Covid-19 Response: Evidence of How Higher Ed Can Be Completely Restructured?

[tuxthepenguin]

Yes, I know the author founded the consulting firm whose research he cites in the article. So what? He probably has a stable job that pays a good income and understands the finances of higher ed a lot better than many faculty members.

Being a consultant means nothing. By "nothing" I mean nothing in the literal sense. There are consultants that bring absolutely nothing to the table. I've seen some of the most ignorant and bizarre proposals come from consultants. In some cases, it's not clear they have ever even set foot on a college campus. Some are good, but just because it's a consultant doesn't mean they know anything about how higher ed works.

Understanding finances better than faculty members doesn't mean anything either. They're not the ones dealing with the numbers. I can assure you that the *administrators* that actually work with finances have a very good handle of the numbers. The main problem with admin is too much focus on the numbers and not enough focus on the student and faculty experience.

[spork]

Simple question: in the absence of a "campus experience," what percentage of students, who have until now enrolled at your employer, will still be willing to pay what they've been paying in tuition?

In my employer's case, it's probably less than 50%.

[marshwiggle]

Simple question: in the absence of a "campus experience," what percentage of students, who have until now enrolled at your employer, will still be willing to pay what they've been paying in tuition?

In my employer's case, it's probably less than 50%.

That would make a great survey, since all students would be eligible (so no sampling bias) and would put a dollar value on the "experience" vs "education" difference.

[dr_codex]

Simple question: in the absence of a "campus experience," what percentage of students, who have until now enrolled at your employer, will still be willing to pay what they've been paying in tuition?

In my employer's case, it's probably less than 50%.

Snarky answer:

Most of my students would dance in the streets if they were told they would no longer be required to have their "campus experience". They might even offer to pay double the tuition to skip it.

Complex answer:

Our specific campus experience isn't frats and climbing walls, and it is not at all clear how we can operate without that experience. Current licensure requirements include residency. We've received partial dispensation during a declared state of emergency, but no blanket authorization for distance learning.

We are not the only specialized institution facing this challenge. This was brought home to me during a conference call when the director of the mortuary studies program at another campus was ruminating on how to teach embalming via Zoom. Taxes can be filed remotely; death still requires the human touch.

[Wahoo Redux]

Simple question: in the absence of a "campus experience," what percentage of students, who have until now enrolled at your employer, will still be willing to pay what they've been paying in tuition?

In my employer's case, it's probably less than 50%.

Why are we asking leading questions when we are in the midst of an unprecedented event? 

[spork]

Because disasters don't "just happen," they are historically constructed by human action (or inaction).

[marshwiggle]

Because disasters don't "just happen," they are historically constructed by human action (or inaction).

Hurricane Katrina comes to mind; the outcomes were significantly worse than they might have been due to the historical neglect of the levees.

[spork]

Fall 2020 admits to top MBA programs want deferred entry or tuition discount if classes are still online:

https://poetsandquants.com/2020/03/29/pq-survey-a-third-of-admits-may-defer-while-43-want-tuition-lowered-if-classes-are-online/.

[spork]

Power law relationship between online enrollment and rank by total enrollment: https://philonedtech.com/clay-shirky-on-mega-universities-and-scale/.

[spork]

Quoted from the Colleges in Dire Financial Straits thread:

Second, I really want to know specific actions individuals can take now and why those actions will work this time when human beings seldom change their group behavior and there's no reason to expect they would change now.

Yes, this is an unusual time and predictions can be wrong.  However, not all predictions are equally likely, especially those that are very much like the give-the-Dean-a-huge-bag-of-money goblin in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather style wishful thinking.

I don't know if this counts as individual action or group behavior, but the first thing that's going to be frozen or deleted from almost every budget is travel. I'm supposed to be on the other side of the country at a conference today, but we will be ZOOMing it instead. Everybody I know who works at a non-profit (educational or otherwise) is slashing all non-essential travel. I am co-sponsoring a conference in the Fall, and have already proposed making it a virtual event. This should save money, and greatly reduce the chance that it will be delayed again.

I'll take up other individual actions on another thread.

I've been telling my wife for years that at some point the subsidization of academic associations by universities, through the reimbursement of faculty membership and conference attendance costs, will end. Maybe that point is now.

[Aster]

I've been telling my wife for years that at some point the subsidization of academic associations by universities, through the reimbursement of faculty membership and conference attendance costs, will end. Maybe

that point is now.

I'm not so sure. The conference movement at universities is not limited to academics. There is also a large conferencing fanbase among college administrators, college leaders, Board Members, college organizations, etc... And those folks may have just as much or even more pull than the professors. They're missing their international trips, networking, face-time just as keenly as we are.

I would lay even odds that if anything, the value of face-to-face interactions and conferencing will become even more highly prized, now that we all are painfully realizing just how lousy everything is in the current situation.

But maybe the less desirable and glamorous conferences will suffer a mass extinction.

[dr_codex]

I've been telling my wife for years that at some point the subsidization of academic associations by universities, through the reimbursement of faculty membership and conference attendance costs, will end. Maybe

that point is now.

I'm not so sure. The conference movement at universities is not limited to academics. There is also a large conferencing fanbase among college administrators, college leaders, Board Members, college organizations, etc... And those folks may have just as much or even more pull than the professors. They're missing their international trips, networking, face-time just as keenly as we are.

I would lay even odds that if anything, the value of face-to-face interactions and conferencing will become even more highly prized, now that we all are painfully realizing just how lousy everything is in the current situation.

But maybe the less desirable and glamorous conferences will suffer a mass extinction.

The elimination of the unreimbursed employee expenses line in the most recent US tax code makes it all the more important to have employers foot the bill. I tried asking my accountant if I could become an LLC or a pass-through corporation, but no dice.

On the plus side, I was able to donate my registration fee, and can write it off next year. But that came out of my pocket.

[spork]

Pay-walled Chronicle article on permanently changing the academic calendar in response to Covid-19:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Next-Casualty-of-the/248543.

The article includes this line, somewhat buried: "Purdue already offers about 200 courses online — mainly to meet general-education requirements."

[spork]

Another article on changing the academic calendar, this time at Beloit:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/20/beloit-redesigns-its-academic-calendar-give-itself-more-flexibility-if-covid-19.

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE essay:


https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/end-college-we-knew-it