State Flagships Declining Enrollment: CHE article

[polly_mer]

The non-pay-walled (for now) article titled "The U. of Montana Has Lost More Students This Decade Than Any Other Flagship. What's Going On?"

What strikes me as intriguing is the table indicating how relatively small the enrollments are at many of these flagships compared to what makes the news for enrollment sizes in other states.  For example, Wikipedia lists 10 public institutions with more than 50k students for several recent years. 

State flagships on the list of losing undergraduate enrollment that are Carnegie Classified as High Research Activity (i.e., R2) are Montana, Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, and Wyoming.  I can write something similar to https://thefora.org/index.php?topic=496.msg8575#msg8575 for those states.  Only about 130 R1s exist in the US; acting as though that's the norm in higher ed is not a great idea.

[Hibush]

U of Montana saw a big drop. So did U of Idaho and UAF. There is considerable cultural correspondence in the region that includes those schools, one that is most actively questioning the value of a liberal-arts education (or advanced study in general). I suspect that dynamic contributes some to the above-average enrolment decline.

The decline is also from 2010, when the recession pushed a lot of prospective workers into college instead. That demographic is entering the workplace a lot more. Was this region affected more by this dynamic than some others?  For a Montanan, the gas fields of North Dakota are a short drive. So there have been jobs there.  The economic cycle is shifting, so there may be more prospects in the coming years.

[Juvenal]

I don't know if some of these were cherry-picked from a larger list--little urge to look--but what jumped out at me was that all those listed were west of the Mississippi, but maybe just chosen to keep a cluster of other declining institutions nestled close to UM.  Yes, yes, Hawaii and Alaska are not exactly close, but you can't get much farther from the Father of Waters than those.  So is it the Decline of the West, or just a put-together list, omitting some Eastern slumpers that would make the list less focused?

[spork]

"a far smaller pool of high-school seniors available to enroll in Montana"

In Hawai'i: state population is aging, there is a brain drain of the younger, college-educated set. As with Alaska, the university is a destination for grad students in particular fields, while the undergrads are primarily those who couldn't afford or who weren't academically competitive enough to attend public and private universities located in other states. Those who do go to the mainland for college tend not to return because of few employment opportunities and the ridiculously high cost of living.

[polly_mer]

Related North Dakota article for those who missed it.

[lightning]

Let's give Montana State, in Bozeman, some credit. Students simply prefer to go to Montana State because it's a better university. This means complacent R1s like Univ. of Montana got blindsided in slow motion in broad daylight by another nearby state university who is trying very hard to be good at what they do. Missoula lost students to Bozeman. That's it.

[Hibush]

IHE reports on unionization at UNM. This univeristy has seen a big drop (~20%) in student enrolment over five years. Will unionization help protect faculty from the resulting administrative strategy?

The vote in favor of unionization was 500 to 304 among full-time professors with 80% voting.
The vote was 256 to 26 among adjuncts, with 60% voting.
Adjuncts and full-timers have separate bargaining units. The union is AFT/AAUP.

The participation by adjuncts was surprisingly low given their vulnerability, but the enthusiasm among those who voted was high.

Is there similar movement among the state flagships whose enrollment is dropping? State legislators may not be good at developing a higher-education strategy for their state all on their own. A faculty union could add some useful constraints to their actions, protecting the capacity to produce an educated citizenry..

[polly_mer]

IHE reports on unionization at UNM. This univeristy has seen a big drop (~20%) in student enrolment over five years. Will unionization help protect faculty from the resulting administrative strategy?

Short answer: no, especially since the faculty who organized against unionization were overrepresented with STEM faculty who can get other jobs at higher pay.

See http://unmexcellence.org/img/Letter_From_Concerned_Faculty_October9.pdf

[ciao_yall]

IHE reports on unionization at UNM. This univeristy has seen a big drop (~20%) in student enrolment over five years. Will unionization help protect faculty from the resulting administrative strategy?

The vote in favor of unionization was 500 to 304 among full-time professors with 80% voting.
The vote was 256 to 26 among adjuncts, with 60% voting.
Adjuncts and full-timers have separate bargaining units. The union is AFT/AAUP.

The participation by adjuncts was surprisingly low given their vulnerability, but the enthusiasm among those who voted was high.

Is there similar movement among the state flagships whose enrollment is dropping? State legislators may not be good at developing a higher-education strategy for their state all on their own. A faculty union could add some useful constraints to their actions, protecting the capacity to produce an educated citizenry..

Adjuncts tend to fall into two groups. 

(1) Those who have other jobs and aren't interested in getting involved at the drama at the college. They avoid union votes in the off chance they were even aware it was going on.
(2) Those who want/need to get a full-time job and are actively involved in their union to get there. So they would have voted enthusiastically.

There is a 3rd group that likes being part-time, wants to stay part-time and wants to just be better paid as a part-timer. They might even fight full-time moves because they know it means fewer overall positions.

[tuxthepenguin]

IHE reports on unionization at UNM. This univeristy has seen a big drop (~20%) in student enrolment over five years. Will unionization help protect faculty from the resulting administrative strategy?

I don't see how it will help with either demographic changes or reduced levels of funding. I'm not speaking about UNM, but at universities more generally. While a college degree is very valuable, and gets more valuable every time another job gets automated, we're going to have to figure out how to run universities with fewer students and fewer dollars. The outcome is going to be about the same with or without a union.