to and Choice of Education Opportunities

Scanning the Minneapolis Star Tribune obituaries in early March, I came across one for Richard C. Hawk who passed away at age 83 of a heart attack in Leawood, Kansas. The obit summarized Dick’s many accomplishments in business, higher education, and music. But perhaps his most significant achievements were the development of Minnesota’s programs to provide access to and choice of higher education opportunities. His legacy is important and impressive, but his passing appears mostly unnoticed in Minnesota.

A Kansas native, Dick became the first executive director of the Minnesota Higher Education Coordinating Commission in the late 1960s, a post he held until the mid to late l970s. The Commission was an independent agency supervised by a citizen board that reported to both the governor and legislature. During a time of major growth in higher education, the Commission was to coordinate public and private higher education institutions and systems, plan and develop policies to meet state needs, and to administer statewide programs.

Under Hawk’s leadership, Minnesota developed a State Scholarship and Grant Program (now the Minnesota Grant Program), a state work-study program, a student loan program, and interstate tuition reciprocity programs with neighboring states. Minnesota also developed a contract program with private colleges to encourage and reward their service to Minnesota residents and a nationally acclaimed library sharing program (MINITEX). The Commission developed a philosophy and goals for Minnesota higher education to promote access to higher education.

Richard C. Hawk

Today, the Minnesota State Grant Program, established in 1969, provides about $178 million annually to 82,000 recipients to help make it possible for Minnesota students and families from all economic backgrounds to have the opportunity to invest in and obtain a post-secondary education that best meets their educational needs.

The first interstate tuition reciprocity program was established in l969 with Wisconsin on a limited basis and expanded in l973. Statewide agreements were established in l975 with North Dakota and in 1978 with South Dakota. The agreements reduce non-resident tuition prices for residents in participating states who participate in public institutions in other states. Annually, more than 42,000 students benefit including more than 28,000 Minnesotans.

Under the State Work Study program, almost 11,000 students earn about $21 million per year. MINITEX is a publicly supported network of academic, public, state government, and special libraries working cooperatively to improve library services for people in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Hawk hired me as assistant to the director in October 1973, and I remained with the agency until fall 2004, serving as director of communications and legislative services. The agency was renamed the Minnesota Higher Education Coordinating Board in l975. It was changed to the Higher Education Services Office in the mid -1990s by some House members who wanted to reduce its role in policy work. Under Governor Tim Pawlenty, the body became a cabinet level agency, and its citizen board was eliminated.

Hawk was a quiet but creative leader who strategically helped craft and implement Minnesota’s nationally recognized higher education programs. Under his direction, I gained my first exposure to the Minnesota Legislature in the l974 session. I was able to observe and learn from his calm, patient, smooth demeanor in communicating effectively with his board members, governor’s staff, and legislators. He was skillful in his interactions with the leaders of the state’s higher education systems and sectors.

One of the most impressive examples of Hawk’s effectiveness occurred in the mid-1970s when Nick Coleman, the powerful Senate majority leader, proposed to abolish the Coordinating Board and establish one super board to include Minnesota public higher education systems—University of Minnesota, state colleges, community colleges, and area vocational technical institutes. In the end, after considering Hawk’s analysis of advantages and disadvantages of his proposal, Coleman revised his initiative to maintain and strengthen Hawk’s agency while merging the systems. The legislation was passed by the Senate but was weakened and stalled in the House. Years later, Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe successfully passed legislation to merge state universities, community colleges, and technical colleges.

Hawk left the Coordinating Board and established an agency—Higher Education Assistance Foundation—to guarantee federal student loans. Under Hawk’s leadership, the private, nonprofit agency became the nation’s largest guarantor of student loans. Because the agency guaranteed many high risk loans to students in proprietary schools, it eventually accumulated millions of dollars in defaults nationwide, and the U.S. Department of Education forced Hawk out of his position in 1990 in the midst of the agency’s financial crisis.

The obituary describes Hawk as a tireless entrepreneur and avid jazz musician. I had not kept up with his accomplishments for many years but was not surprised to read about his work. He was widely known for establishing the Gaslight Grill in Leawood, but his entrepreneurial prowess extended to the financial industry, including a chain of banks in Minnesota, an insurance company, loan servicing, and financial consulting, as well as aviation, publishing, broadcast and jazz history. He built the Country Club Hotel and Spa at Lake Ozark, MO.

It has been about 40 years since Hawk left the state’s higher education agency. Much change has occurred in Minnesota higher education, but the main statewide programs and policies he helped establish and nurture have continued and grown; he left a remarkable legacy that has ensured access to higher educational opportunities for thousands of Minnesotans.