Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[mamselle]

Discussed upthread.

M.

[spork]

Mills is old news. It was in financial exigency and on the road to closure years ago: https://activelearningps.com/2017/07/24/mills-college-when-the-bus-leaves-the-station-and-youre-not-on-it/.

Lincoln Christian University is closing, regardless of the PR spin its trustees are trying to put on it:

https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/end-of-an-era/Content?oid=14835815.

[apl68]

This is interesting.  Many church-affiliated schools over the years have gradually moved away from their original core missions.  Lincoln seems to be trying to re-focus on that core in an effort to preserve that mission.  Unfortunately costs for running a college have gone way, way up over the years, while salaries for the sorts of ministers the college exists to train haven't.  Not many students planning for such ministry careers can afford today's tuition, and the school evidently doesn't have major denominational support to make up the difference.  They really need other educational programs to help subsidize the religious core mission, like my alma mater and other schools do.  I guess their efforts to create such programs didn't pan out.

Also, their Wikipedia article mentions that they built new athletic facilities and renovated buildings in the 2000s, when every college was borrowing money for that sort of thing in hopes of attracting more students.  They probably ended up losing money on the deal.

[mamselle]

In a previous job, at a conference of theological educators, I heard the point made that many seminaries are now being undermined by churches that will ordain those who have not completed (some need not even have started) an M.Div. (or more rarely, even, an M.Th).

The so-called 'main-stream' (named confessional) churches have maintained a stronger line on this than the 'free' churches have, apparently; some of the more conservative schools that were affiliated with main-line denominations but whose stances were 'acceptable' to the free churches have also suffered a great deal in admissions from that situation. 

I know of a couple of people who, wanting a more rigorous theological education, attended schools outside their denomination's cadre to obtain it. One was asked point-blank by their discernment committee why they had not attended the nearby denominationally-affiliated school (which at the time was foundering academically, and later closed). They side-stepped the issue of quality by noting that an ordained relative had attended it, and they'd always wanted to go there, and so squeaked by their ordination examination.

Another, just now finishing up, has met with veiled hostility from her committee in a recent interview in which it sounded as if, essentially, they saw her as too 'uppity' for choosing a more academically demanding school (I've heard this from other students there, as well). Her choice to become an academic chaplain didn't phase them; in fact, they seem to be insisting that she take on parish work for two years before allowing her to seek ordination (reading between the lines, they seem to want to 'break' her of her academic pretensions).

That's not to say, of course, that less well-educated individuals can't be, or aren't good pastoral ministers, I know of many who are.

But the pressure to 'dumb down' academic theological studies is not helping the schools that have tried to supply an informed ministry to their judicatories. The ATS site discusses this at length, as does a book a few years ago by its (now) director emeritus.

   https://www.ats.edu/

Sic transit (certain kinds of) gloria...

M.

[rth253]

Marymount in California (enrollment: 1,000) is closing. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/04/25/marymount-california-will-close-after-failed-merger

[Hibush]

Marymount in California (enrollment: 1,000) is closing. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/04/25/marymount-california-will-close-after-failed-merger

"Founded in the late 1960s as a two-year institution and began an aggressive push to become a four-year institution with graduate programs in 2010."   That switch sounds insanely difficult. Did they realize that it would require an order of magnitude or more increase in the budget if they were to attract students?

[dismalist]

Marymount in California (enrollment: 1,000) is closing. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/04/25/marymount-california-will-close-after-failed-merger

"Founded in the late 1960s as a two-year institution and began an aggressive push to become a four-year institution with graduate programs in 2010."   That switch sounds insanely difficult. Did they realize that it would require an order of magnitude or more increase in the budget if they were to attract students?

What has struck me about many of these closures is the amount of accumulated financial debt.

First, from the IHE article about merger plan rejection https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/12/09/accreditor-denies-saint-leo%E2%80%93marymount-california-merger

Marymount California will effectively donate its land to Saint Leo in exchange for Saint Leo taking on the university's debt. The California university currently holds about $3.7 million in debt

Sounds like a debt-equity swap!

Second, from the IHE article linked by rth253

Marymount California has seen its enrollment fall by more than half since 2014–15, and it has burned through campus leaders.

Deficit, deficit. Deficits are financed. Who lends to these guys? Gamblers, who should rather go to Vegas? Endowment aside, I really don't know where the cash comes from. Is this all eating up endowments, asset stripping?

ETA: Enowments

[Hibush]

Marymount's Palos Verdes property has to be worth far more than the $3.7 million in debt. Maybe the could have kept stripping equity more.

I keep hearing, in referenece to pricy NFTs and similar assets that my local bank would not take as colllateral, is that there is just so much extra cash scrambling around this economy that there are not enough things to invest it in. So why not invest in a crazy scheme that, if it defaults, gives you a nice beachfront property in Southern California. Is there anything to that explanation?

[dismalist]

Marymount's Palos Verdes property has to be worth far more than the $3.7 million in debt. Maybe the could have kept stripping equity more.

I keep hearing, in reference to pricey NFTs and similar assets that my local bank would not take as collateral, is that there is just so much extra cash scrambling around this economy that there are not enough things to invest it in. So why not invest in a crazy scheme that, if it defaults, gives you a nice beachfront property in Southern California. Is there anything to that explanation?

Sure, cheap loans [FED sets interest rates]. That makes prices of real of assets, like property, rise. So I understand why College A thought College B's relinquishment  of property for cash was a great idea. Thusly, I lend money to A over the years because it's gonna get College B's property?

That may well be true! It's just very roundabout compared to buying the beachfront property or going on a trip to Vegas.

It's College A's financing of its deficit over the years that puzzles me, not College B's luck in having lots of high-priced property today.

[mamselle]

Might College A have something written into its by-laws or other documents that tie is board's hands on how to manage debt, or other issues?

Picky predecessors can hog-tie their descendants.

M.

[apl68]

Henderson State University has announced its planned cuts. 

Chancellor Chuck Ambrose revealed a plan that would do away with undergraduate degree programs in geography, history, political science, public administration, social science, criminal justice, early childhood development, consumer sciences, human services, biology, radiography, chemistry, mathematics, nuclear medicine technology, medical lab science, studio art, art education, communication, mass media communication, theatre arts, English and Spanish. Students currently enrolled in these degree programs, or who are set to enroll in the fall of 2022, will be able to finish their chosen degrees at Henderson State.
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These cuts aren't final until they go to the Arkansas State University System Board of Trustees for a vote on Thursday at 10 a.m., Henderson State spokeswoman Tina Hall said.

The cuts, while drastic, were not unexpected. Hall told the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network's Debra Hale-Shelton earlier this year that academic programs were expected to shrink 30-40%.

The plan revealed Tuesday would cut 88 jobs, only 21 of which are currently unfilled. This means 67 people will lose their jobs. Of those 67, 44 are tenured professors. These cuts are expected to save more than $5 million.

Predictably, half the cuts will be in the school's liberal arts programs.  Looks like there will be very little liberal arts left.

More at:

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2022/05/02/henderson-state-to-cut-history-biology-art-and-other-programs-in-plan-to-stay-afloat

The Chancellor's actual plan is at:

https://hsu.edu/uploads/pages/hsu_chancellor_recommendations.pdf

[jimbogumbo]

apl68: are you thinking of these (biology, radiography, chemistry, mathematics, nuclear medicine technology, medical lab science) as liberal arts? Just curious.

I definitely don't think of consumer sciences, public administration, human services or early childhood as liberal arts.

[apl68]

apl68: are you thinking of these (biology, radiography, chemistry, mathematics, nuclear medicine technology, medical lab science) as liberal arts? Just curious.

I definitely don't think of consumer sciences, public administration, human services or early childhood as liberal arts.

If you'll look at the Chancellor's plan, of 88 positions they're planning to cut 24 are in fields designated "Applied Professional Science and Technology," six are in "Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship," 16 are in "Health, Education, and Social Sustainability," and 42 are in "Arts and Humanities."  The "Health, Education, and Social Sustainability" field includes cuts to their history, geography, and political sciences majors, which are generally considered "humanities."  So it's safe to say that at least half of the losses are in humanities fields.  I'm aware that a number of STEM programs are also being cut, which is why I said "half" the cuts would be in the humanities, not "all."

There will be no history major any more, or majors in political science, or English, or foreign languages, or studio arts, theater, or music.  HSU's niche in Arkansas has long been that of the state's only public liberal arts college.  It's hard to see how it could be considered a liberal arts college once these cuts have gone into effect.  It looks like it's going to end up becoming just another compass-point vocational school.  Which will still be a useful institution for the state to have, but it will be very diminished from what it once was. 

[jimbogumbo]

No offense intended! I truly was curious, as I've been one to argue biology, chemistry, physics and math are in fact liberal arts. I haven't read the actual plan, and probably won't. It will likely make me weep.

[Hibush]

With Henderson State, the incredible financial non-management really put them with no degrees of freedom. At least after the ASU takeover of management mechanics (like collecting tution), at least they know where the money is and how much they have.

I suspect they are not able to ask, "what is our vision?" or "what strenghts and history do we build on?" but just "which classes are making money this year?" And we see the answer in this announcement.

They are a poster child for "dire financial straits". But there do seem to be people who care about the place, so its fortunes may turn.