Infrastructure and overhead, especially in a higher interest rate environment, have no elasticity.
All schools have more contingent instruction, but you’re getting very close to hopping the fence on the high acceptance rate ≠ low quality suggestion.
I think both can be true.
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Full-time faculty jobs are difficult to find. I know several faculty at colleges on the brink. They are intelligent, motivated, and have good pedigrees. I think because of this, a student can get a quality education at most colleges.
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Small colleges that are struggling to fill an incoming class often start recruiting students who are not ready for college. Many of these students later drop out and now the college has to not only recruit a new incoming class but replace students who dropped out. This can create a death spiral because small private colleges are so tuition-dependent.
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I agree, any individual statement about any school can be reasonable (you can get a great education at a school with high acceptance rates, the number of adjunct/part-time professors can help with lowering enrollment, a lower-cost local option might attract new students, specialized programs might re-position the school, etc.).
All are valid.
The issue for many of the schools listed above in this thread, and for the ones that are going to be listed in the future, is that they have been trapped by one or two of the issues. The margin for error has become very small, and the leadership necessary to navigate these issues may need to be more business focused, and less academically focused. When that happens, the consultant hordes descend, and often make the problems even worse.
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I think this FAFSA fiasco is going to put the final nail in the coffin a number of struggling schools this year.
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It’s too easy to blame the consultants.
What options does a college have if the main valuable asset is an auxiliary campus whose real estate is worth more than anything else on the table? Monetize the asset- that’s the option. What options does a college have if there’s another institution which will pay off the accrued debt, assume the long term obligations of underfunded pensions from retirees (and soon to retire staff/faculty) in exchange for taking over the college and what remains of the endowment?
It’s lovely to romanticize that given enough time a struggling institution can right itself. But there usually aren’t 15 levers to push. There are usually 4 or 5, each with its own set of controversial, heritage erasing elements.
Don’t blame the consultants for identifying what those 4-5 options are, and then letting the trustees pick the “least worse” options.
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I doubt you thought this when typing, but you’re reinforcing my point.
As a consultant for 30+ years, it’s easy to romanticize the value of “independent, specialized professionals”.
I’m comfortable saying that when the President, the other leaders, and the board need to pay someone seven-figures to tell them what arm to cut off, it’s only a matter of time until you have to pay to find out which leg goes next. If they would have started at the head, it would be less painful.
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I’m not sure what your point is. But whatever.
Presidents are hired because of their (either modest or substantial) track records as intellectuals/academics/politicians, and their fundraising prowess. When we get to the point where small LAC’s clamor to hire former CFO’s of multinational companies who have slashed/burned/sold off businesses which were dragging down the entire enterprise, the consultants won’t be needed.
Until that time, who is going to look the trustees in the eye and say “This is no longer a viable operational entity”?
I know people who are former employees of non-profits which have shut their doors. Do you think it’s easy trying to get information, let alone an actual payment out of one of these organizations? Imagine finding out that payroll taxes were withheld- per the law- but never paid for the last two years. Imagine being a service provider (software, landscaping, security) who has to bring a lawsuit against a shuttered organization to get just a fraction of what they are owed? If the alternative to “slinking away in the middle of the night until the AG’s office sorts it out” is bringing on a high priced consultant who can manage an acquisition, sale or unwinding in an orderly and responsible way- I’ll pick the consultant.
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ROFL! “modest . . . track records as intellectuals” 
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Infrastructure and overhead are decent-sized expenses for most colleges, sure, but personnel costs make up the bulk of (nearly) any educational institution’s budget.
And I seriously don’t see why the mention of contingent instructors has anything to do with either acceptance rates or educational quality. There are colleges with low acceptance rates that lean heavily on contingent instruction, and there are (lots of!) faculty on contingent contracts who provide high-quality instruction.
Now, what an overreliance on contingent instruction does damage is long- and maybe even medium-term institutional stability, but that’s rather a different issue, particularly when there’s an immediate-term crisis.
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This post, but especially this sentence, contained some weird unstated assumptions about corporate governance and aims, both in the higher-ed sector and elsewhere.
You have returned the favor. Moving on…
Looks like New Jersey City University looking to merge to survive
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With only 10 players left, Cabrini’s softball team wants to win the conference for its last season.
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This is also interesting…I thought…
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I find it hard to believe that the number of deans, associate deans, and assistant deans has jumped from 56 to 310. I could be wrong. I’ve seen most new administrators have been hired to manage federal oversight programs like Title IX, IPEDS reporting, fundraising, grant writing and management, and support services to help students graduate.
I’m also skeptical of this article because he makes the claim, perhaps tongue in cheek, that this administrative growth will continue to rise until that’s all the university does.
It’s become a trope that bloated administration and lazy rivers are to blame for the high cost of education. The Wall Street Joural did a profile of Auburn recently that wasn’t flattering and did show significant increases in administrative costs, but they also admitted that those costs are a drop in the bucket of overall spending.
As someone who has worked in higher education for 25 years, and who was a doctoral student actively involved in university governance for several years before that, I will say that that jump over that time period is absolutely and perfectly believable.
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I’ll second that!
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I have also worked in higher ed for 25 years, but almost exclusively at public universities in institutional research. I have not seen even two fold increases in admin numbers. It’s also very difficult to determine where the line is between staff and administrator, so most folks look at the number of employees, subtract the number of faculty, and call the remainder “administration”. Yes, that number has increased.
Are professional academic advisors, writing center staff, mental health professionals “administration”? Some say yes, I call them student support (as does IPEDS) and they are part of the reason retention and graduation rates have gone up significantly since the 1990s. Many are funded by student fees, and in my personal opinion, those fees have gotten out of hand (but that’s another discussion).
However, as the author points out, deans, provosts, and vice presidents are easily counted as admin. That is also how I’m defining administration. I don’t disbelieve your experience, I just have not seen this in the HR data at four public universities.
If you work at institutions that have seen administration increases similar to what the author describes, then I can appreciate the frustration.
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