Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[ciao_yall]

University of North Dakota -- "My University Is Dying":

https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190925-my-university-is-dying?key=mi0Bff1vaLHL09_no2EmgwlkeISLqFEXU6hHBR5Xg-oUISdXGi9vqV1vTblBhhP3d0JvbzRaUFdpT19uVkhZOVlKTEItQjIyRFcwUFZkak5MelVKa3YwNHdoZw

This is a Twitter link to the Chronicle Review. Not paywalled for now.

"No one from my college, which is the largest at UND, a flagship state school, went up for tenure last year, because there was no one left who was eligible to apply."

I've talked to insiders at Montana and North Dakota. Montana lost enrollment due to scandal and bad press, and the students went to MSU instead, as one poster already mentioned. (I once asked a colleague at MSU what the secret to their success was, as they had raised enrollments 50% in their humanities program. They gushed about the dedicated teaching in their department. Later I discovered that MSU's overall enrollment had risen by 50% thanks to the woes of the U of M, solving that mystery.)

As for UND, the article gives a very accurate description of what things have been like there for the last 5-6 years. Lots of bread and butter programs cut down to the bone and then some, with severe impacts on program quality that administrators refuse to see. Just recently things have improved a tick, though, since they pawned off their hapless president on the U of Colorado, and there was even a pay bump for the first time since the early 2010's.

How can North Dakota be hurting for money with the big shale oil boom?

If they aren't taxing it, then the only people benefitting are the employees and the companies' management and investors doing the booming.

[polly_mer]

University of North Dakota -- "My University Is Dying":

https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190925-my-university-is-dying?key=mi0Bff1vaLHL09_no2EmgwlkeISLqFEXU6hHBR5Xg-oUISdXGi9vqV1vTblBhhP3d0JvbzRaUFdpT19uVkhZOVlKTEItQjIyRFcwUFZkak5MelVKa3YwNHdoZw

This is a Twitter link to the Chronicle Review. Not paywalled for now.

"No one from my college, which is the largest at UND, a flagship state school, went up for tenure last year, because there was no one left who was eligible to apply."

I've talked to insiders at Montana and North Dakota. Montana lost enrollment due to scandal and bad press, and the students went to MSU instead, as one poster already mentioned. (I once asked a colleague at MSU what the secret to their success was, as they had raised enrollments 50% in their humanities program. They gushed about the dedicated teaching in their department. Later I discovered that MSU's overall enrollment had risen by 50% thanks to the woes of the U of M, solving that mystery.)

As for UND, the article gives a very accurate description of what things have been like there for the last 5-6 years. Lots of bread and butter programs cut down to the bone and then some, with severe impacts on program quality that administrators refuse to see. Just recently things have improved a tick, though, since they pawned off their hapless president on the U of Colorado, and there was even a pay bump for the first time since the early 2010's.

How can North Dakota be hurting for money with the big shale oil boom?

If they aren't taxing it, then the only people benefitting are the employees and the companies' management and investors doing the booming.

Even if the big shale oil boom goes into a general fund, like New Mexico, smart people know that one holds back funds for the rainy day that will be coming instead of spending it all now on temporary things or, worse, committing to the same level of funding for future years that will definitely include rainy days.

"Lots of bread and butter programs cut down to the bone and then some, with severe impacts on program quality that administrators refuse to see. "  Is this a case of some faculty living in the past because they know the importance of their own field, but they don't have a big enough picture to realize how the university has to change because the world has changed?  Reducing, say, the English department where few students are studying so that the CS or other department with booming student enrollment can hire faculty is different from the university as a whole dying. 

Few places have strong Latin and Greek departments any more because they are no longer required for all students.  Many of the current general education requirements in research institutions are likely to be replaced by different entrance standards (e.g., already met the checkbox requirements through AP, dual enrollment, dual credit) or changing to more integrated experiences because the evidence for standalone one-off courses is pretty weak in terms of ensuring that students acquire the skills they need like communication.

[apl68]

University of Central Arkansas is offering retirement buyout for up to 178 faculty and staff members, as part of a restructuring plan in the face of expected decrease in new enrollment:

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/oct/12/early-retirement-part-of-uca-plan-20191/

Well, it's probably best that they're trying to retrench now, instead of waiting until they've already fallen into an emergency.  But it's sad to see that happen to another Arkansas college.  UCA is my mother's principal alma mater.  She has both undergrad and grad degrees from there.

[apl68]

University of North Dakota -- "My University Is Dying":

https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190925-my-university-is-dying?key=mi0Bff1vaLHL09_no2EmgwlkeISLqFEXU6hHBR5Xg-oUISdXGi9vqV1vTblBhhP3d0JvbzRaUFdpT19uVkhZOVlKTEItQjIyRFcwUFZkak5MelVKa3YwNHdoZw

This is a Twitter link to the Chronicle Review. Not paywalled for now.

"No one from my college, which is the largest at UND, a flagship state school, went up for tenure last year, because there was no one left who was eligible to apply."

I've talked to insiders at Montana and North Dakota. Montana lost enrollment due to scandal and bad press, and the students went to MSU instead, as one poster already mentioned. (I once asked a colleague at MSU what the secret to their success was, as they had raised enrollments 50% in their humanities program. They gushed about the dedicated teaching in their department. Later I discovered that MSU's overall enrollment had risen by 50% thanks to the woes of the U of M, solving that mystery.)

As for UND, the article gives a very accurate description of what things have been like there for the last 5-6 years. Lots of bread and butter programs cut down to the bone and then some, with severe impacts on program quality that administrators refuse to see. Just recently things have improved a tick, though, since they pawned off their hapless president on the U of Colorado, and there was even a pay bump for the first time since the early 2010's.

How can North Dakota be hurting for money with the big shale oil boom?

If they aren't taxing it, then the only people benefitting are the employees and the companies' management and investors doing the booming.

Even if the big shale oil boom goes into a general fund, like New Mexico, smart people know that one holds back funds for the rainy day that will be coming instead of spending it all now on temporary things or, worse, committing to the same level of funding for future years that will definitely include rainy days.

It seems like communities that have ever experienced a major resource boom are like gamblers who've managed to get lucky at some point--they're convinced from that time on that there's always another big lucky strike ahead, so the rules about economic prudence just don't apply to them.

[picard]

University of Central Arkansas is offering retirement buyout for up to 178 faculty and staff members, as part of a restructuring plan in the face of expected decrease in new enrollment:

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/oct/12/early-retirement-part-of-uca-plan-20191/

Well, it's probably best that they're trying to retrench now, instead of waiting until they've already fallen into an emergency.  But it's sad to see that happen to another Arkansas college.  UCA is my mother's principal alma mater.  She has both undergrad and grad degrees from there.

Agreed. The article mentioned Univ of Arkansas - Little Rock and Arkansas State had also sponsored buyout schemes to their employees as part of restructuring plan over the past three years.

Among private liberal arts schools in the state, Lyon College had endured financial crisis in recent years, albeit its seems to rebound under the leadership of a new president, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/08/02/size-reduction-lyon-college-board-allows-college-better-respond-problems

Is the main problem in Arkansas similar to those of other mid-sized states featured in this thread, i.e., red states with declining state commitments to higher education and declining high school students enrollment/lack of young people living within the state? Or are there other local dynamics at play

[spork]

Long profile of Hampshire College: https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2019/10/21/downfall-hampshire-college-broken-business-model-american-higher-education/?arc404=true.

[apl68]

University of Central Arkansas is offering retirement buyout for up to 178 faculty and staff members, as part of a restructuring plan in the face of expected decrease in new enrollment:

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/oct/12/early-retirement-part-of-uca-plan-20191/

Well, it's probably best that they're trying to retrench now, instead of waiting until they've already fallen into an emergency.  But it's sad to see that happen to another Arkansas college.  UCA is my mother's principal alma mater.  She has both undergrad and grad degrees from there.

Agreed. The article mentioned Univ of Arkansas - Little Rock and Arkansas State had also sponsored buyout schemes to their employees as part of restructuring plan over the past three years.

Among private liberal arts schools in the state, Lyon College had endured financial crisis in recent years, albeit its seems to rebound under the leadership of a new president, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/08/02/size-reduction-lyon-college-board-allows-college-better-respond-problems

Is the main problem in Arkansas similar to those of other mid-sized states featured in this thread, i.e., red states with declining state commitments to higher education and declining high school students enrollment/lack of young people living within the state? Or are there other local dynamics at play

I suspect it's more a matter of demographic decline than declining commitment to higher education.  Arkansas hasn't gutted higher education funding and other public services in recent years, as so many other states have.  As for local circumstances, young people in recent years have been migrating toward the northwestern corner of the state, where nearly all the recent economic growth has been. 

In the rural area where I live I do see a certain skepticism about the value of a traditional college degree.  I don't think it's fair to call it deliberate anti-intellectualism, or to say that people have been buying into propaganda about how higher education is now The Enemy.  It's more a sense that the drive of a few years back to have "everybody" go to college oversold the benefits.  ANY kind of higher education, whether it's four-year college at the cheapest local state school, two-year college, or vo-tech costs fancy money to those who aren't well off and can't land serious scholarships. 

So of course those who go for it do so with a sense that future employment prospects should be their number-one concern.  I know our local high-school guidance counselor.  He steers many of his students away from college and toward more vocational options.  He knows that they don't like to read or study, and would be very unlikely to thrive in a college environment.  A vocational certification would cost less, require less time, and be more likely to make these students employable.  It's rational advice and a rational choice on the students' and families' part.

This doesn't mean there's been a wholesale flight from higher education locally.  I know and know of many local youths who are giving college a try.  Most of them are going to our local four-year college.  It's not a great school, but it's what's closest to home and what they can best afford.  Unfortunately our region of the state's long-term economic and demographic slide continues, so this school has also been losing students.

[marshwiggle]

I suspect it's more a matter of demographic decline than declining commitment to higher education.  Arkansas hasn't gutted higher education funding and other public services in recent years, as so many other states have.  As for local circumstances, young people in recent years have been migrating toward the northwestern corner of the state, where nearly all the recent economic growth has been. 

In the rural area where I live I do see a certain skepticism about the value of a traditional college degree.  I don't think it's fair to call it deliberate anti-intellectualism, or to say that people have been buying into propaganda about how higher education is now The Enemy.  It's more a sense that the drive of a few years back to have "everybody" go to college oversold the benefits.  ANY kind of higher education, whether it's four-year college at the cheapest local state school, two-year college, or vo-tech costs fancy money to those who aren't well off and can't land serious scholarships. 

From the Wikipedia page for Hampshire College from a few posts ago:

"The college is widely known for its alternative curriculum, socially liberal politics, focus on portfolios rather than distribution requirements, and its reliance on narrative evaluations instead of grades and GPAs.
.
.
.
On August 23, 2012, the school announced the establishment of a scholarship fund dedicated to helping undocumented students get degrees. It would give more than $25,000 each year to help an undocumented student pay for the $43,000-plus tuition."

So 4 years and something like $170k for tuition alone to get a non-specified degree with no grade records? Gee, why would anyone question the value of that????

[archaeo42]

I suspect it's more a matter of demographic decline than declining commitment to higher education.  Arkansas hasn't gutted higher education funding and other public services in recent years, as so many other states have.  As for local circumstances, young people in recent years have been migrating toward the northwestern corner of the state, where nearly all the recent economic growth has been. 

In the rural area where I live I do see a certain skepticism about the value of a traditional college degree.  I don't think it's fair to call it deliberate anti-intellectualism, or to say that people have been buying into propaganda about how higher education is now The Enemy.  It's more a sense that the drive of a few years back to have "everybody" go to college oversold the benefits.  ANY kind of higher education, whether it's four-year college at the cheapest local state school, two-year college, or vo-tech costs fancy money to those who aren't well off and can't land serious scholarships. 

From the Wikipedia page for Hampshire College from a few posts ago:

"The college is widely known for its alternative curriculum, socially liberal politics, focus on portfolios rather than distribution requirements, and its reliance on narrative evaluations instead of grades and GPAs.
.
.
.
On August 23, 2012, the school announced the establishment of a scholarship fund dedicated to helping undocumented students get degrees. It would give more than $25,000 each year to help an undocumented student pay for the $43,000-plus tuition."

So 4 years and something like $170k for tuition alone to get a non-specified degree with no grade records? Gee, why would anyone question the value of that????

I know someone who graduated from here. What attracted him to the school was small classes, dedicated faculty, and the ability to explore a topic of interest in depth in the last 2 years for a senior thesis. He found that the alternative setup worked for him, although some students in his cohort did struggle with it - especially when it came to managing their time and resources related to their senior thesis. I knew him as a grad student and he's now in a TT position. The type of program works for someone who is motivated and self-directed. It's certainly not for everyone.

[tuxthepenguin]

In the rural area where I live I do see a certain skepticism about the value of a traditional college degree.  I don't think it's fair to call it deliberate anti-intellectualism, or to say that people have been buying into propaganda about how higher education is now The Enemy.  It's more a sense that the drive of a few years back to have "everybody" go to college oversold the benefits.  ANY kind of higher education, whether it's four-year college at the cheapest local state school, two-year college, or vo-tech costs fancy money to those who aren't well off and can't land serious scholarships. 

I think that, for many of these students, not getting a four-year college degree is the right choice. They don't want to move too far from where they grew up, so that means they're looking at the jobs they can get that would allow them to stay where they are. There probably aren't many jobs that require a four-year college degree. They can get their foot in the door at a construction company or answering the phone at the vet office straight out of high school. Compare that with moving away from home, spending $200,000 on five years of college, and then moving back to work for the construction company. This is the perception that's guiding their decisions.

[Aster]

I suspect it's more a matter of demographic decline than declining commitment to higher education.  Arkansas hasn't gutted higher education funding and other public services in recent years, as so many other states have.  As for local circumstances, young people in recent years have been migrating toward the northwestern corner of the state, where nearly all the recent economic growth has been. 

In the rural area where I live I do see a certain skepticism about the value of a traditional college degree.  I don't think it's fair to call it deliberate anti-intellectualism, or to say that people have been buying into propaganda about how higher education is now The Enemy.  It's more a sense that the drive of a few years back to have "everybody" go to college oversold the benefits.  ANY kind of higher education, whether it's four-year college at the cheapest local state school, two-year college, or vo-tech costs fancy money to those who aren't well off and can't land serious scholarships. 

From the Wikipedia page for Hampshire College from a few posts ago:

"The college is widely known for its alternative curriculum, socially liberal politics, focus on portfolios rather than distribution requirements, and its reliance on narrative evaluations instead of grades and GPAs.
.
.
.
On August 23, 2012, the school announced the establishment of a scholarship fund dedicated to helping undocumented students get degrees. It would give more than $25,000 each year to help an undocumented student pay for the $43,000-plus tuition."

So 4 years and something like $170k for tuition alone to get a non-specified degree with no grade records? Gee, why would anyone question the value of that????

I know someone who graduated from here. What attracted him to the school was small classes, dedicated faculty, and the ability to explore a topic of interest in depth in the last 2 years for a senior thesis. He found that the alternative setup worked for him, although some students in his cohort did struggle with it - especially when it came to managing their time and resources related to their senior thesis. I knew him as a grad student and he's now in a TT position. The type of program works for someone who is motivated and self-directed. It's certainly not for everyone.

Hampshire seems to either attract (or generate) a very high number of students who go on to graduate school and/or become leaders and entrepreneurs.

"Sixty-five percent of its alumni have at least one graduate degree and a quarter have founded their own business or organization. It is ranked #39 among U.S. colleges and universities by the percentage of graduates who go on to earn a doctorate degree according to National Science Foundation data."

[marshwiggle]

So 4 years and something like $170k for tuition alone to get a non-specified degree with no grade records? Gee, why would anyone question the value of that????

I know someone who graduated from here. What attracted him to the school was small classes, dedicated faculty, and the ability to explore a topic of interest in depth in the last 2 years for a senior thesis. He found that the alternative setup worked for him, although some students in his cohort did struggle with it - especially when it came to managing their time and resources related to their senior thesis. I knew him as a grad student and he's now in a TT position. The type of program works for someone who is motivated and self-directed. It's certainly not for everyone.

Hampshire seems to either attract (or generate) a very high number of students who go on to graduate school and/or become leaders and entrepreneurs.

"Sixty-five percent of its alumni have at least one graduate degree and a quarter have founded their own business or organization. It is ranked #39 among U.S. colleges and universities by the percentage of graduates who go on to earn a doctorate degree according to National Science Foundation data."

No big surprise; it's aimed at a very elite audience, and so most of the people who go there will be well-connected, probably from the day they're born. It doesn't have to have much to do with the education itself.

[nonntt]

University of North Dakota -- "My University Is Dying":

https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190925-my-university-is-dying?key=mi0Bff1vaLHL09_no2EmgwlkeISLqFEXU6hHBR5Xg-oUISdXGi9vqV1vTblBhhP3d0JvbzRaUFdpT19uVkhZOVlKTEItQjIyRFcwUFZkak5MelVKa3YwNHdoZw

This is a Twitter link to the Chronicle Review. Not paywalled for now.

"No one from my college, which is the largest at UND, a flagship state school, went up for tenure last year, because there was no one left who was eligible to apply."

I've talked to insiders at Montana and North Dakota. Montana lost enrollment due to scandal and bad press, and the students went to MSU instead, as one poster already mentioned. (I once asked a colleague at MSU what the secret to their success was, as they had raised enrollments 50% in their humanities program. They gushed about the dedicated teaching in their department. Later I discovered that MSU's overall enrollment had risen by 50% thanks to the woes of the U of M, solving that mystery.)

As for UND, the article gives a very accurate description of what things have been like there for the last 5-6 years. Lots of bread and butter programs cut down to the bone and then some, with severe impacts on program quality that administrators refuse to see. Just recently things have improved a tick, though, since they pawned off their hapless president on the U of Colorado, and there was even a pay bump for the first time since the early 2010's.

How can North Dakota be hurting for money with the big shale oil boom?

If they aren't taxing it, then the only people benefitting are the employees and the companies' management and investors doing the booming.

Even if the big shale oil boom goes into a general fund, like New Mexico, smart people know that one holds back funds for the rainy day that will be coming instead of spending it all now on temporary things or, worse, committing to the same level of funding for future years that will definitely include rainy days.

"Lots of bread and butter programs cut down to the bone and then some, with severe impacts on program quality that administrators refuse to see. "  Is this a case of some faculty living in the past because they know the importance of their own field, but they don't have a big enough picture to realize how the university has to change because the world has changed?  Reducing, say, the English department where few students are studying so that the CS or other department with booming student enrollment can hire faculty is different from the university as a whole dying. 

Few places have strong Latin and Greek departments any more because they are no longer required for all students.  Many of the current general education requirements in research institutions are likely to be replaced by different entrance standards (e.g., already met the checkbox requirements through AP, dual enrollment, dual credit) or changing to more integrated experiences because the evidence for standalone one-off courses is pretty weak in terms of ensuring that students acquire the skills they need like communication.

To answer some questions:

1. I give credit to the MSU faculty for maintaining enrollments in their program at the same rate as overall enrollment. That certainly doesn't happen by itself. But there's no reason to credit them for more than that.

2. The North Dakota university system ended up hurting for money because
a. oil money went to fund a big tax cut, and
b. there was a downturn in oil money, but the state government was unwilling to draw on the rainy day fund, and
c. the answer to every budget question for 5 years was "cut education funding."

3. Polly, you must be living on another planet if you think a budget cut of $60 million only means the English department shrinks by a few lines. There are  unhappy faculty across the university, with professional programs voting no confidence in the provost, for example. Faculty across the board recognize that there used to be funding for aspects of basic instruction, educational activities and professional development opportunities, and now there are not, and the result is weaker education for students and the flight of good faculty members and administrators. Double-digit budget cuts every few years for half a decade don't just mean offering one less section of Renaissance Poetry. It actually does look pretty damn similar to the university as a whole dying. It means there are careers that students can no longer prepare for without going out of state because those classes are no longer offered anywhere in the system. Things have turned around a bit recently, but that has just about nothing to do with the English or Classics departments.

[polly_mer]

3. Polly, you must be living on another planet if you think a budget cut of $60 million only means the English department shrinks by a few lines. There are  unhappy faculty across the university, with professional programs voting no confidence in the provost, for example. Faculty across the board recognize that there used to be funding for aspects of basic instruction, educational activities and professional development opportunities, and now there are not, and the result is weaker education for students and the flight of good faculty members and administrators. Double-digit budget cuts every few years for half a decade don't just mean offering one less section of Renaissance Poetry. It actually does look pretty damn similar to the university as a whole dying. It means there are careers that students can no longer prepare for without going out of state because those classes are no longer offered anywhere in the system. Things have turned around a bit recently, but that has just about nothing to do with the English or Classics departments.

Fair enough. 

Where's that story and who knows about it?  The story linked upthread read very much like the standard complaints of the university shifting from being humanities heavy to something else.  If the university is actually dying, then someone needs better press than the easily dismissed standard pitch by a humanities faculty member.

One way that the general public and even legislators can ignore the higher education narratives is the poor communication regarding the direness of the situation this time after decades of just whining that life isn't the way they wanted it to be.

[apl68]

Henderson State University plans to merge with the Arkansas State University System:

By Region 8 Newsdesk | October 24, 2019 at 4:57 PM CDT - Updated October 24 at 5:07 PM

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KAIT) - A merger between the Arkansas State University System and Henderson State University will provide a key opportunity for both universities to grow into the future, officials from both universities said Thursday.

According to a media release from the A-State System, the Henderson State University Board of Trustees voted Thursday to join the A-State System and continue with developing a merger agreement.

Officials said the merger is subject to approval by the Arkansas State University Board of Trustees, the state Higher Learning Commission and the state legislature.

However, A-State System President Chuck Welch said officials are hopeful that the transition can be finalized no later than Jan. 1, 2021. Earlier this year, the Henderson board signed a memorandum of understanding to allow A-State provide certain operational support services to Henderson.

The Henderson board also voted to keep its name and its mascot - the Reddies - if they become part of the A-State System and agreed to seek outside counsel to finalize the merger agreement, the media release noted.

https://www.kait8.com/2019/10/24/henderson-state-board-votes-join-a-state-system/