Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[spork]

The article says 10% of undergraduates will be affected. Laurentian's undergraduate enrollment is 9,000. So eliminated undergrad programs roughly have 900 students in them.

[spork]

Pacific Lutheran University: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article247922835.html.

The school declared financial exigency in November.

[Puget]

Pacific Lutheran University: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article247922835.html.

The school declared financial exigency in November.

Yes I believe we discussed them here back then. They are probably pretty representative of a lot of religiously affiliated places that are struggling-- they once had a target student population (the Lutheran decedents of the many Scandinavian immigrants who settled the area) but they don't really anymore, and it isn't clear why an in-state student would choose them over the nearby UW, or why an out of state student would choose them at all.

[Parasaurolophus]

The article says 10% of undergraduates will be affected. Laurentian's undergraduate enrollment is 9,000. So eliminated undergrad programs roughly have 900 students in them.

Before the cuts they had about 165 programs and ~380 faculty (IIRC--and about 900 admin staff) Note also that the cuts fall disproportionately on the university's French programming. I doubt that's a coincidence, given the Ford government's attitude towards Franco-Ontarians and their educational opportunities.

I wonder whether the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory will survive.

[Wahoo Redux]

Pacific Lutheran University: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article247922835.html.

The school declared financial exigency in November.

Yes I believe we discussed them here back then. They are probably pretty representative of a lot of religiously affiliated places that are struggling-- they once had a target student population (the Lutheran decedents of the many Scandinavian immigrants who settled the area) but they don't really anymore, and it isn't clear why an in-state student would choose them over the nearby UW, or why an out of state student would choose them at all.

I have family who went there.  The campus is gorgeous and it is within striking distance of Seattle and all sorts of extraordinarily beautiful natural spaces.  Puget Sound kind of rocks.  I would guess Puget knows this.   The highways are almost unmanageable now that the California exodus and Midwest brain drain have begun, however, and for some reason these waves of immigrants to the NW leave their college-age kids somewhere else.

[marshwiggle]

The article says 10% of undergraduates will be affected. Laurentian's undergraduate enrollment is 9,000. So eliminated undergrad programs roughly have 900 students in them.

Before the cuts they had about 165 programs and ~380 faculty (IIRC--and about 900 admin staff) Note also that the cuts fall disproportionately on the university's French programming. I doubt that's a coincidence, given the Ford government's attitude towards Franco-Ontarians and their educational opportunities.

I wonder whether the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory will survive.

Here's some interesting analysis:

(For comparative purposes, Laurentian University has approximately 9,000 students, with a majority enrolled in English programs and courses). But many of the Franco-Ontarian students appear to choose to study in English language or bilingual programs despite the students being typically bilingual as is the case in New Brunswick. They, and their parents, do not necessarily accept the cultural-political imperative of studying in French, which is one of the most important issues to be addressed.

While there is no numerical shortage of potential students for Ontario's francophone institutions and programs, the reality is that the applications and enrollments continue to fall short of what is desired.

Keeping programs running with low interest would be for political reasons.

[Parasaurolophus]

The article says 10% of undergraduates will be affected. Laurentian's undergraduate enrollment is 9,000. So eliminated undergrad programs roughly have 900 students in them.

Also note that the 10% figure excludes students at the federated universities, which are also impacted by the cuts (not least because that's where most of the French programming comes from, and it's suffering a massive chunk of the cuts).

[apl68]

Pacific Lutheran University: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article247922835.html.

The school declared financial exigency in November.

They're talking about eliminating 40 staff positions.  Pretty substantial for a school with about 3,000 students, though not as drastic as some cuts we've seen on this thread.

[mamselle]

The article says 10% of undergraduates will be affected. Laurentian's undergraduate enrollment is 9,000. So eliminated undergrad programs roughly have 900 students in them.

Also note that the 10% figure excludes students at the federated universities, which are also impacted by the cuts (not least because that's where most of the French programming comes from, and it's suffering a massive chunk of the cuts).

I can't speak to Canadian bilingual issues, but I have noticed a strong shift between generational attitudes towards language use and learning in France and Belgium between friends of my grandparents/great-aunt's generation there, in the 1970s, and friends of my own age and younger in the 1990s and since.

The older generation was very resistant to using or using English (one person wondered if it was because they resented needing UK/US help in WWII) and the governmental stance (when I knew of it most directly, about 10 years ago) was that, due to high unemployment, unless native-speaker-level English was needed for a job (a friend worked first as a British international commerce lawyer's paralegal, and later as an EA at OECD in Paris, for example) those who were not of French origin were not given priority for openings.

The older generation only wanted to speak French when we visited, which was fine with me, since I wanted all the practice I could get.

Meanwhile more recently, students have recognized that the jobs they want will all require English fluency and they all want to practice their English--a couple of friends do the "You speak French-I'll speak English--and we'll correct each other" thing...others just make a point of emailing or writing in English and expecting me to reply likewise.

So, the language issues in Canada might be similar--where there are societal trends, economic causes may not be far behind...

M.

[marshwiggle]

So, the language issues in Canada might be similar--where there are societal trends, economic causes may not be far behind...

M.

And to be clear, if people want university education in French, Universite de Montreal and Laval, (in Montreal and Quebec city, respectively), are bigger and with more programs, and they're in interesting places with much bigger francophone populations. Sudbury can't compete.

[Puget]

Pacific Lutheran University: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article247922835.html.

The school declared financial exigency in November.

Yes I believe we discussed them here back then. They are probably pretty representative of a lot of religiously affiliated places that are struggling-- they once had a target student population (the Lutheran decedents of the many Scandinavian immigrants who settled the area) but they don't really anymore, and it isn't clear why an in-state student would choose them over the nearby UW, or why an out of state student would choose them at all.

I have family who went there.  The campus is gorgeous and it is within striking distance of Seattle and all sorts of extraordinarily beautiful natural spaces.  Puget Sound kind of rocks.  I would guess Puget knows this.  The highways are almost unmanageable now that the California exodus and Midwest brain drain have begun, however, and for some reason these waves of immigrants to the NW leave their college-age kids somewhere else.

I do indeed ;-) As you may have guessed I grew up around there.

The California invasion is not new-- twenty or more years ago you get t-shirts that negatively described the weather on one side and said "don't move here" on the other.

I don't think the problem is loss of population, but rather that a very good education with more variety of courses and opportunities can be had at much lower cost at UW (which also has a branch campus in Tacoma). That will be the default option for most students in the area, so PLU would need to figure out what it can offer that UW can't, and apparently they haven't been doing a great job of that.

The PNW just also doesn't have as much as a tradition of private higher ed (or K-12 for that matter), with more reliance on pubic universities. I'm sure the historians and sociologists among us may have some theories about why that is-- I'm neither, but would hypothesize later settlement, lower religiosity, and a more egalitarian culture that disfavors too many class signifiers.

[Wahoo Redux]

I remember Oregon Gov. Tom McCall:

"We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But for heaven's sake, don't move here to live. Or if you do have to move in to live, don't tell any of your neighbors where you are going." (1971)

[Parasaurolophus]

So, the language issues in Canada might be similar--where there are societal trends, economic causes may not be far behind...

M.

And to be clear, if people want university education in French, Universite de Montreal and Laval, (in Montreal and Quebec city, respectively), are bigger and with more programs, and they're in interesting places with much bigger francophone populations. Sudbury can't compete.

And UQAM.

That's all certainly true, although it's worth noting that Sudbury is a bilingual city (it's about 26% Franco and 66% Anglo. That obviously doesn't compare to Montréal or Québec, but it's pretty good). Ontario's Francophone population is large enough to support university programming; it's also not primarily located in sourthern Ontario, so the geographic issues are real. Travelling to Québec is a ways for that population (i.e. northern Ontarians, not just Sudbury folk) to travel, and the further afield they go to university the less likely they are to return to their communities in northern Ontario. The more likely upshot is just that they don't pursue any further education in French at all, and we can expect that to have a deleterious effect on the Franco-Ontarian community.

It's really gonna hollow out the local economy, though. The cuts are actually more widespread than they look, because what's being reported are LU cuts, not cuts at the federated colleges. Also, a number of the programs that aren't officially on the chopping block will also ultimately be cut because they're made up of courses in departments (or federated colleges) that got the axe.

Nor is it only faculty in the cut departments who are being fired (via group Zoom meetings): I know of at least one prominent computer scientist who's fired, and my sister's entire Master's committee got the axe (she's in the sciences).

[marshwiggle]

More on Laurentian:

Colin blames the Minister of Colleges and Universities, Ross Romano, for failing to come to the rescue of the institution and engage in the CCAA process.

He also points the finger at poor governance practices of Laurentian's senior administration over several years.

So it's both the government's fault and the fault of years of bad administration.

Apples AND oranges, apparently.

[Parasaurolophus]

More on Laurentian:

Colin blames the Minister of Colleges and Universities, Ross Romano, for failing to come to the rescue of the institution and engage in the CCAA process.

He also points the finger at poor governance practices of Laurentian's senior administration over several years.

So it's both the government's fault and the fault of years of bad administration.

Apples AND oranges, apparently.

Well, three budgets in a row of higher ed funding cuts certainly didn't help. All the northern universities (i.e. Algoma, Lakehead, Nipissing) have struggled recently, especially because they don't have the same access to international students as universities in sourthern Ontario do. IIRC Laurentian's public funding has fallen to ~26% from around 80% back in the day (the decline precedes this government, of course). I haven't kept up enough to know how involved/responsible Romano is, but he doesn't strike me as the sharpest--or best-intentioned--knife in the drawer.