Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[downer]

Business School students are worse than Education School students? Hard to imagine.

[marshwiggle]

. For the colleges and universities that are not Stanford, Northwestern, or Chicago, academic programs with a "business" label are cash cows, because they attract large numbers of underprepared, underprivileged, or simply lazy undergrads. These students aren't majoring in data science, economics, or even accounting, because those majors require *gulp* math. Their diplomas read "management," "business administration," or "marketing."



Mediocre, relatively small colleges and universities have relied on "business" programs to enroll undergrads for decades. They are far cheaper to establish than engineering programs, and their lack of value is easier to camouflage. Many of these schools also have useless MBA programs whose only function has also been to generate tuition revenue. I think this era is slowly coming to an end.

Given the student population described above, engineering schools would miss the point entirely. The students they're attracting to "business" would be totally uninterested ("MATH!") and/or unable ("unprepared, lazy") to handle engineering.

[Hibush]

For a lot of services, including higher education, there are decent programs, half-decent programs, crummy programs and scams. Since the last group is relatively inexpensive to run, there tend to be a lot of them. Is it a problem for society if the last two groups run into dire financial straits as long as the first two are doing ok?

I think the failure of programs that don't deliver is how our economic system is supposed to work.

Analysts who only look at the overall aggregate will see a large number of struggling programs and conclude that the whole sector is in trouble. Others will look one step deeper and notice that there is a big difference between the ends of the spectrum and place the sector in a haves-and-have-nots paradigm. But there is a lot more nuance.

[downer]

The idea that higher ed is a meritocracy where the best institutions thrive and the worst fail seems idealistic to me.

Rather, the institutions that are good at self-promotion thrive and the ones that are badly run fail. There's only a rough correlation with actual merit. Success is related to the quality of the administration, merit is related to the quality of the faculty.

[dismalist]

The best places are selection machines. It's not obvious what their value-added is. I'm not saying it's zero, just not obvious in all fields, though it is obvious in, say, engineering.

On the long way down, we get to more and more signalling. Doesn't really matter what is learnt. Point is to have shown one can survive college.

As for business degrees, virtually everything one can say about them is true. That's one place where the quality spectrum is visible with a vengeance.

[spork]

Hannibal-Lagrange University: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/05/26/exigency-leads-layoffs-hannibal-lagrange-university.

[Hibush]

Hannibal-Lagrange University: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/05/26/exigency-leads-layoffs-hannibal-lagrange-university.

Thanks for getting us back on track. This article shows that warning signs of demise have been evident to faculty for at least a decade and that evacuation sirens have been blowing for at least a year.

The article has the essential word for this thread: "the nearly 100-year-old Baptist college in Missouri received a dire financial assessment."

This is in a tough demographic: a rural institution owned by the Southern Baptist Convention. The quotes from leadership make it sound as if they are awaiting divine guidance rather than using conventional business practices.

Or perhaps their managers were the kind of business majors described in recent posts, who can't read a financial statement or manage staff. "Stakeholders outside the administration had virtually no say on matters of enrollment, fiscal management or strategic planning.'

Faculty were not involved in management: "there was no shared governance"at Hannibal-LaGrange, which ... contributed to the university's financial troubles."

The usual target of program cuts gets the coup de grace: "layoffs included...a two-time Fulbright scholar who was the sole faculty member in the history department".

They are too small to be viable and are shrinking fast: "Hannibal-LaGrange has seen its enrollment drop by 35 percent, from around 1,200 students in 2012–13 to 780 in 2021–22."

Tenure is gone: "Because their 12-month contracts were exchanged for nonbinding two-week contracts in March, faculty said they did not expect to be paid past the end of this month."

The consultants offer analysis of dubious value: "when an institution appears to be headed for a cliff, the desire to stay open may conflict with the college's educational mission"

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE: Enrollment Down 5th Straight Semester.

The latest numbers mark the fifth semester in a row of declining overall enrollment. The report from spring 2020 counted 17.1 million students across all levels of higher education; that number is now 15.9 million.

Though much of the report may be concerning for higher education, first-time freshman enrollment is a bright spot in the latest data, up by 4.2 percent, or 13,700 students. That reverses a decline of 3.5 percent, or 11,800 students, from last spring. However, a special analysis in this year's report broke down the first-time freshman data by race, and it showed a 6.5 percent decline in Black freshman enrollment compared to last spring. Black students were the only demographic that declined among first-time freshmen.

[mamselle]

Hannibal-Lagrange:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/05/26/exigency-leads-layoffs-hannibal-lagrange-university

Relevant to the above, and to a question posed in our digressive upthread meanderings on the meaning of it all (while we awaited another dire-straits specimen, perhaps, to digest and discuss)...

One model for theology, humanities, and the arts does already exist and has run in parallel with established universities ever since Abelard was at the Sorbonne....or Socrates held forth in the Agora.

I'm thinking of the small, salon-like gatherings of those who follow one or more teachers, or artists in their studios, or theologians in their diocesan workshop offerings, or public historians who lead their tours and present online conference papers, or YouTube/TicToc/TedTalk folks who teach anything from chord progressions to Elizabethan language pronunciation as independent scholars.

There are indeed charlatans in this mix, and little to no proof against plagiarism and content pirates,  but there are very good, very useful, very bright offerings as well, with lower overheads, fewer admincritters, and reduced office politics to wrangle with daily. Some people even offer good content AND make something from it.

I suspect those of us with a continually well-stoked fire in our bellies about teaching, research, and writing no matter the circumstances will find the channels by which to let our vocations move forward, no matter what.

It already happens to a great degree: I know of theological group offerings that would be taken as "rigorous enough" in some settings, and of struggling schools in that realm that have explored many alt-ac pathways towards ordination in their own dioceses, or at large--because of costs, Covid, and green-eyed developers breathing down their necks to buy up their land and build on it.

Can't speak to this particular school's situation per se, I don't know it well, sorry to say, but I'm guessing a look at the ATS website may yield more info (the Asso. of Theological Schools has their own strict accreditation board, a go-to for any seminary issues).

So, having indulged myself in what I so often decry on this thread as well--the generalized woe-is-us jeremiad vs. the focused, on-point analysis--I hope I've brought this post back to topic, with the note that, being as isolated as it appears to be, the finishing students will have a harder time availing themselves of the kind of sympathetic parallel offerings most theology schools try to arrange for when closing, for students on a timed (usually 3-year) ordination track.

In a more built-up area, they can be adopted in to related nearby programs. In more remote areas, just getting to another place and living there can be hard....churches don't pay a lot, in many cases.

Some students may also--as Dan Aylshire, emeritus ATS director, observed a few years back--now find a full theological education unnecessary, with churches willing to hire incompletely-formed pastors just to get someone in the pulpit and visiting the sick weekly.

Those churches are also often somewhat anti-intellectal in scope and so undermine their own denominational schools--which they may come to rue, as a lack of training in pastoral ethics can cost them money, credibility, and adherents when abuses come to light.

An interesting grant-funded project might be to see who among those so accused in various settings did not complete their academic training, and whether that included those who skipped out on CPE--clinical pastoral education--or supervised field work, as well as missiology or theological ethics and aesthetics requirements.

Of course, there are and have been highly-placed, multi-degreed folks to serve as foils to that correlation...I did mention Abelard earlier, for one...didn't I?

I wonder if Lily would take that one on.

M.

[marshwiggle]

Hannibal-Lagrange:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/05/26/exigency-leads-layoffs-hannibal-lagrange-university

Relevant to the above, and to a question posed in our digressive upthread meanderings on the meaning of it all (while we awaited another dire-straits specimen, perhaps, to digest and discuss)...

One model for theology, humanities, and the arts does already exist and has run in parallel with established universities ever since Abelard was at the Sorbonne....or Socrates held forth in the Agora.

I'm thinking of the small, salon-like gatherings of those who follow one or more teachers, or artists in their studios, or theologians in their diocesan workshop offerings, or public historians who lead their tours and present online conference papers, or YouTube/TicToc/TedTalk folks who teach anything from chord progressions to Elizabethan language pronunciation as independent scholars.

For people who are primarily concerned with learning, this is absolutely true. For people who want "An Education (TM)", it's not going to cut it, since it won't provide any verifiable credential.

[mamselle]

Missed the edit window:

P.S. Should we (did we already?) start a commentary/asides thread to ride around with this one?

It might help this thread stay more on-topic with specifics while allowing for broader thought linked to posts on this or other threads. - M.

And 5hen this showed up...

   https://www.boston.com/community/readers-say/how-readers-feel-about-the-rising-cost-of-college/

[apl68]

Hannibal-Lagrange University: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/05/26/exigency-leads-layoffs-hannibal-lagrange-university.

Thanks for getting us back on track. This article shows that warning signs of demise have been evident to faculty for at least a decade and that evacuation sirens have been blowing for at least a year.

The article has the essential word for this thread: "the nearly 100-year-old Baptist college in Missouri received a dire financial assessment."

This is in a tough demographic: a rural institution owned by the Southern Baptist Convention. The quotes from leadership make it sound as if they are awaiting divine guidance rather than using conventional business practices.

Or perhaps their managers were the kind of business majors described in recent posts, who can't read a financial statement or manage staff. "Stakeholders outside the administration had virtually no say on matters of enrollment, fiscal management or strategic planning.'

Faculty were not involved in management: "there was no shared governance"at Hannibal-LaGrange, which ... contributed to the university's financial troubles."

The usual target of program cuts gets the coup de grace: "layoffs included...a two-time Fulbright scholar who was the sole faculty member in the history department".

They are too small to be viable and are shrinking fast: "Hannibal-LaGrange has seen its enrollment drop by 35 percent, from around 1,200 students in 2012–13 to 780 in 2021–22."

Tenure is gone: "Because their 12-month contracts were exchanged for nonbinding two-week contracts in March, faculty said they did not expect to be paid past the end of this month."

The consultants offer analysis of dubious value: "when an institution appears to be headed for a cliff, the desire to stay open may conflict with the college's educational mission"

Just because they speak of prayer and seeking God's guidance doesn't mean they aren't trying to use real-world financial management.  As with many SLAC's, the world has turned very harsh for them in the past decade.  It's doubtful that their resources were ever abundant in the best of times--Baptist schools have always been expected to mostly support themselves, and they seldom have hugely rich alumni to call upon.  Now with the nation's general demographic decline, and perhaps regional demographic decline as well, they're seeing enrollment fall too low for a school to keep going in today's environment.  That brute reality is just too much for any kind of management to overcome.  This is why I worry so much about my alma mater, which is only a bit larger than Hannibal-Lagrange used to be.  So far Alma Mater seems to have held onto most of its enrollment.

I've noticed that administrations of declining schools tend to be very stubborn about continuing to fight to stay open as things get worse and worse.  I guess that's understandable.  A college's administration and faculty have a lot emotionally invested in the school and its mission.  They feel like it's worth fighting for, even when the odds seem long.  But in most cases the odds just can't be beat, and they end up fighting past the point at which a less emotionally-invested observer would advise giving up.

[mamselle]

This is also not a new discussion for scholastics--or Scholastics--in the field of theological education.

As one of them is said to have said (looking for the full citation now....)

"Philosophizing is absolutely better than increasing your wealth, but in times of necessity, the latter is to be preferred..."

T. Aquinas, c. 1300s

[downer]

I've noticed that administrations of declining schools tend to be very stubborn about continuing to fight to stay open as things get worse and worse.  I guess that's understandable.  A college's administration and faculty have a lot emotionally invested in the school and its mission.  They feel like it's worth fighting for, even when the odds seem long.  But in most cases the odds just can't be beat, and they end up fighting past the point at which a less emotionally-invested observer would advise giving up.

The ones that can leave do leave. The ones that remain are those who have other reasons for not being able to relocate, or who could not find a job elsewhere. There tends to be a revolving door for positions of president, provost, registrar, etc. Each new one is a bit worse than the one previous.

[Mobius]

The smaller evangelical schools aren't helped by a decline in formal evangelicalism. What I mean by that was traditionally, if you were evangelical, you went to church and gave money to fund the church (tithes, mission funds, colleges). As others pointed out, it was never much, but it kept the lights on. Evangelical doesn't mean what it used to mean. Plenty of data to show self-identified evangelicals don't go to church and don't affiliate with any congregation. That means they also aren't giving money.

The mainline Protestant schools might have done better in the past and had alumni with money. With mainline numbers dropping in the past 20-30 years (dying out with replacements coming in), these schools don't have base of support.