Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Istiblennius]

Western Oregon continues to discontinue programs and cut faculty positions https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/04/08/cuts-hit-faculty-philosophy-western-oregon

This actually is not a continuation; it simply took this long to work out the details of laying off 4 tenured faculty and curtailing three majors that have, as mentioned in the article, served about 1% of the total student body going back to pre-pandemic. Western is also continuing to offer classes (and retain some faculty) in the affected areas through other grad requirements like honors and gen ed. The majors just won't be available anymore.

[apl68]

University of Oregon states they won't reduce faculty pay, hiring freeze and pay raise freeze remain in place: https://around.uoregon.edu/content/university-announces-elimination-pay-reduction-plan

Original source linked within the article has quite telling statement by a faculty member:
"It really feels like a betrayal at a very deep level," Perlman said. "My job as a professor is to teach the students that are in my class. The administration's job is to get them to the university and put them in my class. I've been doing my part this whole time. The administration has been falling down on the task of keeping enrollment where it should be."

Well, the prof's basically right in the sense that the administration is responsible for doing whatever is necessary to support the academic side.  At the same time, there is so much that can go wrong that doesn't fall under "administrative goof-ups."  That faculty member doesn't give the impression of having thought much about this. 

And yes, like it or not the members of the faculty do have some responsibility for trying to recruit students to their classes and programs.  They can't expect it all to be done for them.

[polly_mer]

Remember last year about this time when the chancellor of Vermont State Colleges System said the options were consolidate or close and then that chancellor was abruptly gone?

The Vermont State Colleges System has just announced a plan to consolidate 3 of the 4 institutions: https://vtdigger.org/2021/03/18/castleton-community-braces-for-change-as-merger-transition-begins/

[mamselle]

Hope that their collections of rare books and documents are well taken care of.  Sounds like there would be a lot of cultural value there.

They may be able to do something like what Episcopal Divinity School's library did in 2017. The books Union Seminary could use (where the EDS 'saving remnant' of 4 faculty was re-located) traveled with them to NYC. The (few) archival items they had probably either went to Union itself, or (maybe by agreement) to the close-by, better-set-up Columbia U. Library's archives. Some probably also went into diocesan archival storage.

An alumnus/a (anonymous donor) paid for all the books that were left (after a huge book sale) to be shipped to a Kenyan theology school library.

Sad to say, the ANTS library didn't fare so well on its dissolution, within a year or so of EDS: dumpsters full of books sat behind that library when it closed.

Options for the AJU collection might include Hebrew College in Newton (if they have an archival site, not just a regular library) or one of the NY or Chicago schools. Rare books and objects like scrolls might go to individual faith communities by private sale, or they may have to be auctioned to meet the terms of the dissolution (unless they already sold them off to try to keep afloat, if they could: restricted donations' secondary designations have to be followed).

You and the other librarians here probably know all this stuff better than I do...those are just situations I know of directly.

M.

[apl68]

Remember last year about this time when the chancellor of Vermont State Colleges System said the options were consolidate or close and then that chancellor was abruptly gone?

The Vermont State Colleges System has just announced a plan to consolidate 3 of the 4 institutions: https://vtdigger.org/2021/03/18/castleton-community-braces-for-change-as-merger-transition-begins/

And one of those three was already a product of a recent consolidation deal!  It's not hard to see why they're having to do this.  Vermont is such a little state to have so many institutions. 

I notice that the three schools are cutting a lot of majors between them.  At least they're letting the students already in the programs finish, so that they're not left hanging.  They're trying to downsize in a controlled manner, before things get desperate and messy.

[polly_mer]

They're trying to downsize in a controlled manner, before things get desperate and messy.

Unfortunately, the time for that was about ten to fifteen years ago.  It was desperate starting about five years ago when the little colleges in the region started their true death spirals that have already resulted in closures.

It's going to be messier than it had to be because they weren't working as a larger group to make joint decisions and even now aren't really working as a group of all higher ed institutions in New England or even Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to preserve some smaller, rural colleges.  Southern New Hampshire and the elite Boston-area institutions are going to be the winners here.

[Puget]

the elite Boston-area institutions are going to be the winners here.

I would make that the *non*-elite Boston area institutions (or maybe that's what you meant to type?). The elite ones certainly don't need any help attracting students!

I can imagine some non-elite SLACs, and peer publics (since there is partial reciprocity within New England) may attract some displaced students who want to stay driving distance from home, though since the consolidation is necessitated by over-capacity in the first place, it's not clear how many "excess" students Vermont will really have even post-consolidation.

[Ruralguy]

The elites won't have trouble attracting students, but they might have trouble staying elite, at least in an absolute sense, if they have to go way down the list to fill a 1st year student class. Of course, everyone is in the same boat.

[polly_mer]

the elite Boston-area institutions are going to be the winners here.

I would make that the *non*-elite Boston area institutions (or maybe that's what you meant to type?). The elite ones certainly don't need any help attracting students!

I can imagine some non-elite SLACs, and peer publics (since there is partial reciprocity within New England) may attract some displaced students who want to stay driving distance from home, though since the consolidation is necessitated by over-capacity in the first place, it's not clear how many "excess" students Vermont will really have even post-consolidation.

No, I meant elite because they will pick up all the desirable students in the region without having to lower their standards.  Indeed, the slightly-less desirable students will be courted by better institutions than would have been likely twenty years ago.  It will be a good time to be a desirable student as long as one's heart isn't Harvard specifically.

There won't be excess desirable students (academically prepared with a bright future as an alum or full pay or both) for the non-elite institutions in the region to pick up.  Instead, those institutions will consolidate or just close through lack of sufficient funding because they are so dependent on current enrollment and there aren't enough bodies after the elites and next tier have made their classes.

[Puget]

the elite Boston-area institutions are going to be the winners here.

I would make that the *non*-elite Boston area institutions (or maybe that's what you meant to type?). The elite ones certainly don't need any help attracting students!

I can imagine some non-elite SLACs, and peer publics (since there is partial reciprocity within New England) may attract some displaced students who want to stay driving distance from home, though since the consolidation is necessitated by over-capacity in the first place, it's not clear how many "excess" students Vermont will really have even post-consolidation.

No, I meant elite because they will pick up all the desirable students in the region without having to lower their standards.  Indeed, the slightly-less desirable students will be courted by better institutions than would have been likely twenty years ago.  It will be a good time to be a desirable student as long as one's heart isn't Harvard specifically.

There won't be excess desirable students (academically prepared with a bright future as an alum or full pay or both) for the non-elite institutions in the region to pick up.  Instead, those institutions will consolidate or just close through lack of sufficient funding because they are so dependent on current enrollment and there aren't enough bodies after the elites and next tier have made their classes.

Maybe we have different definitions of "elite" then-- Harvard and MIT et al. don't primarily draw from the region (national and international applicant base), and could fill their classes many times over from their current applicants with no appreciable drop-off in quality.

[pepsi_alum]

Re: PASSHE -- the system has been in distress for several years and I'm frankly surprised that anyone is surprised at this point. My last place interviewed and ultimately hired someone from one of the schools mentioned upthread as facing consolidation.  We were honest with that candidate about some of the challenges in our own system. Their response was "Oh, I know. I'm quite certain my current job won't exist in another three years, so this would be an improvement."

I can't really go into too many details about what's happening at my current place lest I out myself. I'm in a state with a growing population, but the pandemic has caused major financial problems for us. We're in a very strict hiring freeze this year that will probably last at least two more years, and although we've avoided layoffs so far, the consensus seems to be that there are unfortunately going to have to be layoffs at some point in the next 1-2 semesters. I think my department is okay in that regard, but I don't really know what will happen. If I get the axe, I'll see it as an opportunity. (I've had one foot out the door of academia for the paste several years, and a layoff might be the inspiration I need to finally move on to something else outside of higher ed).

[Hibush]

The elites won't have trouble attracting students, but they might have trouble staying elite, at least in an absolute sense, if they have to go way down the list to fill a 1st year student class. Of course, everyone is in the same boat.

While all the schools may be on the same ocean, they are very different boats. Some are overloaded refugee vessels hoping to be rescued at sea, some are gigantic cruise ships, some sturdy fishing vessels, and many more.

[polly_mer]

Maybe we have different definitions of "elite" then-- Harvard and MIT et al. don't primarily draw from the region (national and international applicant base), and could fill their classes many times over from their current applicants with no appreciable drop-off in quality.

If the definition of elite is Harvard and MIT, then there's not an et al. that matters on the East Coast.

However, there's a whole next tier that is elite by any reasonable definition related to new student selectivity, alumni outcomes, and disconnect from a middle class defined by family income of approximately $70k.  Those places with enrollment of a few thousand students and a list price above $30k per year in just tuition will brag about their national representation, but they have a lot of regional students.  Even most of the Ivy League isn't Harvard.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/06/how-private-college-fortified-finances-amid-pandemic was a recent story published by IHE.  I'd never heard of Endicott and 70-80% admittance rates doesn't look all that selective.  However, a 16% Pell, >90% full-time, >90% residential, only 7% drop out rate with only 3% delinquent student loans and 17% student loans paid in full, they look elite enough that the admissions rate may be a result of most applicants being qualified.

Emerson College is more elite by most measures and there have been a steady trickle of stories over past few years of announced alliances (including absorbing Marlboro in Vermontt), new programs, and other activities only available to those with resources.  Emerson isn't Harvard, but someone who can get into Emerson with excellent financial aid wasn't going to Southern Vermont (closed recently) or Castleton (being merged again in Vermont).

As one of the Reddit commentators stated on the IHE story, the lesson for small colleges appears to be:

a) have chosen well in location geographically near the rich people who aren't set on Harvard/MIT at founding

b) leveraged well the resources afforded by having rich alumni and local friends for decades

c) in general ensured the rich people think you are elite enough because you have so few merely middle-class students.  A handful of bright scholarship students makes elitists feel virtuous.

[Parasaurolophus]

Update on Laurentian: 58 UG programs axed, 11 grad programs, and at least 100 faculty gone. The university was apparently weeks away from not making its payroll. Link

Holy shit. That's a major blow to the region.

Edit: Also, the list of cut program.st the bottom of the article is eye-widening. Especially if you bear in mind what's in the vicinity--including the kinds of work people do up there.

[marshwiggle]

Update on Laurentian: 58 UG programs axed, 11 grad programs, and at least 80 faculty gone. The university was apparently weeks away from not making its payroll. Link

Holy shit. That's a major blow to the region.

Edit: Also, the list of cut program.st the bottom of the article is eye-widening. Especially if you bear in mind what's in the vicinity--including the kinds of work people do up there.

If they cut 69 programs and 100 profs (according tho the article), then that suggests a lot of those programs must have had tiny enrollments. Programs with significant enrollment simply can't run without a significant number of faculty.

It would be good to know how many programs are left, and how many faculty. I'd guess the ratio of remaining faculty to remaining programs would be significantly larger that 100/69.