Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Mobius]

Does to show that being in a deep blue area doesn't mean security when it comes to higher ed.

There are too many academics on social media who seem to believe being in a state with a Democratic trifecta means more funding.

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE: Emporia State Cut Tenured Faculty. Enrollment Plunged.

Lower Deck:

Correlation doesn't equal causation, but the Kansas university's head-count troubles have worsened. Might other institutions following its example see a similar fate?

Our plunge has slowed, but my old uni got a lot of bad publicity while cutting.  Enrollment worsened every time.

[Hibush]

IHE: Emporia State Cut Tenured Faculty. Enrollment Plunged.

Lower Deck:

Correlation doesn't equal causation, but the Kansas university's head-count troubles have worsened. Might other institutions following its example see a similar fate?

Our plunge has slowed, but my old uni got a lot of bad publicity while cutting.  Enrollment worsened every time.

Unfortunately these articles speculate a lot but don't line up the relevant numbers. Emporia State lost 666 students. University of Kansas gained 1820 students; other campuses had minor changes.

Higher education is fine in Kansas. The enrollment change is the same as most other states: more students prefer the big campus to the smaller campuses. Total numbers are not going over a cliff.

The pattern is a significant financial challenge for the smaller state campuses. A smart system would find a way to use the excess instructional capacity at those campuses to meet the increasing need at the big campus. Especially in a state where is the legislature has made employment less attractive to out of staters.

[apl68]

Not a college, but our library.  Our main regional industry shut down half its operations a few years ago.  Then they tore down the unused facilities so that they wouldn't have to pay taxes on the vacant property.  Our millage income--our only major source of revenue--is down 20% now.  Meanwhile we've been spending a fortune fixing up one thing after another on our aging building and its excessively elaborate HVAC system.

We have money banked from surplus years to keep from having to take drastic steps right away.  In the years to come, though, we're looking at major staff cuts.  Which would leave an under-utilized, expensive-to-maintain facility and grounds occupied by a skeleton staff.  I've come to believe that our best long-term strategy would be to shut down the facility and move a reduced staff into a rented storefront or something in a more central location, while we still have enough cash reserves to make the move.

Whatever we do, it looks like the remaining years of my professional career will be all about managed decline.  I do feel for all those in academia who face a similar prospect.

[Wahoo Redux]

Sorry apl.  What a bummer.

[kaysixteen]

This may well be a stupid question, but I don't suppose that you could convince the voters to increase your funding?   How popular is the library in your community, and does the average citizen realize just what they have, and what would go away if it closed?

[apl68]

This may well be a stupid question, but I don't suppose that you could convince the voters to increase your funding?  How popular is the library in your community, and does the average citizen realize just what they have, and what would go away if it closed?

We'll try, after a couple of years of preparation and community advocacy to maximize the chances of passage.  I am not, however, at all optimistic about our prospects of success.  Our library millage rate is already unusually high by state standards.  We have 2.4 mills.  Other libraries in the region all have a single mill at best. 

The higher millage was passed as part of the measure to build the current library facility in the 1990s--the architects of the plan understood that there was no sense building a fancy new building if there wasn't also a measure in place to fund it adequately.  The 2.4 millage gave us enough money to run things for many years.  It's why we were able to bank funds for a rainy day.  Unfortunately the long-term decline of the city's economic fortunes has had the effect of climate change--we now have to contend not with rainy days but living in a kind of permanent economic flood plain (I sound like I'm channeling polly here, don't I?).

If the economy doesn't further decline, and we can convince votes to increase the millage to 3.0 mills, we could be sustainable again.  But people around here don't feel too prosperous anymore, what with declining employment locally and the recent massive inflation in cost of living.  It's just not very likely we'll be able to convince them to increase an already relatively high millage.

Here's what I see as our likeliest strategic plan.  First, spend a couple of years making only minor trims that we can make to the budget without hurting services, while we prepare for a millage campaign.  Explain to the voters that if we can't increase the millage, then we will be looking at cutting staff and services and eventually shutting down the current facility.  If the millage fails to pass, follow through by laying people off, cutting services, and looking for an alternative property to move into while we still have cash reserves to do it.

I came here just two years after the library moved into that grand new facility.  It was like inheriting a fortune.  I had all these high hopes of what the library could be built into using those resources.  Instead I find myself in the latter part of my career looking at the prospect of having to shut down that facility at some point.  I don't see the library closing down altogether as long as the whole town doesn't dry up and blow away.  But it looks like my legacy when I retire will be a much-diminished library.  Not at all what I'd hoped to have for a career legacy.

[Parasaurolophus]

Ugh, sorry to hear that, apl68.

My addition concerns three institutions: McGill University, Concordia University, and Bishop's University. The Québec government has decided to more double the Canadian rate to $17 000. They will also raise the international rate to $20 000. The extra money will be sent to the province's Francophone universities.

These are Québec's three Anglophone universities (although one can complete all work at McGill in French), and the only three institutions which do not receive money in the form of "special mission" grants (no coincidence there!). To understand the significance of this move, you need to understand that in Québec, as elsewhere there are three tuition rates (Québec student, Canadian student, and international student); but, unlike anywhere else in Canada, universities only get to keep the dollar amount pegged to the Québec rate for each student (so, e.g., if the Québec rate is $4000, then it keeps $4000 of the tuition paid by every student, including Canadian and international students, and no more). The rest of the money gets kicked up to the government, which redistributes some of it in the form of its "special mission" grants.

This is a big deal because these three universities recruit heavily from the rest of Canada (they also have larger numbers of international students, but the relatively smaller hike is not likely to deter international students all that much, especially for McGill, which enjoys a fancy reputation). But with a tuition rate that high for out-of-province students (it would be far and away the highest in the country, and comparable to international student tuition everywhere else), it's sure to put a big damper on recruitment. These three institutions have long been starved of funds (because Anglophone), and this will really hurt. The Francophone institutions, by contrast, recruit very little from the other provinces, and have quite small international student populations, too.

There's no doubt in my mind that this is a political move aimed at killing these institutions, to the extent possible. It's entirely in line with other recent government policies targeting the province's Anglophone community. McGill and Concordia will probably manage to limp on, but Bishop's will probably die.

[sonoamused]

Clarkson U in NYS to start cutting programs:  https://www.syracuse.com/schools/2023/10/report-clarkson-university-looks-to-cut-faculty-programs-in-northern-ny.html

Northern NY has been hit hard with higher ed decline lately, and its probably going to speed up pretty quickly.  I suspect Western NY will be next   - the Buffalo/Niagara area, while having a little economic growth, has clustr of schools and still facing recruiting challenges.

[lightning]

This may well be a stupid question, but I don't suppose that you could convince the voters to increase your funding?  How popular is the library in your community, and does the average citizen realize just what they have, and what would go away if it closed?

We'll try, after a couple of years of preparation and community advocacy to maximize the chances of passage.  I am not, however, at all optimistic about our prospects of success.  Our library millage rate is already unusually high by state standards.  We have 2.4 mills.  Other libraries in the region all have a single mill at best. 

The higher millage was passed as part of the measure to build the current library facility in the 1990s--the architects of the plan understood that there was no sense building a fancy new building if there wasn't also a measure in place to fund it adequately.  The 2.4 millage gave us enough money to run things for many years.  It's why we were able to bank funds for a rainy day.  Unfortunately the long-term decline of the city's economic fortunes has had the effect of climate change--we now have to contend not with rainy days but living in a kind of permanent economic flood plain (I sound like I'm channeling polly here, don't I?).

If the economy doesn't further decline, and we can convince votes to increase the millage to 3.0 mills, we could be sustainable again.  But people around here don't feel too prosperous anymore, what with declining employment locally and the recent massive inflation in cost of living.  It's just not very likely we'll be able to convince them to increase an already relatively high millage.

Here's what I see as our likeliest strategic plan.  First, spend a couple of years making only minor trims that we can make to the budget without hurting services, while we prepare for a millage campaign.  Explain to the voters that if we can't increase the millage, then we will be looking at cutting staff and services and eventually shutting down the current facility.  If the millage fails to pass, follow through by laying people off, cutting services, and looking for an alternative property to move into while we still have cash reserves to do it.

I came here just two years after the library moved into that grand new facility.  It was like inheriting a fortune.  I had all these high hopes of what the library could be built into using those resources.  Instead I find myself in the latter part of my career looking at the prospect of having to shut down that facility at some point.  I don't see the library closing down altogether as long as the whole town doesn't dry up and blow away.  But it looks like my legacy when I retire will be a much-diminished library.  Not at all what I'd hoped to have for a career legacy.

Can you take early retirement? That town doesn't deserve people like you who actually care.

[apl68]

This may well be a stupid question, but I don't suppose that you could convince the voters to increase your funding?  How popular is the library in your community, and does the average citizen realize just what they have, and what would go away if it closed?

We'll try, after a couple of years of preparation and community advocacy to maximize the chances of passage.  I am not, however, at all optimistic about our prospects of success.  Our library millage rate is already unusually high by state standards.  We have 2.4 mills.  Other libraries in the region all have a single mill at best. 

The higher millage was passed as part of the measure to build the current library facility in the 1990s--the architects of the plan understood that there was no sense building a fancy new building if there wasn't also a measure in place to fund it adequately.  The 2.4 millage gave us enough money to run things for many years.  It's why we were able to bank funds for a rainy day.  Unfortunately the long-term decline of the city's economic fortunes has had the effect of climate change--we now have to contend not with rainy days but living in a kind of permanent economic flood plain (I sound like I'm channeling polly here, don't I?).

If the economy doesn't further decline, and we can convince votes to increase the millage to 3.0 mills, we could be sustainable again.  But people around here don't feel too prosperous anymore, what with declining employment locally and the recent massive inflation in cost of living.  It's just not very likely we'll be able to convince them to increase an already relatively high millage.

Here's what I see as our likeliest strategic plan.  First, spend a couple of years making only minor trims that we can make to the budget without hurting services, while we prepare for a millage campaign.  Explain to the voters that if we can't increase the millage, then we will be looking at cutting staff and services and eventually shutting down the current facility.  If the millage fails to pass, follow through by laying people off, cutting services, and looking for an alternative property to move into while we still have cash reserves to do it.

I came here just two years after the library moved into that grand new facility.  It was like inheriting a fortune.  I had all these high hopes of what the library could be built into using those resources.  Instead I find myself in the latter part of my career looking at the prospect of having to shut down that facility at some point.  I don't see the library closing down altogether as long as the whole town doesn't dry up and blow away.  But it looks like my legacy when I retire will be a much-diminished library.  Not at all what I'd hoped to have for a career legacy.

Can you take early retirement? That town doesn't deserve people like you who actually care.

I'm 55.  I don't see a Gen-Xer like me being able to retire before 70.  It was those who came before us who got to have things like early retirements, and nearly-free college, and the option to drop out of society for a few years to do one's own thing and then drop back in again.  So...another 15 years on the job here, if we can manage to stay open that long. 

Actually our revenue cushion is big enough that we could, in a best-case scenario, perhaps avoid any really tough decisions until after I retire.  I've known of more than one case where a late-career librarian seems to have decided "You know, we've got enough money to get by comfortably until I retire, and then it'll be somebody else's problem," and then retired on the job and left the next librarian with no remaining cash reserves and all the tough decisions to make.  I don't want to be that person.  I'm hoping that maybe I and the Board of Trustees and the rest of the staff and the community can find a way to leave behind a sustainable, if diminished, library when I retire. 

If that's the duty I'm given by God, then so be it.  One thing I learned in history grad school is that some (maybe most?) people have to live in times of decline, not times of expansion.  Our town is no less "deserving" of good library service than those towns in the northern part of the state who enjoy world-class libraries by virtue of being located in a region that's swimming in Walton Foundation money that was sucked out of small towns all over the rest of the nation. 

In our region, we've been caught in a time of decline.  There are still a lot of us who consider this our home and care about it.  We don't want to bail on the town and its people because times have gotten harder.  As long as we can make some kind of living locally, we'll stick it out and try our best.  We still have people come to this library every day who need the services we can provide.  Somebody has to be at work trying to find ways to keep providing them.  It's part of what God put us here for.

I think that considerations like that are part of what keeps some people trying in colleges that are in financial straits.  Maybe some of them would be better off bailing.  But maybe some need to try to stay.

[Wahoo Redux]

I think that considerations like that are part of what keeps some people trying in colleges that are in financial straits.  Maybe some of them would be better off bailing.  But maybe some need to try to stay.

That's beautiful. 

[Ruralguy]

Yes, of course part of the reason college's want to stay in business is because it does some good in the community (jobs being chief among them, but not only jobs). I am at one that's in decline as far as enrollment goes (though we seem to have maybe stabilized, though admittedly we might just be Wile E. Coyote off the cliff before he looked down). However, we've done quite well in terms of donations and other external gifts, and have been getting more bigger gifts from non-alums. However, without re-adjusting to the new normal of smaller enrollments (i.e., firing people or taking more facilities off line  or both) , it means less money for everyone left, including small (for many years, no) raises and battles over scarce resources.

Should my school go away? We can probably re-set and survive because of our endowment, but eventually, that's unsustainable, although Sweet Briar seems to have shown is sustainable for years if you do it right.
But some more schools probably have run out of choices. Without enrollment, without endowment, and grants/donations drying up, where do you have left to go? You can try being a school with fewer than 100 students and a faculty of 10 and staff of about as many, but at some point that can go from super-dinky to super ridiculous.

[permanent imposter]

I think that considerations like that are part of what keeps some people trying in colleges that are in financial straits.  Maybe some of them would be better off bailing.  But maybe some need to try to stay.

That's beautiful. 

Agreed. Your town is lucky to have you. I hope managed decline isn't your fate, but if it is I'm sure you will manage it with grace.

[Wahoo Redux]

I think that considerations like that are part of what keeps some people trying in colleges that are in financial straits.  Maybe some of them would be better off bailing.  But maybe some need to try to stay.

That's beautiful. 

Agreed. Your town is lucky to have you. I hope managed decline isn't your fate, but if it is I'm sure you will manage it with grace.

Ha!  I will give my "town" credit for refusing to give up, and I mean that sincerely.  Peeps around here are bent on "revitalization" with some tentative results. I doubt that it will keep the dinosaur from dying a slow death, however.

But I am afraid barely managed decline is my fate, as appears to be the fate of my former institution, and I am forced into "grace" because my wife still works there. In the meantime, I am trying to forge a new career----hiring is going slowly.

I just liked apl's attitude, even if it has been beaten out of me.