Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Wahoo Redux]

I disagree.  These are not ordinary times.  And no, not "everyone" knows these things. Perhaps it will not do any good.  Or it might.  You don't know.

Honest question, what specific publicity actions do you recommend taking and why will that work now when it never has in the past?

I'm getting tired of answering the same challenges.  I've answered that particular one several times. 

I don't know what will work now.  I am just suggesting we try.

Yes sweetie, I know you think you are very wise and knowledgeable because, gosh you're smart, you've sat on some committees once.  Okay, that's some snark.  But I've talked about athletics and my alma mater a number of times.  You simply don't present anything that's not common knowledge.

If you want to talk, please pay attention.

And now is a much different time than any time in the past.  In fact, 2020 is unprecedented in a number of ways.  You recognize that, don't you?

You are making this personal.  Knock it off.  I get it - you're frustrated.  Fair enough.  But once this devolves into "sweetie" and "you are very wise", you are not serving your argument well.  As LarryC once told me on the old fora "You're better than this. Stop it."

I'm not frustrated, actually, I simply respond how I am responded to.  But you are correct.

Perhaps Polly and I should just ignore each other. It's too bad because I rather like Polly.  I was waiting for somebody to log on and tell one or both of us to knock it off.

Peace. 

[marshwiggle]

You are making this personal.  Knock it off.  I get it - you're frustrated.  Fair enough.  But once this devolves into "sweetie" and "you are very wise", you are not serving your argument well.  As LarryC once told me on the old fora "You're better than this. Stop it."

I've observed that sarcasm and snark often seem to be a replacement for any attempt to actually refute the arguments someone else has made. It sounds "clever" without needing to address the issues that have been raised.

[Hegemony]

Since we have been protesting at top volume the firewall between academic funding and sports funding for the entire time I've been at the university, I think the conviction that nothing can be done is almost certainly true. Or rather, nothing will be done. The answer that is given by back channels is that certain large donors will be horrified if sports funding is decreased, and given the horrifically low amount of state support, they're effectively the only steady financial support the university has.  But it doesn't do much for morale. Meanwhile all the badly paid cafeteria ladies and cleaners are out of a job.

[spork]

The USA seems to be the only country in the world where 18-year olds and their parents are willing to acquire a substantial amount of debt to pay for a small minority of the product purchasers to participate in a recreational experience. Or maybe, if you include spectators, to participate in or watch others engage in a recreational experience.

2020 is not unprecedented when it comes to financial conditions for U.S. universities. 2008 had the same effect that Covid-19 is having/will have. Direct taxpayer support of public universities through state legislative appropriations has been declining for decades. And the 2026 demographic drop off of 18 year olds is right around the corner. When your business model no longer works, "crisis" happens regularly.

[Hibush]

...certain large donors will be horrified if sports funding is decreased, and given the horrifically low amount of state support, they're effectively the only steady financial support the university has.  But it doesn't do much for morale. Meanwhile all the badly paid cafeteria ladies and cleaners are out of a job.

The USA seems to be the only country in the world where 18-year olds and their parents are willing to acquire a substantial amount of debt to pay for a small minority of the product purchasers to participate in a recreational experience. Or maybe, if you include spectators, to participate in or watch others engage in a recreational experience.

2020 is not unprecedented when it comes to financial conditions for U.S. universities. 2008 had the same effect that Covid-19 is having/will have. Direct taxpayer support of public universities through state legislative appropriations has been declining for decades. And the 2026 demographic drop off of 18 year olds is right around the corner. When your business model no longer works, "crisis" happens regularly.

These observations suggest that, for a handful of schools, there is a business model riding on this phenomenon. It requires committing in the direction they have been going, but denying. Go all in for the big donors. Whatever they want for the long term. Prestige is the name of the game, so the administration needs a laser focus on making sure that admission to the school is prestigeous, that donating to the school confers prestige on the donor, being an alumnus even carries prestige within a certain group. The athletic programs and the greek system should be integrated with the academics.

The college could even have its own Rick Singers to expedite matters. Face it, you want to attract the people for whom "exclusive" isn't good enough. They need concierge exclusive.

While top academic achievement would not be a criterion for admission, a respectable median score is necessary for prestige.

I see this model working on a national scale, but also on a regional scale. (Since we have been discussing them, which Arkansas school is the best conversion candidate?)

Something close to this approach was a historic model in some old New England colleges, but they have become far too expensive for this model to work. They have taken on advanced coursework, research and other expensive non-essential activities that the upstarts would wisely avoid. Something close to this was also USCs model among the elite of Southern California. They got into mission creep about a generation ago, and you see what that has led to.

Sorry about writing something so hopeful on this thread. I guess I'm just in good spirits this morning.

[spork]

[. . . ]

The college could even have its own Rick Singers to expedite matters. Face it, you want to attract the people for whom "exclusive" isn't good enough. They need concierge exclusive.

[. . . ]

In a similar vein: the increasingly frequent phenomenon of "academic coaches," sometimes attached to the university via subcontractors, sometimes not. Earlier this semester a colleague nailed two of her students for plagiarism -- parts of both essays were identical and obviously not written by the students. Turns out both had been using the same "coach" since high school to write their papers for them.

More broadly, I'm reminded of the different paths followed by, for example, Elon and Guilford in North Carolina. Elon doubled its undergraduate enrollment, built out graduate programs, and expanded its campus by marketing itself as "the next best thing, with better weather" to parents whose children did not gain entry to Georgetown, GWU, or American and who toured campuses along I-85. Donors loved getting their names on the new buildings. While it went big and shiny, Guilford stuck to its traditional business model of the small liberal arts college with only a weak regional reputation (i.e., not Davidson). And Guilford has been having serious problems for the last decade.

[Wahoo Redux]

So far so good.

We only see enrollments for my wife and my classes on our system, and they are mostly on track for this time of year.  All our classes should run.  No official word from admin on anything.

Predictions of the worst recession since the Great Depression are frightening.

[Hibush]

[. . . ]

The college could even have its own Rick Singers to expedite matters. Face it, you want to attract the people for whom "exclusive" isn't good enough. They need concierge exclusive.

[. . . ]

In a similar vein: the increasingly frequent phenomenon of "academic coaches," sometimes attached to the university via subcontractors, sometimes not. Earlier this semester a colleague nailed two of her students for plagiarism -- parts of both essays were identical and obviously not written by the students. Turns out both had been using the same "coach" since high school to write their papers for them.

Having coaches that are employed or franchised by the college not only provides income for the institution, it provides a certain degree of quality control. The clients see added value in having the right brand as well. These freelance coaches just don't cut it for the caliber of school we are discussing.

[polly_mer]

First, Minnesota State Moorhead cuts majors and jobs

Second, I really want to know specific actions individuals can take now and why those actions will work this time when human beings seldom change their group behavior and there's no reason to expect they would change now.

Yes, this is an unusual time and predictions can be wrong.  However, not all predictions are equally likely, especially those that are very much like the give-the-Dean-a-huge-bag-of-money goblin in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather style wishful thinking.

[dr_codex]

Second, I really want to know specific actions individuals can take now and why those actions will work this time when human beings seldom change their group behavior and there's no reason to expect they would change now.

Yes, this is an unusual time and predictions can be wrong.  However, not all predictions are equally likely, especially those that are very much like the give-the-Dean-a-huge-bag-of-money goblin in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather style wishful thinking.

I don't know if this counts as individual action or group behavior, but the first thing that's going to be frozen or deleted from almost every budget is travel. I'm supposed to be on the other side of the country at a conference today, but we will be ZOOMing it instead. Everybody I know who works at a non-profit (educational or otherwise) is slashing all non-essential travel. I am co-sponsoring a conference in the Fall, and have already proposed making it a virtual event. This should save money, and greatly reduce the chance that it will be delayed again.

I'll take up other individual actions on another thread.

[tuxthepenguin]

Second, I really want to know specific actions individuals can take now and why those actions will work this time when human beings seldom change their group behavior and there's no reason to expect they would change now.

Group behavior changes surprisingly fast when an institution runs up against a budget constraint. Not always, of course, but my university and department are both very different from when I started working here. Has that meant individual jobs have changed dramatically? Nope. My job isn't that different from what it was when I started. That doesn't mean my department hasn't seen big changes.

[Hegemony]

To specify my university's draconian cuts would be to out my university, but I'll just say that however dire the situation, the choices my university is making have us all appalled.  Let's say that the faculty are being expected to accept significant cuts to their salaries, while the athletic coaches are apparently untouchable — even though the athletic programs are entirely suspended right now, while the faculty work like dogs trying to get everything online. The ~$8 million per year that the top coach makes would alone pay the salaries of the 200 instructors who are being fired.  We're being encouraged to "pitch in and make sacrifices," but I'm not sure why we should make sacrifices when the athletic program is living as high on the hog as ever. The ostensible reason is that faculty salaries come from tuition, which is expected to drop, whereas athletics comes from some other bucket.  I'm not sure why that bucket can't contribute to the overall mission of the university.  I'll say that by some sleight of hand, the athletic program appears to break even, but having been on the committee that deals with these things, I know that actually the other programs subsidize athletics to the tune of several million dollars per year.  So it's not as if athletics "makes a profit" — and even if it did, it wouldn't be doing so now, with all athletics suspended.  We are livid.

[tuxthepenguin]

To specify my university's draconian cuts would be to out my university, but I'll just say that however dire the situation, the choices my university is making have us all appalled.  Let's say that the faculty are being expected to accept significant cuts to their salaries, while the athletic coaches are apparently untouchable — even though the athletic programs are entirely suspended right now, while the faculty work like dogs trying to get everything online. The ~$8 million per year that the top coach makes would alone pay the salaries of the 200 instructors who are being fired.  We're being encouraged to "pitch in and make sacrifices," but I'm not sure why we should make sacrifices when the athletic program is living as high on the hog as ever. The ostensible reason is that faculty salaries come from tuition, which is expected to drop, whereas athletics comes from some other bucket.  I'm not sure why that bucket can't contribute to the overall mission of the university.  I'll say that by some sleight of hand, the athletic program appears to break even, but having been on the committee that deals with these things, I know that actually the other programs subsidize athletics to the tune of several million dollars per year.  So it's not as if athletics "makes a profit" — and even if it did, it wouldn't be doing so now, with all athletics suspended.  We are livid.

Donors will no doubt come in and fill the gap in a hurry if the athletics budget is cut. Won't happen with academics. So of course they're going to cut academics.

[spork]

Given remarks from our president and some back-of-the-envelope calculations using the last year's consolidated financial statements, refunds on this semester's room and board equate to 150% of what otherwise would have been this year's net revenue. If fall semester is online, the university's losses will be triple that.

[jonadam]

First, Minnesota State Moorhead cuts majors and jobs

Bad idea when Concordia Moorhead, North Dakota State and Mankato all have strong theater programs. And even though language education in this country needs a Martin Luther to nail grievances to a door, knowing and teaching a second language is so important. Especially Spanish. I'm disappointed in my state.