Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Wahoo Redux]

"You kids get off my mom's lawn!"

That is actually kind of funny, Marshy.  Good job.

Still, don't be a curmudgeon. 

[marshwiggle]

"You kids get off my mom's lawn!"

That is actually kind of funny, Marshy.  Good job.

Still, don't be a curmudgeon.

It's not intentionally curmudgeonly; it's pointing out the obvious fact (which I've thought about for decades)  that just because we would like a lot more people to achieve a certain level of education doesn't mean it's even possible, let alone that we know how to make it happen. When it was OK that only a small percentage of people finished high school, it was possible to have a demanding curriculum, and those who *failed, failed. But with the expectation that something like 70% of the population should be able to finish high school, without divine revelation about how to improve teaching, the only way for it to happen is to limit what high school covers to what it's possible for 70% of the population to do.

(* or dropped out; lots of kids didn't go past middle school at one time.)

[Mobius]

There is pressure to just let dual-enrollment students pass because if they don't, they can't graduate. Schools are addicted to the money, even if it's not the same amount regular students pay for.

mamselle: I hear you about community colleges (especially if free) becoming K-13 and K-14.  So many young people are graduating HS without some basic skills.
The other side is how the US education system is over-reliant on college - the whole trade apprenticeship track is underemphasized. Here is where CC can (and does in many places) increase its footprint.
There is also an encouragement (maybe) of early-college classes in high school, that may reduce students' time to college graduation that is great for the students but can hurt a college's numbers and finances, especially in states where there are strong agreements to accept early college or even AP courses in undergraduate curricula.

I bet a lot of those "early-college" classes now are covering material that would have been in high school decades ago, and so many people "graduating" now would have dropped out with a year or two to go then. So the actual proportion of the population acquiring a specific level of proficiency hasn't really changed much; just the label of how much "school" they've had.

(In other words, there's been very little progress in figuring out how to get most people to achieve a higher level of proficiency, but standards and labels have changed to pretend otherwise.)

[dismalist]

There is pressure to just let dual-enrollment students pass because if they don't, they can't graduate. Schools are addicted to the money, even if it's not the same amount regular students pay for.

There is also pressure to let non dual enrollment students pass because if they don't, they can't graduate. Schools respond to incentives, and 'ya gotta meet that graduation rate goal!

[Dismal]

CHE has an article from the University of Akron about the travails of faculty who were laid off, but then hired back as adjuncts at 1/3 the pay. The various players have different perspectives on the schools dire straits and prospects. Some of the now-adjunct faculty seem to still be processing the reality of a school in the last throes...

Thanks for this link. I remember following the Akron story as the jobs were being cut.

[Wahoo Redux]

Doonesberry cartoon about the academic job market in the '90s found on Reddit.

[apl68]

Henderson State University, having slashed its number of faculty and degree programs, is now down 13% in enrollment for the new semester.  They have seen marginal increases in the number of new freshmen and grad students.  Have they cut their payroll enough to get ahead of their declining enrollment and tuition revenue?


https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2022/aug/31/hsu-fall-enrollment-down-13-to-2536/?news

[Wahoo Redux]

Henderson State University, having slashed its number of faculty and degree programs, is now down 13% in enrollment for the new semester.  They have seen marginal increases in the number of new freshmen and grad students.  Have they cut their payroll enough to get ahead of their declining enrollment and tuition revenue?


https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2022/aug/31/hsu-fall-enrollment-down-13-to-2536/?news

HSU's enrollment announcement Tuesday comes at a time when the school has made dramatic cuts to faculty, staff and programs due to several years of financial mismanagement.

Enrollment and student-semester credit hours are important to the state's colleges and universities partly because of the revenue they bring in from tuition and mandatory fees, as well as from on-campus food services and housing, officials have said.

The cycle: cuts = enrollment declines = cuts = enrollment declines like the little ghost girls in The Shining.  "Forever and ever and ever..."

Maybe we should just start closing these schools are redirecting the resources.

[apl68]

Henderson State University, having slashed its number of faculty and degree programs, is now down 13% in enrollment for the new semester.  They have seen marginal increases in the number of new freshmen and grad students.  Have they cut their payroll enough to get ahead of their declining enrollment and tuition revenue?


https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2022/aug/31/hsu-fall-enrollment-down-13-to-2536/?news

HSU's enrollment announcement Tuesday comes at a time when the school has made dramatic cuts to faculty, staff and programs due to several years of financial mismanagement.

Enrollment and student-semester credit hours are important to the state's colleges and universities partly because of the revenue they bring in from tuition and mandatory fees, as well as from on-campus food services and housing, officials have said.

The cycle: cuts = enrollment declines = cuts = enrollment declines like the little ghost girls in The Shining.  "Forever and ever and ever..."

Maybe we should just start closing these schools are redirecting the resources.

I certainly hope it doesn't come to that in this case.  Even a downsized HSU would fill an important niche in the region.  Arkansas is not one of those states that has a college campus every ten miles.

[Wahoo Redux]

Maybe we should just start closing these schools are redirecting the resources.

I certainly hope it doesn't come to that in this case.  Even a downsized HSU would fill an important niche in the region.  Arkansas is not one of those states that has a college campus every ten miles.

Well...I keep saying that a purely economic and jobs-related evaluation of higher ed will cause a great deal of damage. 

I'm not sure peeps buy that.

I think we'll have to let a lot of it burn to the ground before we decide to do something one way or the other.

[secundem_artem]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/opinion/us-school-knowledge.html

And yet he sees fit to draw a salary from his employer in higher ed.  Were I to predict the next decade or so in higher ed, I see one of two probable outcomes:

1.  An apocalyptic crash and burn for any institution without a big fat endowment and multiple professional degree programs that clearly lead to employment.  Arts and Sciences becomes a department, not a stand alone college.

2.  Somehow, universities learn to become much more flexible and are able to take even the "softest" programs and somehow turn them into career preparation.  Every English major has 4 required courses in technical writing.  Social Science majors get partnered up with the growing number of consulting agencies that are increasingly contracted to assist with DEI initiatives.  That sort of thing.

Were I a betting man, my money is on Door #1.

[Hibush]

I certainly hope it doesn't come to that in this case.  Even a downsized HSU would fill an important niche in the region.  Arkansas is not one of those states that has a college campus every ten miles.

A colleague in Arkansas thought it was more like every 20 miles, though. Just about every county. Neither efficient nor matched to demand. 

[Hibush]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/opinion/us-school-knowledge.html

And yet he sees fit to draw a salary from his employer in higher ed.  Were I to predict the next decade or so in higher ed, I see one of two probable outcomes:

1.  An apocalyptic crash and burn for any institution without a big fat endowment and multiple professional degree programs that clearly lead to employment.  Arts and Sciences becomes a department, not a stand alone college.

2.  Somehow, universities learn to become much more flexible and are able to take even the "softest" programs and somehow turn them into career preparation.  Every English major has 4 required courses in technical writing.  Social Science majors get partnered up with the growing number of consulting agencies that are increasingly contracted to assist with DEI initiatives.  That sort of thing.

Were I a betting man, my money is on Door #1.

The argument is that people are not learning, so we should not try. This George Mason economist feels we shouldn't be wasting taxpayer money on education since there is no point to it. But if we are going to do so, there should be more opportunity for the private sector and wealthy schools to get their hands on it.

Cutting public funding in this way would indeed lead to dire financial straits for colleges, and also for the states and communities that depend on the actual education people are getting.

[dismalist]

And yet he sees fit to draw a salary from his employer in higher ed.

There is a difference between designing optimal institutions and optimally adapting to existing institutions.

The argument is that people are not learning, so we should not try.

The argument is that people are not learning, so there is no reason to have the public pay. Let each person borrow and pay himself if he deems it worthwhile.

More generally, many arguments on this board are like arguments from any declining industry. The difference is that the decline will never be terribly big, though the structure of what it offers may well change, and that the government is involved in its financing, making the government look like mama and papa to fix all things.

[jimbogumbo]

I certainly hope it doesn't come to that in this case.  Even a downsized HSU would fill an important niche in the region.  Arkansas is not one of those states that has a college campus every ten miles.

A colleague in Arkansas thought it was more like every 20 miles, though. Just about every county. Neither efficient nor matched to demand.

I like to look at numbers, so here we go for publics in AR.

CCs - 22
4 yr "general"- 11