Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[pgher]

U Missouri-Columbia projecting 18% decline in first-time freshmen and a $24 million loss in tuition revenue and state allocations.

Look at the date. That was written in 2017 in the aftermath of racial issues.

[spork]

U Missouri-Columbia projecting 18% decline in first-time freshmen and a $24 million loss in tuition revenue and state allocations.

Look at the date. That was written in 2017 in the aftermath of racial issues.

D'oh. You're absolutely right. I had Google search set to 1 week. Some meta tag must have been changed.

[downer]

Canisius is falling apart.
https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/canisius-college-considering-cuts

[spork]

Canisius is falling apart.
https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/canisius-college-considering-cuts

Budget just barely in the black in FY 2017, deficit of $6.9 million in FY 2018 on an operating budget of $136 million. Undergraduate FTE enrollment fell by 37% from 2006 to 2019.

[apl68]

Another religiously-affiliated school preparing to drop its religious studies program, among others.

Alumni have started a Go Fund Me campaign.  It's hard to believe that will make a difference.

[spork]

It had healthy positive net revenue for several years in the post-2008 recession period, often in the double digits. Looks like its leadership suffered from optimism bias year after year.

[polly_mer]

Radford University (public in Virginia) has suspended the faculty handbook and will make targeted faculty cuts including tenured faculty.

[spork]

IHE picked up some local reporting that Carthage College (Kenosha, WI) is in trouble; up to 20% of faculty will lose their jobs. Oddly Carthage's undergraduate FTE enrollment was higher in 2019 than it was pre-2008 recession. Yet it went from positive net revenue of $19 million in FY 2017 to a deficit of $5 million in FY 2018. And it looks like Carthage implemented a tuition reset right before the 2019-20 academic year. Something is very wacky.

[polly_mer]

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2020/07/19/carthage-college-proposal-lay-off-faculty-draws-student-protest/5468267002/ indicates that Carthage College is worried about the demographic cliff and students voting with their feet for pre-professional majors. My bet is that enrollment in expensive-to-deliver majors has increased while enrollment in cheaper majors like philosophy is crashing.

College Scorecard indicates that Carthage currently has 63 fields of study with only 40 having usable data.  Carthage doesn't even have the nursing mentioned in the article, but only has allied health.  The top ten majors by number of graduates includes biology (a liberal arts field) but no humanities.

Combining the information from the article and College Scorecard indicates Carthage is making the first big step to acknowledging they are not in fact a liberal arts college.  Their Carnegie classification does not reflect being a LAC.

[TreadingLife]

A more general recap
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/22/colleges-resort-to-last-ditch-efforts-like-layoffs-to-stay-afloat.html

About the UMASS system
https://www.boston.com/news/education/2020/07/22/massachusetts-teachers-union-slams-umass-budget-that-cuts-jobs

[TreadingLife]

Scott Galloway names names

Infographic
https://api.profgalloway.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/US_Higher_Ed4.png

Blog post
https://www.profgalloway.com/uss-university

Article mentioning the analysis as it pertains to Boston-area schools
https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/07/clark-university-mount-holyoke-college-umass-boston-and-dartmouth-are-most-likely-to-perish-according-to-new-analysis.html

[polly_mer]

The Galloway analysis completely ignores the colleges like Super Dinky.  The ones Galloway identifies as 'low value' are still mostly name-brand institutions, as logically stems from the method of using top institutions from USNWR rankings.

[Wahoo Redux]

I looked up some of the colleges I am familiar with on Galloway's spreadsheet----recent news from these places seems to contradict Galloway's analysis.  One SLAC which has admitted to teetering on the verge and recently laid off faculty is listed as "survive," while another SLAC which has always been healthy and wealthy, and is considered one of the best in the same region, is listed as "perish."  Unless Galloway has some sort of insider knowledge I wouldn't give much credence to his analysis----which mostly tells us what we already know anyway.

[Hibush]

I looked up some of the colleges I am familiar with on Galloway's spreadsheet----recent news from these places seems to contradict Galloway's analysis.  One SLAC which has admitted to teetering on the verge and recently laid off faculty is listed as "survive," while another SLAC which has always been healthy and wealthy, and is considered one of the best in the same region, is listed as "perish."  Unless Galloway has some sort of insider knowledge I wouldn't give much credence to his analysis----which mostly tells us what we already know anyway.

Apparently Galloway's spreadsheet doesn't match his graphic either. The comments on Galloway's own post hit him really hard for unserious analysis with serious consequences.

[spork]

I looked up some of the colleges I am familiar with on Galloway's spreadsheet----recent news from these places seems to contradict Galloway's analysis.  One SLAC which has admitted to teetering on the verge and recently laid off faculty is listed as "survive," while another SLAC which has always been healthy and wealthy, and is considered one of the best in the same region, is listed as "perish."  Unless Galloway has some sort of insider knowledge I wouldn't give much credence to his analysis----which mostly tells us what we already know anyway.

Apparently Galloway's spreadsheet doesn't match his graphic either. The comments on Galloway's own post hit him really hard for unserious analysis with serious consequences.

I have never been impressed by marketers. Especially those who teach marketing in business schools.