American Colleges Are Headed for a Meltdown
Washington Free Beacon,
by
Charles Fain Lehman
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
5/20/2020 4:56:05 AM
They've been through riots, protests, and natural disasters—but America's colleges have never seen anything like the financial meltdown the coronavirus is about to bring to their campuses.
The rising wave of health fears, added costs, and vanishing tuition payments could crush small colleges, many of which were already hanging by a financial thread. Those that can weather the crisis—including big-name universities with billions in their bank accounts—in turn stand to gain big from the fallout. The emptying out of schools and the mass transition to distance learning has already been "the largest all-sector hit that we've ever seen," Jim Hundrieser, a vice president with the National Association
You don't even have to go to Harvard to go to Harvard!
16 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
chumley 5/20/2020 6:27:36 AM (No. 416579)
Good. I have a graddaughter who I love dearly. She has genius level IQ and has been in various college programs since she was 11 or 12. Now she's 21 and a screaming liberal bordering on communist. She has an intellectual gift that could make her and her progeny wealthy for generations. Instead, she is wasting it on social justice and every goofy cause that comes down the pike. She is just begging for the next outrage to get all bent out of shape about. To blazes with those colleges. She would be better off a wage slave with some sense.
51 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
woodenleg 5/20/2020 6:38:00 AM (No. 416581)
I work at a University in NYC....luckily I'm at retirement age.....but this institution will very different and probably completely dependent on government in 5 years....one of the problems is academics are convinced they know better and can run things better than those doing it now. Their failures are never discussed.
21 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Rather Read 5/20/2020 6:43:07 AM (No. 416583)
I started college 50 years ago when it was still affordable and I have a lot of good memories of my time there. After my divorce, I went back to my university and have worked there for 40 years. I have seen the bloat and the political correctness slowly creep in. It breaks my heart.
23 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
WhamDBambam 5/20/2020 7:03:49 AM (No. 416590)
If it just washes out all the diversity administrators (and about 90% of the institutional higher-ed "administration"), it will have been worth it.
25 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
PostAway 5/20/2020 7:18:49 AM (No. 416600)
Pleasure Island or The Land of Toys in Pinocchio could be a metaphor for many college experiences today. Young adults arrive on campus and are allowed, even encouraged, to devolve into an immature state of mindless self-indulgence and sloth. Since very few actually possess the intelligence, drive or ambition to need 16 years of abstract academic schooling a large number of them become psychologically lost and terrified and many turn to feral and debasing but soothing amusements that injure them for the rest of their lives. In Disney’s version of Pinocchio, Pleasure Island children ultimately turn into jackasses. The original Italian story explains that the purpose of the Island is to infantalize the young in order to sell them as slaves.
21 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Urgent Fury 5/20/2020 7:31:26 AM (No. 416614)
I agree about commie colleges, but I would caution all that the ripple affect might strike closer to home. There are numerous small businesses--pizza shops, for example-- that will pay big for empty college towns.
14 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 5/20/2020 7:42:16 AM (No. 416621)
I suspect women and transgender studies will be the last to go.....
20 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
udanja99 5/20/2020 8:01:32 AM (No. 416632)
Another silver lining! I thank God that my daughter opted out of college. She’s a hair stylist and went to work full time 2 days after high school graduation and she has been self-supporting and independent ever since. Now, if only that evil Governor Coonman would let Northern Virginia salons open back up...
20 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
volksford 5/20/2020 8:09:31 AM (No. 416642)
With a bit of luck dear old Oberlin will bite the dust
22 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 5/20/2020 8:23:01 AM (No. 416654)
Unfortunately some small Conservative colleges will close. Unfortunately, large liberal colleges will survive.
Many businesses that survive will focus on providing the best products and service for their customers. Colleges will probably focus on how they can scam government to make up the funding difference while paying little attention to delivering a valuable education to their students. I question whether they even know how to and that is a sad statement about educational institutions.
11 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 5/20/2020 8:40:50 AM (No. 416669)
I think I will dig out my old VHS copy of "Animal House" tonight and relive some old memories from my college days!
7 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Laotzu 5/20/2020 8:50:08 AM (No. 416685)
What are they all talking about -- colleges and universities are hardest hit? This has every appearance of being complete nonsense in the trolling for dollars game of free government money.
What's the difference between the woman who cuts my hair, the guy who changes my oil, and a college or university? Answer: the college or university stayed in business and still gets it money, with even less operating expense than before the virus!
Imagine an apartment complex telling you it can't stay in business because the tenants left after paying their rent in full. Duh.
What has happened is that the whole experience now looks likes a big nothingburger that is way overpriced. But that's always been the case. This just illuminates the issue that big name schools really are just big name resorts.
12 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
lakerman1 5/20/2020 9:08:56 AM (No. 416704)
I could use a month's worth of lucianne's bandwidth on this issue, but won't.
Small colleges have done several things to keep enrollments high enough to survive.
First, they change from college to university. The change is meaniungl;ess in reality, but it coinforms to potential student searches on line. Gannon College and Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa, are two examples.
Second, going coed to scoop up some of the other sex for enrollment purposes is common.
Third, adding sports teams for enrollment purposes is common. Add a football team - at least 50 new students immediately. minor sports are added for males and females - fencing, sailing, crew, badminton, all require expensive staffing, expensive facilities, expensive travel. And the existing students pay for it.
Fancy dorms, with compulsory dorm living for all undergraduates is becoming the norm..
Selling assets is becoming common.
finally, the propping up of 'diversity' is becoming unacceptable if courses are offered on-line. Diversity (racial,not diversity of thought,) has become a legal argument accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, but doesn't matter one bit for on line courses.
the real question is - how much will state and federal government be willing to pay to keep private small colleges open? The pressure will be great, and it will take lawmaker courage to avoid silly funding.
7 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
sanspeur 5/20/2020 9:12:12 AM (No. 416709)
not one single mention of colleges cutting their overpaid , non teaching tenured dead wood . The non producing celebrity profs , the ones who exploit ta’s and have regal retirements /healthcare/ even housing and put their names onto r&d gov’t grant proposals ?
Solution , to train, teach about LIFE and responsibility ... BRING Back the DRAFT ! but not into the droid “diverse” military smidgen created . It would be of more social good than almost current edumacating ..not the peace corps .jobs corps but an American centric organization protecting & defending this country
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
MDConservative 5/20/2020 9:17:01 AM (No. 416720)
Reading the article, it seems that halcyon days are ahead for those institutions able to take advantage. Enrollment is going to jump at the schools prepared to take the students. It's not demand that's lacking. College today is not education; it's buying a job credential, actually earned or not. That's not a difficult service to provide, and students wanting the "sheepskin" will find their funding. Distance learning is just one more viewer with a checkbook.
Pity about St. Somewhere College for Privileged Girls...er, Womyn...which can't re-open and has little endowment to pay the bills.
4 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Anti_democRAT 5/20/2020 9:33:13 AM (No. 416747)
unless the students r over 55, noncitizen, and staff over 55 open them up. time to dump lots of nonessential majors. not much risk for college age kids together.
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
ussjimmycarter 5/20/2020 9:42:42 AM (No. 416757)
Started The University of Iowa in 1972. I wouldn't last 5 minutes on today's campus. I'm a free thinking Christian conservative and will not kneel to anyone's demand! I'm glad to be 66. Things are spiraling out of control and it's only going to get worse. Wait until Post Trump! Yikes! Scary thought to freedom loving people! The current lockdowns are a test run for total authoritarian control leading the forecasted Anti-Christ of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelations! I never thought I would be alive for this event...but I might just be here! Stunning! Forced vaccinations will just be the start of "the mark of the beast" spoken of in the Bible. I never understood how until now... Wow!
6 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Aubreyesque 5/20/2020 9:53:19 AM (No. 416775)
I think the first criteria to be applied to a college or university to stay open is : can you prove that the graduates you generate can get jobs in their majors? And do you have entities in your system that will work with students to find those jobs?
If a particular major cannot gain their student a job, they should be eliminated.
7 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
PlayItAgain 5/20/2020 10:57:39 AM (No. 416852)
Hmmm,
Where might we turn for answers to these problems? Perhaps we should ask a some well-educated college graduates. Or, better yet, maybe there is some brilliant academic brain trust working somewhere that could put their heads together and figure out a solution.
We do spend a lot of money on higher education. But when the rubber hits the road, it clearly isn’t worth it.
Here’s a thought! Teach students how to whine and protest so as to delegate the heavy lifting.
2 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
DVC 5/20/2020 11:51:56 AM (No. 416908)
A good thing.
The Zero got a degree at Columbia, apparently without ever interacting with any other students for four years. If he can do it, why not everyone.
7 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 5/20/2020 11:54:24 AM (No. 416912)
Government gave out loans to everybody with a heartbeat to buy homes, and the housing market melted down. Government gave out loans to everybody with a heartbeat to get a degree in Social Studies, and the college market is about to melt down. Does anyone see a patter here?
4 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 5/20/2020 11:56:05 AM (No. 416917)
... pattern here. Sheez.
1 person likes this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Smart11344 5/20/2020 1:01:56 PM (No. 417005)
I truly thought most of the big name colleges have already melted down.
1 person likes this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
msjena 5/20/2020 1:16:58 PM (No. 417023)
Many if not most colleges have become unaffordable for all but the most wealthy. The rest have to take out loans to be able to attend. That forces colleges to become job training schools because otherwise, the cost can't be justified. Students need to get jobs with their degree to be able to pay back the loans. And for those who can't, graduate school has become even more unaffordable. Financial aid other than loans is rarely available and the loans have high interest rates. And that is not to mention the additional debt burden caused by additional loans. When I went to graduate school, students who had not lived on their own for several years had to submit their parents' financial data and need-based grants were available. I also had loans with below-market interest rates. I never could have afforded it now. These changes were made during the Obama administration--surprise! There are many days when I am sorry I sent my daughter to college, where she not only didn't prepare properly for a job in her field, she also came back an intolerant liberal.
0 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
anniebc 5/20/2020 2:23:38 PM (No. 417081)
Mine too, poster 25. She went to two liberal universities-UNC and GWU. Strange enough, GWU had less of an impact on her, and I attribute it to grad school (course work was back breaking for her) and working while attending school. She had little time for social silliness, but UNC had done a thorough job, and living in DC doesn't help either. A young lady raised as a military brat (raised right, simply put), who lived in two foreign countries and multiple states in the US, turned into a leftist. She still has a conservative base under there somewhere. She's starting to see how her government steals almost every dime she makes and hates taxation (she gets that one from her mother), and she still believes babies out of wedlock is wrong. Not to mention, she's slowly learning that her mother knows more than she does, and her mother is right about almost everything. There's hope for her yet. There's hope for your child as well, as long as she has you.
3 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
BigGeorgeTX 5/20/2020 4:59:52 PM (No. 417163)
Good!. Hopefully tens of thousands of Marxists that have infiltrated the university system will lose their jobs and discover what it means to have to work for a living, the first time for most of them. Without the influence of the Universities Liberalism and Radicalism, perhaps some of the cities they're in might regain their senses. Nah, who am I kidding?
0 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
TXknitter 5/20/2020 9:23:56 PM (No. 417284)
Hey, #7, a reatir friend reminded me all this reshuffkubg is going to affect real estate prices too.
0 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
TXknitter 5/20/2020 9:26:42 PM (No. 417287)
Let’s try again.
Well, #7, a realtor friend told me all this reshuffling is going to affect real estate prices too.
2 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "MissMolly"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)