Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[mamselle]

The Kennedy Center is a performing arts site in Washington, DC.

Do you mean the "Kennedy School for Government" at Harvard?

That might make more sense.

-=-=-=-

My original intention was simply to say, "never heard this saying before, but it's hilariously apt":

But as they say, when the tide goes out, you learn who has been swimming naked.

-=-=-=-

And, in answer to apl68:

A group of schools that might be able to make a case for support would be the theological seminaries, colleges, and departments (usually under the umbrella of the ATS--Association of Theological Schools) since so many have declined or died in the past few years.

Those remaining could both point to their current fragility and their useful insights into human motivation, philosophy, and ethics as one of the driving elements in the responses to current issues. Chaplains, in particular, whether in hospitals or other institutions, have organizations that can help with the care of individuals in need and the insight into death and dying and the processes of morbidity and end-of-life care that families and others need.

Those programs are often already stretched since their students are often already in some forms of ministry which pay slightly, but never enough, and with the decline in respectful evaluation of the life of faith, and an overriding cynicism about its place in global cultures of any kind, those who can make their needs known in clear, unbiased ways might be able to submit a grantworthy proposal.

For those of us who do take faith seriously, it is important to uphold those aspects that are valuable to humanity as a whole. For others who, for whatever reason, do not, it is worthwhile to consider that, whether you agree with a denomination's precepts or had bad experiences in some setting, not all denominations are alike, not all faith communities are alike, not all religious leaders are bad actors (although there are some....see my note on Falwell yesterday) and many of those who study the precepts of faith and seek to live by them are doing so with careful, respectful approaches to the rest of the world, including its various faith communities and belief systems, wherever possible.

Anyway, I think that would be one group that might have reason to put a project together and apply--I can think of some folks who might already be on it, in fact.

M.
   

[dismalist]

Oh, I meant the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC!

It makes a lot of sense: They seem to be special. :-)

[mamselle]

The Kennedy Center is a performing arts site in Washington, DC.

Do you mean the "Kennedy School for Government" at Harvard?

That might make more sense.

Oops, just saw the news article referring to the WDC institution...apologies.


Hmmmmmm....

M.

[Wahoo Redux]

I came here just now to post  Predicting the pandemic's long-term impact on higher education.

Thank you.  Very interesting article.  Makes a good case for how the epidemic is likely to reinforce certain trends. 

It is interesting.  It is also highly conjectural.  Some of the statements seem pretty noncontroversial and overt ("Expect more colleges to falter."), while others seem pretty speculative ("Expect pressure to expand online learning options at the undergraduate level to mount").  From what I've seen online teaching is not going to go very well overall.  I am not sure that students are going to want more of the experience as most of us scramble to migrate and trim our classes with virtually no warning.  And how many young people are going to want to stay home with mom and dad or launch into a PT job while trying to complete a bachelor's when they could be back in the dorm getting wasted, meeting love interests, actually interacting with professors, etc.?

I certainly can't say, but I think it is way too soon to make predictions about what is going to happen.  This pandemic and its effects are unprecedented.   

[Hibush]

We have an assessment of how effective higher education was in the effort to get money in the emergency stimulus package.

The sector's lobbying was led by the American Council on Education. The ask was $50 billion, and they got $14 billion. Of that, HBCUs got 1.4 billion of their $1.5 billion ask. Higher ed is a ~$600 billion industry, so $14 billion represents a little over a week of operating cost.

Who will get that money? $9 billion is distributed based on the Pell-eligible FTE enrollment. That money will go to large colleges with many low-income students. $3 billion is distributed according to non-Pell enrollment. The rest goes to HBCUs. Online-only students (pre-crisis) don't count in the formula.

Congress tried to put in a backstop to prevent states from reducing their higher ed budgets in the coming year. Analysts are skeptical that the provision will work because the Secretary of Education can issue waivers and she's inclined to do that.

There is very strong opposition to any kind of blanket student loan forgiveness, which is the first priority of some constituencies. For those of limited means, there is only some wiggle room in the enrollment continuity requirement for Pell for the next six months.

This allocation appears to have little in it for small private colleges, for those that are struggling with cash flow, or for those who have invested a lot in fully online education.

[spork]

MacMurray College will close at the end of the semester:

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/03/27/macmurray-college-closing-end-semester.

[mamselle]

A friend once taught there for about three years, about ten years ago.

She high-tailed it down the road to another nearby school after that.

Sounds like a close miss.

M.

[spork]

A friend once taught there for about three years, about ten years ago.

She high-tailed it down the road to another nearby school after that.

Sounds like a close miss.

M.

There will be more that close at the end of this semester.

[polly_mer]

My agenda is to get as many people as possible to get out of looming and entirely predictable bad situations, like the known small business failure rate.

Yep, some people will get to have a fabulous TT position with a personally desirable mix of teaching, research, and service.  That number is fewer all the time compared to the number of people who are qualified for those positions.

Laudable.

Now aggressively acknowledging that there is no silver bullet or perfect solution, what can we do to change the course of events?

Give a one-sentence goal of what you think the problem to be solved is and I'll give it a shot.

I expect we will continue to have a non-meeting of the minds because the events you want to change cannot be changed in a way that is satisfactory to you.

My best recommendation remains that individuals who have a graduate education continue to seek jobs outside academia that are intellectually satisfying enough and pay enough to support a good enough life.

[polly_mer]

A friend once taught there for about three years, about ten years ago.

She high-tailed it down the road to another nearby school after that.

Sounds like a close miss.

M.

There will be more that close at the end of this semester.

Yep, MacMurray is just the first of the small colleges that have been circling the drain for a good decade or more and finally went down. 

More than 10 years ago, there was concern about several small colleges in rural Illinois including MacMurray: https://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/x1898853562/Private-colleges-facing-tight-squeeze-in-poor-economy

[Wahoo Redux]

My agenda is to get as many people as possible to get out of looming and entirely predictable bad situations, like the known small business failure rate.

Yep, some people will get to have a fabulous TT position with a personally desirable mix of teaching, research, and service.  That number is fewer all the time compared to the number of people who are qualified for those positions.

Laudable.

Now aggressively acknowledging that there is no silver bullet or perfect solution, what can we do to change the course of events?

Give a one-sentence goal of what you think the problem to be solved is and I'll give it a shot.

I expect we will continue to have a non-meeting of the minds because the events you want to change cannot be changed in a way that is satisfactory to you.

My best recommendation remains that individuals who have a graduate education continue to seek jobs outside academia that are intellectually satisfying enough and pay enough to support a good enough life.

Polly, I understand you.

I think you are unable to understand me, however, and I grow weary (as are most of the posters here tired of us debating).  I think that I've given you my ideal (acknowledging that it is a quixotic ideal) but believe that a great deal of good can be done by aiming for unlikely results.  I don't know why someone with your massive intellect doesn't seem to grasp my very simple hope. 

But fine, you asked so I will give it a shot in a single sentence: I would like to see a steady and concerted progress over a number of years toward condensing PT academic jobs into FT jobs---thus reducing the total number of people employed in academia but giving them careers and restoring stability and quality to higher ed---by activating the populace's willingness to spend a fraction of America's vast wealth to restore North American higher ed alongside many other worthy projects.  Yes, I understand the dynamics of birth rates and COVID, but the world will continue and time will change a great many things. 

I suspect you have a Manichean mindset and so you imagine what I would find "satisfactory" based on a dire, frankly simplistic conception----so please, my friend, don't assume you know what I find "satisfactory."  What I see as "satisfactory" is approximately the same thing a driver sees while trying to swerve to avoid a tanker-truck jack-knifing at 70 mph in front of him on the freeway.  In other words, I see disaster in the road ahead and I would like to see us swerve to avoid it.  Outside of the Fora I am actually trying to do my own small part, and I wish that others would too----and doubtlessly many others are.

You really don't have to give it a shot, but please continue to post catalogs of articles as they are very useful.

[Wahoo Redux]

And just as an addendum to the above, Polly, I've been watching a NOVA documentary on Black Holes.

Fascinating. Mind boggling really.

The discussion eventually swung around to the LIGO Hanford Observatory and the hundreds of millions of dollars it took just to discover a gravity wave caused by two black holes colliding over a billion years ago.  Somehow this proves the existence of black holes.  The money issue was a big concern.

We will never make a great deal of money from a black hole, nor is there an army of young people who will launch careers as black hole technicians or black hole investment bankers.  We lost a lot of money to detect a gravity wave that lasted less than a second.  I guess they have detected a few more ancient gravity waves, and some scientists won Nobel Prizes.

But it sure is a hard sell if you want to talk about ROI.

This is part of the overall point I wish to make.

[Wahoo Redux]

One of the specific ideas from Polly's excellent list posted on this same thread on page 7, March 25th.

The first resource is Strength in numbers Strategies for collaborating in a new era for higher education

The authors suggest collaboration between colleges.  That's the purpose of the publication.

Institutions will take one of two pathways depending on their situation: they are either pursuing collaboration out of survival or taking advantage of an opportunity.

Collaborations are no longer limited to colleges in close proximity. Advances in technology can now link together institutions that are separated by hundreds or thousands of miles. In Pennsylvania, 10 liberal arts colleges, including Haverford, Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, and Swarthmore, have moved a step beyond the normal course sharing that has usually marked collaborative agreements and are partnering on faculty development, study abroad, and compliance and risk management.

Of course, neighboring colleges have long teamed up on nonacademic operations, sharing police forces or purchasing offices. We have athletic conferences, but there has been little cooperation, if any, on the academic side when it comes to degree programs or entire departments, like Keck.

Some gloom and doom for sure, but also sharing ideas of a way forward.

[selecter]

I enjoy the efforts of Wahoo AND Polly, and I often suspect Polly and I have worked together at one or another location, or at least are familiar with some of the same places and problems.

I have a former colleague who interviewed at MacMurray less than a year ago, and who detected no major problems. She fortunately had other options ...

[Wahoo Redux]

From Polly's March 25th list:

Unprepared Trustees: A Critical Problem in Higher Education

Michigan State, Penn State, the University of Maryland, and Virginia, among others, offer disastrous examples of boards behaving badly and offering inadequate oversight. This is especially the case when the board's leadership focuses on preserving and enhancing the institutional brand, ranking, or athletic prowess, instead of fostering academic excellence and student success.

It is apparently only now occurring to people that having trustees who know nothing about academia might not be such a good idea.

So, specific fix: recalibrate our trustees with academics.  There are lots of specifics to be considered, obviously, but this seems like a very good place to start.