Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Wahoo Redux]

Thank you.

[mamselle]

Chime. No fun.

I hope you find a way to turn it around to your own advantage and are able to wave cheerily to them as you fly by on the opposite side of the downward spiral, going up!

M.

[Harlow2]

So sorry, Wahoo.

[Wahoo Redux]

Thanks all.  I'm not in the trash shoot yet, things just look bad.  Theme's the breaks, I guess.  I still have it luckier than a lot of academics, and for that I am thankful.  Maybe we should start a thread for bad news down the pike.

[mahagonny]

It hasn't happened yet, and I am reasonable person and understand the university's untenable position.  The provost is a bit of a tool but a nice person nevertheless; I am sure hu doesn't want to be in this position.

Sure hu does. That's why hu is not in your position. Your magnanimity doesn't change what's going on or how wrong it is. Just helps you cope and so is the wiser approach.

The amazing thing to me in higher ed is how much stupid, unfair s### goes on with no guilty parties.

ETA:

I expect Polly to arrive any moment to gloat.

Actually you are the type of non-TT academic worker who uses the job as it should be used, by the code Polly promoted. Meaning, you made sure to fall in love with and marry someone who eventually acquired enough financial security that your non-secure academic career has been a manageable situation. You are not someone who has depended on the job enough that you are wrong because you should be someone else.

[clean]

But what a blow to one's sense of purpose and self-esteem.

Your worth is not limited by this job.  As you indicated, not working here (at least in the short term... they may need you again faster than they realize!), especially as you dont love teaching there, frees up a lot of time to do the things that will make you happier!  This (temporary job reallocation) should not be a challenge to your sense of purpose or self esteem! 
I see a new purpose on the horizon!  Do the things that DO make you happy!  If that is the research you have put off, then you will have the time!  Hell, even if it is gardening and closet organizing, that at least has the benefit of showing the immediate gratification of viewing your accomplishments! 

[mamselle]

Agree.

When life gives you lemons, make Eggs Benedict.

Or lemon meringue pie.

Don't just settle for lemonade.

M.

[kaysixteen]

Making lemon meringue pie is fine, doing things that make you happy is fine.   But food still needs to be put onto the table, and the landlord still wants his rent check.   Most people in the adjunctified world hardly have the options to make that luscious pie or anything else that would 'make them happy'.   Really, outside of STEM, they really don't, and this lack of opportunity generally only increases as one ages.

[clean]

Making lemon meringue pie is fine, doing things that make you happy is fine.   But food still needs to be put onto the table, and the landlord still wants his rent check.

So we have the need to find "immediate savings," and it looks like I may be out of a FT job next semester.  I will not be desperate as my wife has tenure and just won a good sized campus research award, and we have built up a good bit of savings and we have low CoL...

So it seems that food and rent are not the problem in this case.  The problem is the link between a job and self worth. 

[spork]

Bloomfield College: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/10/20/bloomfield-college-seeks-partner-avoid-shutting-down.

[Hibush]

Bloomfield College: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/10/20/bloomfield-college-seeks-partner-avoid-shutting-down.

Nearly three-quarters of Bloomfield students are Pell Grant eligible, and college officials have worked hard to make sure students aren't turned away because of the cost. Tuition for the 2021-22 academic year is $30,680 -- the lowest price of any New Jersey private college.

In other words, their financial model has a lot of students who can't pay much of the tuition and depend on financial aid from the school. However, they have no full-pay students at $50k who provide that financial-aid money. There is no way for that to work.

The school seems to do important--and expensive--education of promising students who have ongoing challenges. It would be good if that education could be matched with an appropriate revenue source.

[picard]

Bloomfield College: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/10/20/bloomfield-college-seeks-partner-avoid-shutting-down.

Nearly three-quarters of Bloomfield students are Pell Grant eligible, and college officials have worked hard to make sure students aren't turned away because of the cost. Tuition for the 2021-22 academic year is $30,680 -- the lowest price of any New Jersey private college.

In other words, their financial model has a lot of students who can't pay much of the tuition and depend on financial aid from the school. However, they have no full-pay students at $50k who provide that financial-aid money. There is no way for that to work.

The school seems to do important--and expensive--education of promising students who have ongoing challenges. It would be good if that education could be matched with an appropriate revenue source.

Isn't this the same problem facing by so many LAC these days, particularly those located in regions with a combination of demographic and socio-economic changes, as the number of upper-middle class students who are willing and able their $50K+ comprehensive fees have declined, while the type of students enrolled in these schools tend to come first generation and minorities, which tend to come from lower-income families?

Many of these LAC are to be commended for their commitment to take students from these background and give them first-class liberal arts education. However, the trade-off is that as the number of well-off students who are able to pay the full tuition cost to subsidize the low-income ones declined,  these LAC began to incur deficits and within the few years found themselves to be under water.

Of course, some like Albion College (profiled here: https://tinyurl.com/335mjhf2) have sizable endowment that helped them to cushion the blow from the financial losses, at least for now. However, others, like Bloomfield, have an endowment of next to nothing, with a location either in urban ghettos or rural neverland that becomes a turn-off for many prospective students, hence they're caught themselves in a financial quicksand/death spiral that in the end they simply couldn't get themselves out of.

[Ruralguy]

My college is more or less like Albion. But, it can't last forever. I'm not even sure it can last 5 years. Not without major cuts.

[Wahoo Redux]

Making lemon meringue pie is fine, doing things that make you happy is fine.   But food still needs to be put onto the table, and the landlord still wants his rent check.

So we have the need to find "immediate savings," and it looks like I may be out of a FT job next semester.  I will not be desperate as my wife has tenure and just won a good sized campus research award, and we have built up a good bit of savings and we have low CoL...

So it seems that food and rent are not the problem in this case.  The problem is the link between a job and self worth.

I figure that is the way it is for most of us.  I will wager very few forumites have gotten wealthy from their academic employment.

[Cheerful]

For the last 8 years I have taught whatever falls to the floor, which has been a wide variety, and I have taught well and with good humor.

But what a blow to one's sense of purpose and self-esteem.

Please remember and be proud that you have made a positive difference in many students' lives over the years.

Wishing you the best, Wahoo Redux.