Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[AmLitHist]

Layoffs at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.

[apl68]

Layoffs at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.

They're laying off 15 people at a place with about two thousand students.  Not as drastic as some we've seen.  Unless perhaps this is only a planned first round.

[lightning]

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/

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

When the banks don't want to help them fix their cash flow problem, so they can make payroll, that's some deep s**t that they are in.

[downer]

Ohio's Prompt Pay Act states an employer is liable for six percent of an employee's claim in addition to liquidated damages when wages are unpaid for thirty days after the regularly scheduled pay date. If the percentage is less than $200, the employer will have to pay $200 rather than six percent of the unpaid claim.
https://herlawyer.com/can-i-sue-my-employer-for-paying-me-late-in-ohio/

[Wahoo Redux]

CHE: When It Comes to College Closures, the Sky Is Never Going to Fall

A handful of private nonprofit colleges will close each year, as they almost always do. But what has become a nearly annual round of ominous rumblings from pundits and zeitgeist-palpating media musings — including, occasionally, in The Chronicle — over whether this is, finally, the year that the feeblest canaries in the ostensibly treacherous coal mine that is 21-century American higher education gasp their last en masse seems ever more misguided to me.

[Ruralguy]

There will probably be continuing consolidation, and of course, some absolute closures. I wasn't aware that anyone was saying that all of academia would die,
but I think anyone away from, say, the top 50-100 colleges and universities could really be in serious trouble, especially if they don't have an endowment or a state system to save them and/or they are in an area that has historically been served by many such schools that are no longer needed (I am thinking of say, the tiny, mostly Catholic, colleges that once dotted Westchester County in New York.

[sinenomine]

Bay State College, in Massachusetts, lost their appeal to stay open.

https://www.neche.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bay-State-College-statement-re-withdrawal-final-decision.pdf

[Mobius]

There will probably be continuing consolidation, and of course, some absolute closures. I wasn't aware that anyone was saying that all of academia would die,
but I think anyone away from, say, the top 50-100 colleges and universities could really be in serious trouble, especially if they don't have an endowment or a state system to save them and/or they are in an area that has historically been served by many such schools that are no longer needed (I am thinking of say, the tiny, mostly Catholic, colleges that once dotted Westchester County in New York.

There are whispers that another public university might be established in my state. Don't see how that's viable, unless you're converting empty strip malls or office parks.

Any news on which university can't pay its employees on time? My guess is Wilburforce.

[Wahoo Redux]

There will probably be continuing consolidation, and of course, some absolute closures. I wasn't aware that anyone was saying that all of academia would die,
but I think anyone away from, say, the top 50-100 colleges and universities could really be in serious trouble, especially if they don't have an endowment or a state system to save them and/or they are in an area that has historically been served by many such schools that are no longer needed (I am thinking of say, the tiny, mostly Catholic, colleges that once dotted Westchester County in New York.

There are whispers that another public university might be established in my state. Don't see how that's viable, unless you're converting empty strip malls or office parks.

Any news on which university can't pay its employees on time? My guess is Wilburforce.

I have another guess, but I wonder if that was a troll...

[Mobius]

There will probably be continuing consolidation, and of course, some absolute closures. I wasn't aware that anyone was saying that all of academia would die,
but I think anyone away from, say, the top 50-100 colleges and universities could really be in serious trouble, especially if they don't have an endowment or a state system to save them and/or they are in an area that has historically been served by many such schools that are no longer needed (I am thinking of say, the tiny, mostly Catholic, colleges that once dotted Westchester County in New York.

There are whispers that another public university might be established in my state. Don't see how that's viable, unless you're converting empty strip malls or office parks.

Any news on which university can't pay its employees on time? My guess is Wilburforce.

I have another guess, but I wonder if that was a troll...

Nope. I always hear about the struggles Wilburforce has. I have another suspicion based on people who worked at this other place in the past.

[Anselm]

https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-wesleyan-university-closing-after-181-years/

[jimbogumbo]

Iowa Wesleyan's reported endowment in 2020 was $17.5 million. Oof.

[apl68]

https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-wesleyan-university-closing-after-181-years/

That's sad news.  This wasn't just a jumped-up trade school or a prep school that started calling itself a college sometime after World War II, either.  It had a long history as an institution of higher learning.

[Anselm]

https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-wesleyan-university-closing-after-181-years/

That's sad news.  This wasn't just a jumped-up trade school or a prep school that started calling itself a college sometime after World War II, either.  It had a long history as an institution of higher learning.

I knew this was coming and I believe the athletics budget is the biggest culprit.  I would have expected the local community to pony up some cash since they benefit from that school.  I wish the state would take it over.   I know I am dreaming but Iowa can use more than just three state universities.  Arkansas with less people has at least eight that I can name off of the top of my head.

[spork]

https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/iowa-wesleyan-university-closing-after-181-years/

Christine Plunkett adds another line to her distinguished c.v.