Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[apl68]

Looks like Paul Smith's is merging with some kind of education corporation--ostensibly nonprofit:


https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2022/08/paul-smiths-college-merges-with-educational-nonprofit/

[treeoflife]

Once an important scholarly center is now selling its campus
https://jewishjournal.com/community/351460/american-jewish-university-announces-plans-to-sell-bel-air-campus-to-international-education-company/

[Hibush]

Once an important scholarly center is now selling its campus
https://jewishjournal.com/community/351460/american-jewish-university-announces-plans-to-sell-bel-air-campus-to-international-education-company/

A 35 acre campus in a neighborhood where residential properties are $10 million an acre should bring in a fair bit of money to support their main campus.

[treeoflife]

Once an important scholarly center is now selling its campus
https://jewishjournal.com/community/351460/american-jewish-university-announces-plans-to-sell-bel-air-campus-to-international-education-company/

A 35 acre campus in a neighborhood where residential properties are $10 million an acre should bring in a fair bit of money to support their main campus.

That was their main campus, it seems they will do mostly online courses and have a small physical campus somewhere in CA. I doubt they will survive much longer, they simply do not attract students. 

[Hibush]

Notre Dame of Maryland University will become a co-ed institution because of financial problems. It ran deficits in FYs 2017-2019, balanced its budget in FY 2020 only because of $3.5 million in asset sales and in FY 2021 only because of federal stimulus money.

The followup in WaPo has some data. The school has 800 undergrads. The coed gradprogram is larger at 1400. So it is not as if the campus provided an all-female environment. 

There are currently 29 womens colleges in the US. The enrolment challenges suggest this number has the capacity no meet the demand.

There is a potential structural economic issue that goes unstated, namely that they have switched to a student body that pays a lot less. The school was designed to train wealthy Catholic women of Baltimore. When demand for that specific service declined, and the desire to be more inclusive became stronger, they began admitting students who need more aid. That is a great goal, but you can't rely on the same business model if the current and future income from students shrinks.
Related to the business model, how have they managed shifts in support from the diocese or the higher cost of lay instructors? That happened longer ago, but is rather fundaments.

The sketchy move by the administration was to do this secretly. The board didn't even tell the faculty and student trustees, who heard about it with the rest of the public. You can't get buy in to a big change that way. Instead of persuading people that this was worth a try, they will do damage control afterwards. But people are free to leave if they feel damaged.

[Ruralguy]

I'm afraid that all single sex schools (I know there aren't that many, but together, its thousands of students)  will face these same difficulties. Wellesley  probably won't, but everyone else will, or already has many years ago.

[jimbogumbo]

Might be the exception? Small enrollment (stable), but endowment is fine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_College

[Ruralguy]

I think a few have significant endowments, but enrollments are often a challenge. With enough money, you could chug along for as long as you want, but (but reducing staff and physical plant, probably) you may not have much enrollment. I realize Wabash is not that.

[apl68]

Notre Dame of Maryland University will become a co-ed institution because of financial problems. It ran deficits in FYs 2017-2019, balanced its budget in FY 2020 only because of $3.5 million in asset sales and in FY 2021 only because of federal stimulus money.

The followup in WaPo has some data. The school has 800 undergrads. The coed gradprogram is larger at 1400. So it is not as if the campus provided an all-female environment. 

There are currently 29 womens colleges in the US. The enrolment challenges suggest this number has the capacity no meet the demand.

There is a potential structural economic issue that goes unstated, namely that they have switched to a student body that pays a lot less. The school was designed to train wealthy Catholic women of Baltimore. When demand for that specific service declined, and the desire to be more inclusive became stronger, they began admitting students who need more aid. That is a great goal, but you can't rely on the same business model if the current and future income from students shrinks.
Related to the business model, how have they managed shifts in support from the diocese or the higher cost of lay instructors? That happened longer ago, but is rather fundaments.

The sketchy move by the administration was to do this secretly. The board didn't even tell the faculty and student trustees, who heard about it with the rest of the public. You can't get buy in to a big change that way. Instead of persuading people that this was worth a try, they will do damage control afterwards. But people are free to leave if they feel damaged.

IHE reports student and alumnae protests.  Can't blame them, if the administration has made such a fundamental choice about the school's future without proper consultation.  If this decision to go co-ed is all about trying to get more paying students, then one wonders how they're going to brand themselves in the future.  "Women's college" may not be proving a very lucrative niche in today's world, but it is a definite niche.  Without that, do they have anything that makes them stand out from a number of other not-so-well-known SLAC's?  Sounds like the sort of desperate fiscally-motivated move that posters here have likened to a "Hail Mary" play.  Well, it is a Catholic school....

[Hibush]

n.  If this decision to go co-ed is all about trying to get more paying students, then one wonders how they're going to brand themselves in the future.  "Women's college" may not be proving a very lucrative niche in today's world, but it is a definite niche.  Without that, do they have anything that makes them stand out from a number of other not-so-well-known SLAC's?  Sounds like the sort of desperate fiscally-motivated move that posters here have likened to a "Hail Mary" play.

We need great niche schools.

Women's college is an important one, even if the demand for it is declining. Most of the decline is because women can attend and succeed at mainstream schools, which was not true even into the 1960s.

HBCUs is another important niche, although with shrinking demand and often a lack of resources. Keeping a sufficient number healthy so they can meet the true demand with a quality education is crucial. Improved conditions for Black students at mainstream schools is also good even if it reduced HBCU demand.

I like the high performing hippie schools. But that is also a shrinking niche.

Service academies seem to be matching their mission and enrollment targets.

The nichiest of the niece schools is probably Deep Springs. But they fill their niche all by themselves. They offer free tuition room and board, and went coed a while back, both policies that help keep enrollment up. And how big is that niche? The college enrolls up to 30 students.

What are some other niches that are small, but important for those they are for?

[Wahoo Redux]

We got the email today.  No final decisions have been made, and things are still in flux, but we had another 4% enrollment downturn.   We have a hefty list of departments which will either be eliminated or sliced and diced.  It is an amazingly sweeping list that includes business, STEM, nursing, criminal justice, music, art, education, physics, astronomy, humanities, English, and several masters programs.  My wife's (and my former) department is on the list, and while they will need to employ some of us to fulfill requirements, everything is sour and frightening.   

I understand that admin have a terrible series of choices to make, but what will be left of the university when they are done? 

[lightning]

We got the email today.  No final decisions have been made, and things are still in flux, but we had another 4% enrollment downturn.   We have a hefty list of departments which will either be eliminated or sliced and diced.  It is an amazingly sweeping list that includes business, STEM, nursing, criminal justice, music, art, education, physics, astronomy, humanities, English, and several masters programs.  My wife's (and my former) department is on the list, and while they will need to employ some of us to fulfill requirements, everything is sour and frightening.   

I understand that admin have a terrible series of choices to make, but what will be left of the university when they are done? 

Only the "easy" majors will be left (browse the programs of your friendly neighborhood online for-profit school, for examples), because it looks the programs on the chopping block are the ones that require talent, preparation, tenacity, and hard work.

So sorry to hear of this, but you are better off by not being around a school that can only have "easy" majors in order to retain students.

[selecter]

Sorry to hear it, Wahoo. I feel like I've seen worse -- the college closed w/3 months notice, had to teach everybody out while everyone wondered where paychecks were coming from -- but falling is falling. I hope y'all can right the ship, and that your side of the boat stays up throughout.

[Wahoo Redux]

Thanks folks.  This is one of those struggling, grungy, underfunded R2s that Polly_Mere in her heyday was always on about.

Admin seems to think there is a bottoming-out and stabilization in the future if trends continue (approximately 2 or maybe 3 thousand fewer students than we have now going down by 4% or 5% every year) that will create a much smaller but operable school.  Our part of the country is seeing this all over as residents permanently move away and students opt for sunny climes.  It's kind of all the things people have been talking about.

And it is that cycle that we see in which a school drops a program because the classes are under-enrolled, which is necessary financial trimming, but a number of those students who were in that program depart for another school which maintains their program, which takes a chunk out of tuition and FTE money at our school, so the school looses another 4% enrollment that year, etc. etc.

This happened fast too.  A trickle at first, and then a crack in the dam, and then this.  Personally, I wonder if I we are seeing the lingering demise of a public R2, but I really don't know.

Wonder how long this trend is going to go on?  I mean, we will still need colleges.  Are their any predictions about when we will become stable (if smaller, lighter) institutions again?

[Anon1787]

IHE reports student and alumnae protests.  Can't blame them, if the administration has made such a fundamental choice about the school's future without proper consultation.  If this decision to go co-ed is all about trying to get more paying students, then one wonders how they're going to brand themselves in the future.  "Women's college" may not be proving a very lucrative niche in today's world, but it is a definite niche.  Without that, do they have anything that makes them stand out from a number of other not-so-well-known SLAC's?  Sounds like the sort of desperate fiscally-motivated move that posters here have likened to a "Hail Mary" play.  Well, it is a Catholic school....

I'm guessing that it's also easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission at a Catholic school.