Fall 2020 Enrollment numbers

[Caracal]

CHE is reporting enrollment numbers down and worry that they will stay down

It'll be interesting to see what the breakdown of this is at different schools. At the large regional school in a major metro area that I teach at, they are saying their numbers are up for both transfers and incoming freshmen and they are almost at capacity in campus housing.

[Juvenal]

A Zoom "departmental meeting" said the summer enrollment was up, but the college was broke.  No more coffee in the faculty lounge?  How many are in my fall classes?  None.  But that's because I retired and have only adjuncted from time to time (that means "semester to semester, this one or that one") and am only glad that I did not choose to take on something this spring, escaping that bullet.  And told my chair that, whatever the fall bodes, if it's still on-line, well, I'm afraid I'm an "old dog."  To be sure...

[polly_mer]

CHE is reporting enrollment numbers down and worry that they will stay down

It'll be interesting to see what the breakdown of this is at different schools. At the large regional school in a major metro area that I teach at, they are saying their numbers are up for both transfers and incoming freshmen and they are almost at capacity in campus housing.

It'll be really interesting in the fall if campus housing is not allowed and "everything" is online again.

[spork]

CHE is reporting enrollment numbers down and worry that they will stay down

It'll be interesting to see what the breakdown of this is at different schools. At the large regional school in a major metro area that I teach at, they are saying their numbers are up for both transfers and incoming freshmen and they are almost at capacity in campus housing.

It'll be really interesting in the fall if campus housing is not allowed and "everything" is online again.

If students start getting sick (who cares about faculty and staff) and the dorms are once again emptied, that's a multi-million dollar revenue loss regardless of enrollment.

[clean]

Similarly, IF no one needs to go to campus, then no one needs to park in the garage. IF no one parks, and no revenue is generated, then the money for the bond used to Pay for the parking structure must come out of the general budget. 

In our case, housing is on campus, but I believe that it was actually built by the leasing company and the university only gets a small fraction of the rent.  But even that small fraction is money lost!

Same with food services and the university book store.  These are no longer owned by the university but were sold long ago with long term contracts.  Most likely they involve some sort of percentage lease where the university gets a share of the revenue as well as a small lease payment.  If there are no students, then the percentage of no sales means no money!  I dont know if the recent remodel of the Student Union Building (housing the book store and cafeteria) were paid by the tenants, or with money the university borrowed (and is ultimately responsible for repaying)

For what it is worth, I predict that the bond rating agencies (moody's and Standard and Poor's) will be putting several universities' bonds on credit watch (for potential downgrades) 
But for that matter, unless Congress acts to help cities and states next, the debt of several states may be downgraded soon too!

[Cheerful]

Howard U's President was on a news show recently.  He suggested that they may open for fall later than usual and conclude the semester early, by Thanksgiving, "to avoid flu season."

So, an attempt to get some revenue from room and board albeit not the usual amount?

[dr_codex]

Howard U's President was on a news show recently.  He suggested that they may open for fall later than usual and conclude the semester early, by Thanksgiving, "to avoid flu season."

So, an attempt to get some revenue from room and board albeit not the usual amount?

Maybe. Or maybe to get in some of the things, like labs, that are really hard to do remotely.

[the_geneticist]

Our Chancellor says that housing & dining are paid out of one part of the budget and have to be "self supporting" while the teaching & classroom spaces are a separate part of the budget.  I doubt it's that simple, but it does imply that students living on campus won't help pay for a tuition shortfall.

[dr_codex]

Our Chancellor says that housing & dining are paid out of one part of the budget and have to be "self supporting" while the teaching & classroom spaces are a separate part of the budget.  I doubt it's that simple, but it does imply that students living on campus won't help pay for a tuition shortfall.

I've been wondering about this, too. I passed along the question about the food services contract to my boss, heading into the budget crisis meeting. No word back, as of yet.

[Caracal]

Same with food services and the university book store.  These are no longer owned by the university but were sold long ago with long term contracts.  Most likely they involve some sort of percentage lease where the university gets a share of the revenue as well as a small lease payment.  If there are no students, then the percentage of no sales means no money!  I dont know if the recent remodel of the Student Union Building (housing the book store and cafeteria) were paid by the tenants, or with money the university borrowed (and is ultimately responsible for repaying)

I think it depends. Sometimes the contract is for a fixed sum, other times it seems to be a percentage of the profits. That said, I'm sure regardless, there are provisions in the contract for what happens if the university isn't operational for some reason.

[apl68]

Our Chancellor says that housing & dining are paid out of one part of the budget and have to be "self supporting" while the teaching & classroom spaces are a separate part of the budget.  I doubt it's that simple, but it does imply that students living on campus won't help pay for a tuition shortfall.

My understanding was that many schools were using housing and dining services as cash cows.  Plus, many schools still have a lot of construction debt to pay off, and were depending upon student room and board revenue to do that.

[Anselm]

A Zoom "departmental meeting" said the summer enrollment was up, but the college was broke.  No more coffee in the faculty lounge?  How many are in my fall classes?  None.  But that's because I retired and have only adjuncted from time to time (that means "semester to semester, this one or that one") and am only glad that I did not choose to take on something this spring, escaping that bullet.  And told my chair that, whatever the fall bodes, if it's still on-line, well, I'm afraid I'm an "old dog."  To be sure...

For the short-lived bloom and contracted span of brief and wretched life is fast fleeting away! While we are drinking and calling for garlands, ointments, and women, old age steals swiftly on with noiseless step. 

(quote from the Roman Juvenal)

[spork]

My university offers the usual smattering of online graduate and degree completion programs. I have a course in one of these programs scheduled for later this summer. Only two students have registered for it. A colleague is teaching a different course that starts next week. It has four students. Typical enrollments for these courses are ~ 12 students each.

[the_geneticist]

All summer classes here are fully online.  Mine are all full and have waitlists, which is normal.
What's not normal is that we STILL don't have an answer for how fall will be run, students start registering for Fall classes this Friday, and the deadline to pay a deposit to accept a spot in Fall is Monday.  The administration here is so behind on giving any information (useful or otherwise!) it's appalling.

[polly_mer]

Our Chancellor says that housing & dining are paid out of one part of the budget and have to be "self supporting" while the teaching & classroom spaces are a separate part of the budget.  I doubt it's that simple, but it does imply that students living on campus won't help pay for a tuition shortfall.

"self supporting" in these cases usually mean "we will not subsidize those operations; figure out how to live within your budget and still send sufficient funds to the other side of campus".

Generally, room and board for residential institutions are an additional source of revenue.  That's the callous reason why many smaller institutions have strict rules about who must live on campus.  Yeah, there's the importance of focusing on one's studies and the social benefits of spending one's time with one's peers on campus, but at the root for many struggling institutions is $$$$.

One reason that some tiny colleges have a ton of athletes is net revenue from living on campus, even having to subsidize the teams, comes out as a significant positive cash flow.  At a place like Super Dinky, the goal is those 100ish students on the football who are eager to take out loans to play (i.e., a bigger identifiable group than any one major and sometimes as much as a quarter of the whole student body just in football) and will happily live on campus with crappy cafeteria food.  We'd love to have students from three states away who will live on campus at full price.

The "extra" revenue from room and board can't cover the coming fall's enrollment shortfall because those funds were already being used in many cases to prop up known shortfalls, especially at a place that has a hefty discount rate or was already not getting enough in appropriations from the state.