Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[sonoamused]

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"

That non-binding two week contracts had my head spin.    I don't think I have seen that one before.

[Wahoo Redux]

From IHE:

Piedmont Is in for Some Very Tough Times

[Dismal]

Henderson State

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-human-cost-of-campus-budget-cuts

[apl68]

Henderson State

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-human-cost-of-campus-budget-cuts

I think that this sums up much of what is being lost at schools like HSU as they transform into whatever it is they're turning into:

From the small classrooms to the quality of the students, there is a lot that Beggs will miss about Henderson. It's a welcoming university for first-generation students and students from a range of backgrounds, he said, and he got to teach a variety of classes.

"Henderson State University is a remarkable little public university," Beggs said.

It was the type of university that, for a long time, Cate would have recommended to anyone hands down. But her faith in its direction started to wane in the last few years.

"It's not just because I lost my job," she said. "It's very businesslike and transactional now. There's not as much of that sense of community or fostering relationships with students like I experienced. It isn't for lack of faculty trying, but the focus changed to what the students mean monetarily."

I hope the two faculty members profiled here can find something to tide them over.  Little Rock isn't a terribly expensive city, so it's not like they need Silicon-Valley levels of income to make it.  The job market is strong overall right now, but two late-career academics, one of them visually-impaired, aren't so well positioned to take advantages of any opportunities that are out there.

[dismalist]

From the small classrooms to the quality of the students, there is a lot that Beggs will miss about Henderson. It's a welcoming university for first-generation students and students from a range of backgrounds, he said, and he got to teach a variety of classes.

"Henderson State University is a remarkable little public university," Beggs said.

It was the type of university that, for a long time, Cate would have recommended to anyone hands down. But her faith in its direction started to wane in the last few years.

"It's not just because I lost my job," she said. "It's very businesslike and transactional now. There's not as much of that sense of community or fostering relationships with students like I experienced. It isn't for lack of faculty trying, but the focus changed to what the students mean monetarily."

...

Transactional? Had to look it up. Found this: To keep things simple, a transactional personality is someone who never acts (positively or negatively) if there's nothing to gain.

Does anyone know anyone, perhaps Mother Theresa aside, who is not transactional?

[Wahoo Redux]

Henderson State

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-human-cost-of-campus-budget-cuts

I think that this sums up much of what is being lost at schools like HSU as they transform into whatever it is they're turning into:

From the small classrooms to the quality of the students, there is a lot that Beggs will miss about Henderson. It's a welcoming university for first-generation students and students from a range of backgrounds, he said, and he got to teach a variety of classes.

"Henderson State University is a remarkable little public university," Beggs said.

It was the type of university that, for a long time, Cate would have recommended to anyone hands down. But her faith in its direction started to wane in the last few years.

"It's not just because I lost my job," she said. "It's very businesslike and transactional now. There's not as much of that sense of community or fostering relationships with students like I experienced. It isn't for lack of faculty trying, but the focus changed to what the students mean monetarily."

I hope the two faculty members profiled here can find something to tide them over.  Little Rock isn't a terribly expensive city, so it's not like they need Silicon-Valley levels of income to make it.  The job market is strong overall right now, but two late-career academics, one of them visually-impaired, aren't so well positioned to take advantages of any opportunities that are out there.

I feel so sorry for these folks, and having just been laid off, I understand their frustrations and sense of betrayal.

But didn't they see this coming?  The uni has $78M "long-term" debt (whatever that is).  Enrollment has been dropping.  They have a new chancellor and a committee to suggest cuts.

I certainly saw my own demise as an academic on the horizon, and while we are safe for the moment, we are very aware that my wife's tenure may be precarious in a couple of years if our enrollment trend continues.  We also have an administration that does not seem to know what to do and has had no luck reversing our downward spiral despite their cuts.

It is possible that the journalism decided on an "angle" on the story, but one does wonder they these very good people feel "betrayed" by what should have been obvious.

[mamselle]

But it's a bit consistent with things that have happened elsewhere.

Everyone is friendly, everything's very give-and-take, easy-on-the-eyes-- until it's not.

And then, things truly do become transactional, in the sense that everything is weighed and measured for its worth overall, and the things tossed overboard to lighten the load are much-valued treasures whose worth can't be sustained over the drag they exert on the boat.

And even the prophets crying in the wilderness, early on, who were not listened to...until that too-late point happens, and everyone says, "hunh?"...

Even those prophets get pitched out with the ballast--or the board ties sacking over their eyes and pushes.

Seen it. Not pretty. Not fun.

Mean, even.

M.

[Ruralguy]

Most people see it coming, but you get so much response from admin and board that it isn't so bad, that you start to believe or at least hope they are right. Claims of betrayal are then  true because they did their best to tell you times were good when they weren't (and you knew it), then admin comes out and says they are firing untenured faculty, etc... and so you really do feel betrayed. So, said claims can be genuine even if  (especially if?) you saw it coming.

[Engineer13]

What surprised me was that besides English, the other programs to be eliminated were chemistry, biology, and mathematics.  I thought STEM programs were easier to market to prospective students and their parents.

[mamselle]

Chemistry and biology usually have lab expenses involved, and Math is seen as too esoteric for words...and all three are "too hard" for anyone who believes that thinking for a living is asking too much.

Including some administrators, I'd guess.

M.

[Ruralguy]

STEM can be quite valuable to a school *if* you have enough interested students who can really do it (never mind general ed requirements). Though some students have a hard time getting it together for anything, some *think* its STEM for them until they fail their first course in Physics or Chem or Calc. Then they take a bunch of other stuff and figure out that their true calling is in politics or business or perhaps even Spanish or Music. Of course you have to have all of those programs for students to be able to figure out that they like it or are good at it.

[apl68]

I've heard that HSU's math degree program had nearly no majors left in recent years, so it was probably gone no matter what.

[lightning]

I've heard that HSU's math degree program had nearly no majors left in recent years, so it was probably gone no matter what.

Furthermore, programs at universities like HSU have been lowering math requirements in their programs, to avoid losing students in their specific degree programs (e.g. business schools eliminating Calculus requirement for their Finance majors).

[Wahoo Redux]

Interestingly, I thought that attrition rate for STEM majors would be considerably hirer than for other majors, largely because of the reputation STEM has for being "hard." 

But that appears not to be the case.

IHE: Study Tracks Attrition Rates STEM Majors

Low-performing students (those with an overall grade point average below 2.5) were more likely to exit the STEM field by dropping out of college than were high-performing students (those with an overall GPA of 3.5 or higher). The high-performing students were more likely to switch to a non-STEM major than their low-performing peers.

The study found some differences in how men and women exited the STEM fields. More men than women left STEM disciplines by dropping out of college and more women than men left STEM by switching majors. According to the study, 32 percent of women who left STEM fields switched to a different major, compared with 26 percent of men. And 24 percent of men left the STEM field by dropping out of college, compared with 14 percent of women.

Taking lighter credits loads in STEM courses in the first year, taking less challenging math courses in the first year and performing poorly in STEM classes relative to non-STEM classes were associated with an increased probability of switching majors for STEM entrants, according to the study.

The report concluded that the attrition rate for STEM degree candidates (about 48 percent for those pursuing bachelor's degrees) was similar to other fields. The attrition rate for bachelor's degree candidates in the humanities, education and health sciences was between 52 and 62 percent; for business and social/behavioral sciences degree candidates, the attrition rate was between 45 and 50 percent.

[marshwiggle]

Interestingly, I thought that attrition rate for STEM majors would be considerably hirer than for other majors, largely because of the reputation STEM has for being "hard." 

But that appears not to be the case.

I'd guess the reason the attrition rate isn't higher is because there's more self-selection going on before they enter. (In other words, the "reputation for being hard" is a feature, not a bug.) Anyone who hates math in high school, regardless of how they perform in other subjects, is not going to be interested in most STEM disciplines. (Biology and computer science would probably be the least math-intensive by avoiding certain sub-disciplines.)

Even STEM "recruiting" of high school students is often related to contests, science fairs, etc. so it's aimed at students who demonstrate an interest and aptitude for it. Some other disciplines may rely more on just trying to draw from the general student population who qualify for admission, regardless of any specific interest in the discipline. If the students are less committed to begin with, the attrition rate could understandably be higher.