Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[TreadingLife]

It doesn't mention whether the layoffs will be staff or faculty, but layoffs loom for Penn State.

"Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi is trying to balance the system's budget by 2025; last fiscal year it operated with a structural budget deficit of more than $125 million."

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/03/17/layoffs-loom-penn-state

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE: After a Decade of Growth, Degree Earners Decline

Lower Deck:

The number of undergraduate degree earners fell last year for the first time since 2012. Is it a bump in the road or a harbinger of a changing higher ed landscape?

[apl68]

And the English major who aces those premed sequence courses can demonstrate that he has not only aced the premed courses (which will of course not include courses that would be necessary for professional biologists or chemists, but just for MDs), but also completed a hard, objective major that gives skills that would be very useful for any working doc to have, whereas the student who takes the watered-down semi-science major, well, not so much.  And it would be different if that 'natural science' major were at Harvard, but Henderson St ain't Harvard. 

One question, would this HSU 'natural sciences' major even be enough to get the alum certified to teach k12 sci in Arkansas schools?

I presume that the Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education degree is specifically for prospective teachers.  The natural sciences major is for students going into nursing, dental hygiene, etc.  And theoretically for pre-med students. although it is indeed true that HSU doesn't produce a lot of doctors.  There are lots of more modest STEM jobs that don't require an Ivy League-level of science education.  Henderson hasn't (yet) turned into a simple trade school.  It does seem to be turning into more of a garden-variety compass-point school.  The college and the new degrees may not be very impressive for those of us with R1 experience, but I don't believe it's fair to characterize them as worthless.

[apl68]

Not strictly financial straits, since the college in question appears not to be actually desperate--Valparaiso University considers selling the family silver, in the form of artwork at the campus art museum, to pay for remodeling the freshman dorms:


https://www.nwitimes.com/news/valparaiso-university-community-clashes-over-sale-of-precious-artwork/article_1c10cc51-be92-5598-976b-4f9a54a1dcd0.html


Briefly, three paintings by Georgia O'Keefe, Frederick Church, and Childe Hassam, believed to be worth as much as $10 million, could be on the auction block if the school's President has his way.  Alumni, students, etc. are protesting.  The former museum director for whom the place is named says that if the sale goes through he wants his name removed.  Since the pieces were originally bought with money from the Sloan Trust there are questions as to whether the sale would even be legal. 

And assorted professional museum organizations are protesting the proposed sale of art to raise funds that will not be put back into the museum itself.  It's not hard to see why the museum community is aghast at the idea of an institution with an art collection treating it as a source of ready cash to fund construction or other wish-list items.  It would set a terrible precedent that other institutions run by Philistines would be sorely tempted to follow.

[downer]

If I were a faculty member there, that question would be very easy.

Not strictly financial straits, since the college in question appears not to be actually desperate--Valparaiso University considers selling the family silver, in the form of artwork at the campus art museum, to pay for remodeling the freshman dorms:


https://www.nwitimes.com/news/valparaiso-university-community-clashes-over-sale-of-precious-artwork/article_1c10cc51-be92-5598-976b-4f9a54a1dcd0.html


Briefly, three paintings by Georgia O'Keefe, Frederick Church, and Childe Hassam, believed to be worth as much as $10 million, could be on the auction block if the school's President has his way.  Alumni, students, etc. are protesting.  The former museum director for whom the place is named says that if the sale goes through he wants his name removed.  Since the pieces were originally bought with money from the Sloan Trust there are questions as to whether the sale would even be legal. 

And assorted professional museum organizations are protesting the proposed sale of art to raise funds that will not be put back into the museum itself.  It's not hard to see why the museum community is aghast at the idea of an institution with an art collection treating it as a source of ready cash to fund construction or other wish-list items.  It would set a terrible precedent that other institutions run by Philistines would be sorely tempted to follow.

[secundem_artem]

The King's College in Manhattan

The Second Life of a Christian College in Manhattan Nears Its End
The King's College, which draws students from around the country to Manhattan, has not been able to recover from enrollment and financial losses.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/nyregion/kings-college-manhattan-possible-closing.html

Their interim president, Stockwell Day, is a Canadian ex-politician who was central to a populist movement coming out of Alberta - the Reform Party.  Alberta is Canada's oil patch and back in the 1970's their motto was "Let those Eastern bastards freeze to death in the dark."  It ain't Texas, but the place is definitely Tex-ish.

You can think of him as Canada's Ted Cruz (who was also born in Alberta if memory serves).  His failed college to me means it could not happen to a nicer asshole.

[Parasaurolophus]

Now there's a name I haven't heard in decades. What a useless sack he was.

[kaysixteen]

I did not exactly say the HSU 'natural science' degree was worthless, but it is being oversold, and many of the students who will take it probably would not be able to succeed in a traditional science major, which suggests it is a cash cow scam.

[FishProf]

I'd offer that an English major up to their neck in James Joyce, Don DeLillo and other assorted existentialist po-mo writers is not having an easier time than somebody in the hard sciences pre-med track.  Probably spends fewer clock hours in a classroom or a lab, but I don't think a solid education in the humanities is a whole lot easier than a solid education in the hard sciences.  The last honors course I taught had ~ 6 books.  Most of the professional track students took one look at the reading list and dropped the course immediately.  And from what Mrs Artem (BA in Latin) tells me, 6 books in a course ain't nuthin'.  Try a book a week for 15 weeks.

If this is a response to my comment, it is misplaced.  I am not a fan of the let's see whose major is "harder" approach.   I was merely pointing out the "senior majoring in English whilst acing the required premed track, vs majoring in some dumbed-down 'natural science' major" is comparing apples and oranges.   

A student who is "acing the required premed track" is a solid Med School applicant regardless of the major they choose.

[secundem_artem]

I'd offer that an English major up to their neck in James Joyce, Don DeLillo and other assorted existentialist po-mo writers is not having an easier time than somebody in the hard sciences pre-med track.  Probably spends fewer clock hours in a classroom or a lab, but I don't think a solid education in the humanities is a whole lot easier than a solid education in the hard sciences.  The last honors course I taught had ~ 6 books.  Most of the professional track students took one look at the reading list and dropped the course immediately.  And from what Mrs Artem (BA in Latin) tells me, 6 books in a course ain't nuthin'.  Try a book a week for 15 weeks.

If this is a response to my comment, it is misplaced.  I am not a fan of the let's see whose major is "harder" approach.   I was merely pointing out the "senior majoring in English whilst acing the required premed track, vs majoring in some dumbed-down 'natural science' major" is comparing apples and oranges.   

A student who is "acing the required premed track" is a solid Med School applicant regardless of the major they choose.

Not directed at you fishprof.  Or at anyone in particular for that matter.

[Wahoo Redux]

Not strictly financial straits, since the college in question appears not to be actually desperate--Valparaiso University considers selling the family silver, in the form of artwork at the campus art museum, to pay for remodeling the freshman dorms:


https://www.nwitimes.com/news/valparaiso-university-community-clashes-over-sale-of-precious-artwork/article_1c10cc51-be92-5598-976b-4f9a54a1dcd0.html


Briefly, three paintings by Georgia O'Keefe, Frederick Church, and Childe Hassam, believed to be worth as much as $10 million, could be on the auction block if the school's President has his way.  Alumni, students, etc. are protesting.  The former museum director for whom the place is named says that if the sale goes through he wants his name removed.  Since the pieces were originally bought with money from the Sloan Trust there are questions as to whether the sale would even be legal. 

And assorted professional museum organizations are protesting the proposed sale of art to raise funds that will not be put back into the museum itself.  It's not hard to see why the museum community is aghast at the idea of an institution with an art collection treating it as a source of ready cash to fund construction or other wish-list items.  It would set a terrible precedent that other institutions run by Philistines would be sorely tempted to follow.

...turning our colleges into trade schools...

[spork]

St. Francis College, NYC. Annual deficits of $7-$15 million on a budget of ~ $90 million for FYs 2018-2020. In 2021 it got almost $10 million in pandemic aid but still had a deficit. According to Inside Higher Ed, it just killed its entire Division 1 athletic program, which it should have done twenty years ago.

[apl68]

St. Francis College, NYC. Annual deficits of $7-$15 million on a budget of ~ $90 million for FYs 2018-2020. In 2021 it got almost $10 million in pandemic aid but still had a deficit. According to Inside Higher Ed, it just killed its entire Division 1 athletic program, which it should have done twenty years ago.

And they sold some pricey real estate, too!  They must have an awfully deep hole that they're trying to dig out of.

Cutting their proud sports program is surely going to hurt recruiting.  But like spork said, the time to have done it was no doubt years ago, before things got this bad.

[permanent imposter]

Anyone have an idea which Ohio university has stopped paying its employees? Yikes. https://www.reddit.com/r/Adjuncts/comments/11ypk5f/university_has_stopped_paying_its_employees/

[selecter]

Wow. That's past circling the drain. That's digging your nails into the urinal cake ...