Fall 2020 Enrollment numbers

[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...

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)

My garlands are faded; the ointments are for the aching joints; but there is still wine to be had, and better than I could afford when young.

[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.

"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.

That's also why the large, public universities are going online in Fall, but the SLACs are "committing to in-person learning".  No one is wiling to pay $60,000 to live at home and take freshmen writing 101 online.  The administration wants to support bringing walking-tuition-payments (aka "students") back on campus.

[marshwiggle]

That's also why the large, public universities are going online in Fall, but the SLACs are "committing to in-person learning".  No one is wiling to pay $60,000 to live at home and take freshmen writing 101 online.  The administration wants to support bringing walking-tuition-payments (aka "students") back on campus.

It's hard to imagine many people willing to pay $60000 to live on campus and take freshmen writing 101 in person.

[polly_mer]

That's also why the large, public universities are going online in Fall, but the SLACs are "committing to in-person learning".  No one is wiling to pay $60,000 to live at home and take freshmen writing 101 online.  The administration wants to support bringing walking-tuition-payments (aka "students") back on campus.

It's hard to imagine many people willing to pay $60000 to live on campus and take freshmen writing 101 in person.

That's the business model for many institutions. Full list price for Super Dinky was more than $40k including tuition, room, board, and fees.

Room and board is about the same in a given region, but tuition varies based on other factors.

The selling point is exactly the on-campus living experience for the small, expensive-for-what-you-get colleges.

Colleges like Super Dinky need people to think that college is always expensive so there's no point in shopping around.

[spork]

That's also why the large, public universities are going online in Fall, but the SLACs are "committing to in-person learning".  No one is wiling to pay $60,000 to live at home and take freshmen writing 101 online.  The administration wants to support bringing walking-tuition-payments (aka "students") back on campus.

It's hard to imagine many people willing to pay $60000 to live on campus and take freshmen writing 101 in person.

Yes, hard to believe, but to take my employer as an example:

• $21K: annual tuition after 50% average discount rate.
• $16K: campus room and board (required for freshman and sophomore year).

The business model assumes a campus full of students. I'd say it's a coin toss whether those days are permanently over. At minimum, if even part of the fall semester has to be online, the university will have to tap into its endowment.

[the_geneticist]

That's also why the large, public universities are going online in Fall, but the SLACs are "committing to in-person learning".  No one is wiling to pay $60,000 to live at home and take freshmen writing 101 online.  The administration wants to support bringing walking-tuition-payments (aka "students") back on campus.

It's hard to imagine many people willing to pay $60000 to live on campus and take freshmen writing 101 in person.

That's the business model for many institutions. Full list price for Super Dinky was more than $40k including tuition, room, board, and fees.

Room and board is about the same in a given region, but tuition varies based on other factors.

The selling point is exactly the on-campus living experience for the small, expensive-for-what-you-get colleges.

Colleges like Super Dinky need people to think that college is always expensive so there's no point in shopping around.

Yep, and they offer "amazing discounts" on financial aid for almost all students so they think they are getting a great value because $30,000 doesn't sound expensive compared to $60,000.  Very few students pay full sticker price.  They push the idea that students will get to do all the things: double-major, join clubs, play sports, travel abroad, do research, etc.  Which is true if you can make it through the first year of larger than you hoped for class sizes taught by more adjuncts than we like to admit we hire.
I used to work at a super-dinky as well.  Freshman basketweaving 101 type classes were approaching the "big school classroom experience with the small school price tag". 

[Parasaurolophus]

Had the faculty-wide meeting today. Application numbers were already significantly down before COVID, but we're now sitting at 44% of last year's application numbers for the fall.

[polly_mer]

Yep, and they offer "amazing discounts" on financial aid for almost all students so they think they are getting a great value because $30,000 doesn't sound expensive compared to $60,000.  Very few students pay full sticker price.  They push the idea that students will get to do all the things: double-major, join clubs, play sports, travel abroad, do research, etc.  Which is true if you can make it through the first year of larger than you hoped for class sizes taught by more adjuncts than we like to admit we hire.

I used to work at a super-dinky as well.  Freshman basketweaving 101 type classes were approaching the "big school classroom experience with the small school price tag".

To my Super Dinky's credit, we didn't go the adjunct route for intro classes nor were those intro classes large--to the dismay of several faculty members.  Some faculty members would have much preferred one lecture section of 50 instead of three lecture sections capped at 20 that would get out of sync almost from the first week.  Other faculty members would have preferred that someone else teach the intro classes.

One of the main selling points we had was small classes, so we were going to have small sections even if that meant that "everyone" was teaching freshman seminar and there were almost no electives to be found.

I remember one faculty member who became chair in part because she then had course releases and a choice of which course she would teach.  That choice was never the intro classes.  She liked juniors who had already been weeded and were then sections filled with college-capable students.

If one attended Super Dinky to play sports and take small classes with a full-time faculty member, then we definitely delivered.  However, smart shoppers who really wanted a solid college education would have been paying substantially less for more choices (and sometimes better choices) of academic/club/networking experiences elsewhere.

[the_geneticist]

Projected numbers for our department are actually a bit higher than last Fall.  Of course, a projection this early doesn't mean too much since we honestly won't know how many students we'll have in Fall until the first day of Fall.

In other "super exciting news", Fall registration has started, but the Provost has yet to tell the students the plan for Fall classes (it's going to be online with very, very few exceptions) OR if they will be allowing students to live on campus even if their classes are online.

[polly_mer]

In other "super exciting news", Fall registration has started, but the Provost has yet to tell the students the plan for Fall classes (it's going to be online with very, very few exceptions) OR if they will be allowing students to live on campus even if their classes are online.

1.  This seems really late to start fall registration, unless you mean only for new students.

2.  Knowing the plan and options for on-campus housing seem very important to people who are really planners and would be registering now.

[the_geneticist]

In other "super exciting news", Fall registration has started, but the Provost has yet to tell the students the plan for Fall classes (it's going to be online with very, very few exceptions) OR if they will be allowing students to live on campus even if their classes are online.

1.  This seems really late to start fall registration, unless you mean only for new students.

2.  Knowing the plan and options for on-campus housing seem very important to people who are really planners and would be registering now.

1. This is registration for all continuing students.  Freshmen register over the summer.
2. I agree!

I think our Provost is a coward who is hoping that students will commit to paying for classes before they know what they are paying for.  Classic bait-and-switch dangling the hope of in-person classes as the bait.

[Bonnie]

In other "super exciting news", Fall registration has started, but the Provost has yet to tell the students the plan for Fall classes (it's going to be online with very, very few exceptions) OR if they will be allowing students to live on campus even if their classes are online.

If they already have the "almost all online" decision, not communicating it is just wrong in my mind. I get the desire to get money in the bank first, but that's...wrong? Also, I just assume this is where my institution is at, too, with me just not being in the know enough to know they've made the online call.

[polly_mer]

In other "super exciting news", Fall registration has started, but the Provost has yet to tell the students the plan for Fall classes (it's going to be online with very, very few exceptions) OR if they will be allowing students to live on campus even if their classes are online.

1.  This seems really late to start fall registration, unless you mean only for new students.

2.  Knowing the plan and options for on-campus housing seem very important to people who are really planners and would be registering now.

1. This is registration for all continuing students.  Freshmen register over the summer.
2. I agree!

I think our Provost is a coward who is hoping that students will commit to paying for classes before they know what they are paying for.  Classic bait-and-switch dangling the hope of in-person classes as the bait.

What's the Provost's plan for when expected students just don't check in during August, don't log in for fall classes, and throw away the tuition bills for an institution they have decided to not attend this fall after all?

[the_geneticist]

In other "super exciting news", Fall registration has started, but the Provost has yet to tell the students the plan for Fall classes (it's going to be online with very, very few exceptions) OR if they will be allowing students to live on campus even if their classes are online.

1.  This seems really late to start fall registration, unless you mean only for new students.

2.  Knowing the plan and options for on-campus housing seem very important to people who are really planners and would be registering now.

1. This is registration for all continuing students.  Freshmen register over the summer.
2. I agree!

I think our Provost is a coward who is hoping that students will commit to paying for classes before they know what they are paying for.  Classic bait-and-switch dangling the hope of in-person classes as the bait.

What's the Provost's plan for when expected students just don't check in during August, don't log in for fall classes, and throw away the tuition bills for an institution they have decided to not attend this fall after all?

Accept more folks from the waitlists?  Pray the academic senate doesn't vote him out?  Decide the "retire early" and pass the whole mess on to the next Provost?
My bet is on the latter.

[polly_mer]

I've certainly seen some examples over the years of someone who didn't care all that much because the fecal matter would hit the fan after a retirement/end of contract/other-known-to-only-a-handful-of-people date.