Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Hibush]

Small places apart, this is also an intertemporal problem.

And, indeed, some 50 graduate programs are pausing

https://www.chronicle.com/article/more-doctoral-programs-suspend-admissions-that-could-have-lasting-effects-on-graduate-education

Could help solve a lot  of perceived iniquities among current academics, including the adjunct/tenured faculty ratio, low wages for certain disciplines, and so on.

Of course, some costs fall on the current generation of potential entrants.

If this keeps out a bunch of people who would have paid out=of=pocket, it's actually saving money for those.

Agreed. Plus given how dire the job market for all disciplines this year, it's probably a good idea to pause new intakes into grad programs for a year or two so new PhDs on the market now can get a decent job.

In other words, the cost of years of underemployment may not fall on as many in the current generation of potential entrants.

[dismalist]

Correct!

But will they be kicked in the pants to find something to make them better off, or not? Some kicks in the pants just hurt.

[Vkw10]

Ithaca expects to cut 130 faculty positions, including some tenured, and close departments.
https://theithacan.org/news/ic-to-cut-130-faculty-positions-due-to-low-enrollment/

[spork]

Adrian College in the news again:

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/2020/10/03/adrian-college-football-game-covid-19-michigan/3611730001/.

Forty-eight sports teams for an enrollment of fewer than 2,000 students.

It's just... you'd think some minimal planning and consultation would take place before a decision like that gets made, so that you wouldn't have to reverse course once you realize that you can't call yourself a liberal arts university without any liberal arts subjects.

Not directed at you -- I wish people, especially an institution's own faculty and administrators, would stop using this terminology because it isn't supported by evidence. According to IPEDS, Adrian awarded 319 bachelor's degrees in FY 2019. Of these, the top majors:

• Business: 76
• Recreation and fitness studies: 56
• Education: 21
• Social services: 21
• Criminal justice: 17
• Communications: 14
• Health professions: 13

That's 218 graduates or 68% from just seven occupational training programs (there are others I didn't include). In comparison:

• Math: 4
• Philosophy and religion: 0
• English: 4
• Foreign languages: 1
• History: 2

Adrian is yet another one of those low-enrollment schools that was founded as a church-affiliated institution for theological training that now relies on, I assume, attracting mediocre students to a mediocre business program. It probably hasn't been a "liberal arts college" for the last 75 years.

Adrian had positive net revenue through FY 2018, but its undergraduate FTE declined by ~ 20% from FY 2007 to FY 2018. My guess is that enrollment continued to drop and someone realized that the college had far too many faculty given the number of students.

I need to correct a mistake that I made above. Adrian's undergraduate FTE in FY 2019 was about the same as it was in FY 2013, a little under 1,700. But in FY 2007 it was only 1,025. So a huge relative increase since pre-2008 recession. I have no idea where I got that 20% decline from, maybe I was looking at another college on IPEDS and didn't realize it.

It looks like Adrian grew its enrollment by investing heavily in athletics -- a team for every student and a student for every team. Maybe that explains why its graduation rate is 51% and its 1st-to-2nd-year retention rate is 68%.

I bring all this up because Adrian is promoting a curriculum-delivery-through-consortium arrangement, the content of which is not history, philosophy, religious studies, etc. -- the programs that were but apparently are not now slated for elimination.

[spork]

Ithaca College "can't furlough enough staff to make up for the shortfalls, nor increase enrollment enough to keep the same number of faculty employed."

https://www.chronicle.com/article/2020-has-been-a-hard-year-for-higher-ed-could-2021-be-worse

[Vkw10]

Ithaca College "can't furlough enough staff to make up for the shortfalls, nor increase enrollment enough to keep the same number of faculty employed."

https://www.chronicle.com/article/2020-has-been-a-hard-year-for-higher-ed-could-2021-be-worse

The last line of that article likely reflects the attitude of many administrators this year.

"We can't delay," [Ithaca's Provost Cornish] said, " that would be kicking the can down the road, and we're not going to kick the can anymore. [emphasis added]

Looks like Ithaca's administrators realize they've been playing a delaying game. They're going to try to use the pandemic as the shock that gets stakeholders to realize major change is necessary, since their sector of higher education is contracting. I expect that small colleges who don't take similar attitudes will be gone or on life support in five years. Larger colleges need to be re-thinking every aspect of their programs, too, because parents and students who've paid for a year or two of socially distanced education may be less like to be willing to pay for the "college experience" as it developed in the USA in the post WWII era.

[Parasaurolophus]

Ithaca expects to cut 130 faculty positions, including some tenured, and close departments.
https://theithacan.org/news/ic-to-cut-130-faculty-positions-due-to-low-enrollment/

Worth noting that that's 1/3 of faculty.

Speaking of cutting faculty by a third, Roehampton (UK) is cutting 1/3 of its humanities faculty (25/75). Staff at the university are saying it's mostly due to enrollment losses to fancier universities as a result of the government's pandemic planning for higher education. I don't have an up-to-date story to share (there was a THE story back in May, but things have developed quite a bit since then), just a petition that's doing the rounds. It contains some of the info, but not all.

[Ruralguy]

Roughly speaking, I'd say Ithaca likely has a 10M + shortfall.  Cutting retirement matching funds for everybody at the school (if they even still have them) could have covered a good fraction of that, and then a universal pay cut of 2-5% could have taken them much of the rest of the way. They probably figure with some teeny and shrinking programs, it was more worth it (to the College!) to preserve benefits and salaries by firing people (of course that just lowers 130 people's salary and benefits to zero) ! Or, they've already done what I mention, and so, there was nothing left to do but reduce staffing.

[polly_mer]

Roughly speaking, I'd say Ithaca likely has a 10M + shortfall.  Cutting retirement matching funds for everybody at the school (if they even still have them) could have covered a good fraction of that, and then a universal pay cut of 2-5% could have taken them much of the rest of the way. They probably figure with some teeny and shrinking programs, it was more worth it (to the College!) to preserve benefits and salaries by firing people (of course that just lowers 130 people's salary and benefits to zero) ! Or, they've already done what I mention, and so, there was nothing left to do but reduce staffing.

Before Covid, Ithaca College was implementing a strategic plan for better alignment between offerings and students.  It's pretty clear that the current situation is not just cuts for a dollar amount to fill a one-time gap.

"But the number of staff and faculty who take those voluntary reductions will not necessarily impact the overall number of involuntary reductions, most of which are based on changes in business need. Both are necessary in order to preserve the college's long-term future," Maley said.

Source: https://ithacavoice.com/2020/04/ithaca-college-announce-staffing-reductions-planning-in-person-august-commencement/

[mamselle]

Ohio Wesleyan is also making changes:

   https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/education/2020/10/12/ohio-wesleyan-cuts-18-majors-including-journalism-after-review/3635864001/

M.

[polly_mer]

Ohio Wesleyan is also making changes:

   https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/education/2020/10/12/ohio-wesleyan-cuts-18-majors-including-journalism-after-review/3635864001/

M.

College scorecard (https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?204909-Ohio-Wesleyan-University) claims 54 undergrad majors currently.  With only 1500 students, 50 majors sounds like a lot, especially when the top 10 majors by annual number of graduates is 53 (psychology) down to 13 (health/medical preparatory).  That looks a lot like OWU only needs perhaps 15-20 undergraduate majors.

[TreadingLife]

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/10/13/cornish-college-arts-declares-financial-emergency-and-exigency

According to the article, Cornish enrolled about 600 students last fall.

[spork]

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/10/13/cornish-college-arts-declares-financial-emergency-and-exigency

According to the article, Cornish enrolled about 600 students last fall.

Negative net revenue on Form 990s for FYs 2016-2018. The only reason it had positive net revenue in FY 2015 was because it sold off $10 million in assets. The school is doomed.

[polly_mer]

Head of New England Commission of Higher Education gives a stark finances reality check in an IHE piece:
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/10/13/head-regional-accrediting-agency-offers-guidance-institutions-potentially-financial

[apl68]

Head of New England Commission of Higher Education gives a stark finances reality check in an IHE piece:
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/10/13/head-regional-accrediting-agency-offers-guidance-institutions-potentially-financial

The writer expresses a belief that most institutions of higher education will survive--but that they'll likely need to make some uncongenial choices about changing their business models.  Which presumably means more of the sort of retrenchment with faculty layoffs, program and major closures, etc. that we've been seeing.