Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[secundem_artem]

I'm in one of those fields that saw a substantial growth in the number of programs (doubled in the past 20 years) and also has a national board exam before licensure. 

Pass rates in the 70% range are not unusual at these newer schools and a few are in the 60% range. (Artem U is over 90% and is higher than the R01 flagship down the road).

Given what our graduates do for a living, people should be grateful as hell that there is a national board exam and angry as hell at the schools taking money from kids who should never have been there in the first place.  Every busted ass bible college afraid it could not make payroll in the next 5 years opened a school.  The results are now coming clear.

Such exams, [especially if there's more than one :-)], in general, keep accreditation on its toes or even substitute for it. I don't see anything wrong with a 70% or lower pass rate. Many, many individuals are better off.

Difficulty is to know ahead of time who can pass. To some extent, students have to play the odds. 'Twould behoove the national examiners to make clear to students what is needed, so that students can make an informed choice about gambling.

I am so sanguine only where there are exams of such kind.

Examiners and accreditors get paid a nice fat lump for each student that takes an exam, an annual fat fee from all "accredited" schools and another fat fee to bring an accreditation team to a school, kick the tires, turn over a few rocks, have a nice dinner and fly home.  Once school had a 50% pass rate on the 2019 exam and remains "accredited".

At some level, all this standards and accreditation may serve the public safety.  But at another level, it's just an academic protection racket - "Nice college ya got here.  Be a real shame if sumthin' happened to it."

[spork]

Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (MA) declares financial exigency.

[mamselle]

Oh, no.

Very sorry to hear of this.

M.

[waterboy]

Word is that the Big 10 will cancel fall sports. That's a lot of lost $$ for those schools as well as the surrounding communities.

[spork]

Not truly dire because it's public, but Keene State is cutting faculty positions:

https://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/keene-state-plans-faculty-cuts-as-part-of-right-sizing-effort/article_38c6ad4a-2741-567a-a10a-041962e2bd5b.html.

"The college plans to cut two faculty each in economics and political science, English, and math, according to Treadwell. Programs slated to lose one position each are American studies, art and design, biology, chemistry, history, information studies/library, music, public health, and women's and gender studies."

[mamselle]

Not truly dire because it's public, but Keene State is cutting faculty positions:

https://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/keene-state-plans-faculty-cuts-as-part-of-right-sizing-effort/article_38c6ad4a-2741-567a-a10a-041962e2bd5b.html.

"The college plans to cut two faculty each in economics and political science, English, and math, according to Treadwell. Programs slated to lose one position each are American studies, art and design, biology, chemistry, history, information studies/library, music, public health, and women's and gender studies."

Oh, no, again.

I hope the Medieval and Renaissance conference that was re-booked for next spring is able to run....and that both the excellent scholars in charge of it will be safe.....

M.

[AmLitHist]

Not truly dire because it's public, but Keene State is cutting faculty positions:

https://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/keene-state-plans-faculty-cuts-as-part-of-right-sizing-effort/article_38c6ad4a-2741-567a-a10a-041962e2bd5b.html.

"The college plans to cut two faculty each in economics and political science, English, and math, according to Treadwell. Programs slated to lose one position each are American studies, art and design, biology, chemistry, history, information studies/library, music, public health, and women's and gender studies."

Keene only has two American Studies faculty to start with (plus an affiliate from women's/gender studies).  They have a decent program for a small school; they also combine ASt with Ed to let people certify as social studies teachers.

[spork]

Not truly dire because it's public, but Keene State is cutting faculty positions:

https://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/keene-state-plans-faculty-cuts-as-part-of-right-sizing-effort/article_38c6ad4a-2741-567a-a10a-041962e2bd5b.html.

"The college plans to cut two faculty each in economics and political science, English, and math, according to Treadwell. Programs slated to lose one position each are American studies, art and design, biology, chemistry, history, information studies/library, music, public health, and women's and gender studies."

Keene only has two American Studies faculty to start with (plus an affiliate from women's/gender studies).  They have a decent program for a small school; they also combine ASt with Ed to let people certify as social studies teachers.

The Keene State History Department webpage lists five tenured faculty and two lecturers. If American Studies is losing 1:2 of its positions, and History is losing 1:7, then you consolidate the two for a single department of 7 people.

I would like my $100,000 consulting fee now.

[lightning]

The Keene State History Department webpage lists five tenured faculty and two lecturers. If American Studies is losing 1:2 of its positions, and History is losing 1:7, then you consolidate the two for a single department of 7 people.

I would like my $100,000 consulting fee now.

No can do, unless you are recommending the purchase of a $219,000 multimedia conference table.

[polly_mer]

I have a long answer that will have to wait until I have time Saturday. 

Don't bother, Polly.  There's no point.

You've written some related things on recent threads that are pertinent here, so I'm going to write without references.

1) Why don't we do more to help the underserved?  Well, one reason is so many current faculty aren't positioned to give the necessary help and will lose their jobs. The help that would be most useful is gutting current gen ed as taught by the army of humanities faculty in favor of either a true liberal arts education or a more focused university education like in Europe.  Even the true liberal arts education should remodel to have math through multivariate calculus and the science to use that math.

Really valuing the liberal arts education that includes math would also help transform to a society that values science because of the changes in k-12 education to have students graduate high school ready for Calc I their first semester of college.

2) Why don't we do more to help the underserved?  One reason is the data we have on what's required at the college level to help the motivated, but underprepared people with complicated lives thrive.  Again, ditching the army of adjuncts in favor of spending that money and more on giving more financial aid, purposefully arranging learning communities with very involved mentors including programs designed for a part-time bachelor degrees, and investing in bridge programs that go well beyond one initial orientation. 

The problem usually isn't lack of good faculty; the problem is setting students up for failure at the institutional level due to a mismatch between what the students need to be stable enough to learn and how faculty members are sure college should work.

3) Why don't we do more to help the underserved?  Again, one big source of help would investing in having good k-12 education and stable enough communities so that students can choose to major in anything at the college level.  Many of the underserved are years from being able to do college-level work so a term or two of remediation is just wasting everyone's time.

Helpful at the college-level would be focusing on structured internships, co-ops, and similar experiential learning to provide direct motivation for courses that are a targeted college education.  Again, the general education that's disconnected courses is spending resources unwisely especially for those students who need the professional networking to choose a different life for jobs that will not be advertised.

4) Why don't we do more to help the underserved?  Because, realistically, the changes that would make a difference are expensive and don't directly benefit the faculty members who are currently focused on their academic jobs.

Putting more state money into the neediest communities doesn't pay college faculty.

Changing college curriculum to match the student needs usually means cutting the faculty who were already being less supported on all measures.

I have been in many discussions with faculty regarding admissions.  One extreme is to just let everyone try instead of turning away applicants and having fewer students than we could enroll.  However, without changing the curriculum and meeting the students where they are, the individuals who drop out with student loans and no degree are worse off than they would have been doing something else with that time.

Holding standards in admissions to students who have a good probability of completing their degrees means a combination of offering the majors those students want, attractive campus physically and socially, and having some special good way to stand out as the traditional age cohort declines in absolute numbers.  Again, that's money and usually means cutting the gen ed contingent faculty in favor of the popular majors.

[marshwiggle]

Really valuing the liberal arts education that includes math would also help transform to a society that values science because of the changes in k-12 education to have students graduate high school ready for Calc I their first semester of college.

This brings up a question of mine for people who say "higher education is not primarily job training". Many have pointed out that a lot of job postings simply require "a" degree as a sieve and how this is basically "credential creep".

However, is it reasonable that a person who spends 4 years and tens (if not more) of thousands of dollars will not be guaranteed to have any identifiable skills  beyond those of a high school graduate?

It seems to me if a middle-of-the-road university graduate does not have any concrete advantage over a bright, hard-working high school graduate then post-secondary education is wildly over-priced and over-sold.

[Vkw10]

Off-topic, since Harvard is not in dire straits, but you might find this discussion of their finances intriguing. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2020/08/harvard-fall-pandemic-uncertainties-costs

[dismalist]

Off-topic, since Harvard is not in dire straits, but you might find this discussion of their finances intriguing. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2020/08/harvard-fall-pandemic-uncertainties-costs

It has been said that Harvard is a hedge fund with some teaching and research facilities attached.

[Hibush]

Three community colleges in New Mexico are merging administrations because "the number of on-campus students from 10 years ago is down 66 percent." These are the Alamogordo, Carlsbad and Grants campuses. The system administration has seen this coming, and the decision seems to be going through without the blowback seen in PA and VT. Enrollment at the main campus is up.

[polly_mer]

Related is New Mexico State cutting budget so that faculty are again talking unionization.

The history professor fails to mention that NMSU graduates about 10 new bachelor degrees every year along with about 10 master's degrees.  Per College Scorecard, the new history undergrads make about a thousand dollars more than the median debt at a whopping $19k/year for income.. Yep, that sounds so great compared to the 180 new BSN graduates making a median of $55k, the 120 new criminal justice bachelor degrees making a median of $28k, or the 130 new mechanical engineers making a median of $62k.