DGS49
Diamond Member
The first story in today's briefing (hope you are not blocked with the paywall) is about the financial crisis on most American campuses. In typical NYT fashion, they blame a lot of it on Trump, but the broader picture is, as the "cost" of colleges has risen, the contribution of most states has gone down, while the Feds have tried to soften the blow to families with various programs, the Donald doesn't seem to have a plan for the future, when colleges are REALLY fucked financially.
Allow me to take a different tack. I have worked for many companies that faced financial crises of one kind or another (been laid off several times), and I have seen what companies do when they really have to work to survive. They:
- Go to department heads and tell them to cut every expense that is not essential,
- Cut salaries across the board,
- Eliminate whole departments sometimes,
- Lay off people who are "excess," and
- Work harder.
Now look at today's college campuses, and identify all the things that have nothing to do with education. Every department and position with the word, "diversity," and/or "inclusion," could be eliminated immediately, with no negative impact. How many other worthless departments have been allowed to proliferate? How many professors are teaching a full course load?
Does every department pull its own weight? Biggest, of course, is athletics. Has nothing to do with education and in most colleges it is a financial loser. I have read that there are now more "administrators" on most campuses than faculty. Is that reasonable? I realize that you can't save much money by turning the lights off in a building, but how many buildings on campus are actually education-essential? The swimming pool, gym, student union?
The solution for colleges does not appear to be more money. Whatever money they get they waste. They figure out new positions and initiatives and reasons to spend it.
And keep in mind that there is ANOTHER tidal wave about to impact today's colleges, if sanity ever breaks out in Washington and the state capitals. They will be expected to shoulder at least some of the load of college loans. They cannot go along forever charging outrageous tuitions and fees, while their graduates suffer with crappy jobs, minimal incomes, and default on those loans. The colleges MUST be forced to step up, somehow, and assume some of this financial risk.
To reiterate my basic point: I have never seen or heard of any college taking stock of itself in the same way that a business would do, to ensure its economic viability. And while college is not a "business," they can't expect the public to bail them out YET AGAIN unless and until they do the sort of soul searching that every real business goes through from time to time. Cut salaries, lay people off, get serious. Then we can talk.