Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Hibush]

I am still reading the Chronicle of Higher Education. Quite a few of their contributed opinion pieces are generated by people in your situation of a specific annoyance, who then generalize to all of academe. "Why academe must fundamentally reform new-program development." It is like some of the worst clickbait sites.

I bet you could get your initial post here published at CHE with just a little effort to elaborate during lulls in the committee meetings.

[Mobius]

In the twitter feed, shade was thrown at the departments that "really" caused the deficit. I'd be curious to know who they are. Since it's arts and sciences, I doubt that all departments are losing enrollment. Would they happen to be the science majors that are well enrolled but have expensive labs? Or departments that have grown successfully and are now pushing for new TT lines to meet demand?

It was the gened requirements that students are doing in high school AP or community college. English and chemistry. History and calculus.

Regional comprehensives don't have to deal with this as much. Dual enrollment is a more-pressing concern. I have supervised dual-enrollment and offering college credit for some of these classes isn't doing anyone any favors.

[Wahoo Redux]

I am still reading the Chronicle of Higher Education. Quite a few of their contributed opinion pieces are generated by people in your situation of a specific annoyance, who then generalize to all of academe. "Why academe must fundamentally reform new-program development." It is like some of the worst clickbait sites.

I bet you could get your initial post here published at CHE with just a little effort to elaborate during lulls in the committee meetings.

I get frustrated by the high-handed rhetoric without concrete details or suggestions.  It's the same sort of blather one finds in most pedagogy articles. 

[Wahoo Redux]

Not sure if this story has been posted before.

Reimagined LAS, Iowa State

[apl68]

Not sure if this story has been posted before.

Reimagined LAS, Iowa State

It seems to be a case of "round up (and shoot) the usual suspects."  Well, we've known for a long time that many history grad programs needed to be shut down.

I notice that they're trying to point out that you can major in history and still make the big bucks, at least if you do something besides try to teach history.  It's a valid argument, as far as it goes, but it seems to be falling on deaf ears.  The conventional wisdom that only a handful of obviously vocational majors are worth majoring in seems to be too deeply entrenched at this point.

[spork]

Lincoln College, in Lincoln, IL, to close in May.

While Covid hurt a lot, it appears the coup de grace was a cyberattack. Like many small or financially strapped schools, this one must have had limited resources to prevent or fix the attack because they system was down for a month and a half. No access to anything needed to operate the school or to communicate electronically!

How many other schools are vulnerable to such a disruption?

Lincoln ran deficits amounting to 10-15% of total expenses in FYs 2018-2020. The only reason it was not in deficit in FYs 2016 and 2017 was because of asset sales of $11 million and $6 million, respectively.

[selecter]

Are you suggesting that living 10-15% above your means for periods of a decade or more is *even worse* than a cyberattack?

[spork]

https://www.fox19.com/2022/04/11/hebrew-union-college-closes-147-year-residential-rabbinical-program-cincinnati/

[mamselle]

Oh, no.

I was raised in Columbus and did interfaith programs with people who'd graduated from there.

That's especially a loss in the Midwest, where there are still, sadly, pockets of anti-Semitism which the school's wide-ranging outreach programs addressed with educational input and communal support.

M.

[Ruralguy]

There will still be general Judaic studies and outreach programs (though who know show long). Recruiting, educating and placing clergy is likely a challenge in all religions these days.

[marshwiggle]

Yet, I don't see reports of 3000 undergrad schools going under or even under extreme pressure, though maybe some are. Anyone have anything specific?

By the way, of course money changes everything. 3000 students and a billion dollar endowment probably keeps you safe. But 3000 and 500 million endowment is nice, but not safe enough.

Laurentian had ~9000. But their case is sort of exceptional.

Here's an update, provided by the provincial auditor general:

Like all universities, Lysyk said, the COVID-19 pandemic affected Laurentian's finances, but its problems started long before, in 2010, when it went on a building spree to expand its Sudbury campus.

"There wasn't the revenue coming in to support the payment down of the principal and interest from those investments," Lysyk told CBC News.

She said there doesn't seem to be any intentional wrongdoing by Laurentian, and added its capital expansion plans were well meant. But she said the university's board of governors failed to provide proper oversight, and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities did not intervene in time when it was clear Laurentian was in financial straits.

[mamselle]

Interesting further discussion of Mills:

   https://prospect.org/education/plight-of-mills-college-american-higher-ed-alarm/

M.

[Hibush]

Interesting further discussion of Mills:

   https://prospect.org/education/plight-of-mills-college-american-higher-ed-alarm/

M.

That is a very interesting take. The author specializes in educational economics, so the analysis has some extra credibility. I could have used a little more of the comparative math between what they've done and what they should have done.

Nevertheless, the big screw up in admissions was not corrected by administration and then inevitable financial problems were dealt with poorly. Double whammy. Mills celarly was not in great finanaical shape even before the fiasco, which the author downplays.

The takehome seems reasonable: when the going gets tough, it is your unique strenghts that can pull you through. Spending on hare-braoined new initiatives and administrators to run them is a bad sign.

That last one bears repeating as a signal that the school is circling the drain and it is time to get out.

[secundem_artem]

Let's be honest.  An awful lot of small religious LACs, HBCUs and women's only colleges are probably not long for this life.

[kaysixteen]

What does Northeastern, a whole continent away from Mills, want to buy Mills for?