My translation is that too many of their students are pay for play student athletes and one of them switching leagues/level would severely impact their recruiting efforts.
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Interesting website for looking at colleges and universities that are dealing with operating, enrollment, and appropriation losses.
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/jonboeckenstedt/viz/KelchenFinanceandEnrollmentData
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Kean and New Jersey City University merging. NJCU will be known as Kean NJC. Let’s see how they will handle the debt at NJCU
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Butler County Community College shutsdown a branch campus. Not sure why a community college with less than 4000 students needs 5 campuses with the branches outside its county. How can a community college cost 6660 (in county) to 8700 (for instate?) While Slippery Rock tuition is around 10k? If you take online or hybrid it’s more expensive. Too many college with high cost and making it so unaffordable for PA residents.
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I see they have workforce training which can often more be expensive than true academic courses. Thinking about welding, HVAC, etc. that simply cost more, and of course those programs are not being cut. They are staying open for online, duel enrolment and workforce training programs.
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Not a closing, but Fairleigh Dickinson University has made some deep cuts to its undergrad and graduate offerings as part of “…a multi-year transformational journey.” Here’s the list: Programs Impacted | Fairleigh Dickinson University
The university’s full post is here: Transforming FDU | Fairleigh Dickinson University
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My mom is so sad about Wells College closing. Its her alma mater.
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We’re going back about 100 years, when middle class&working class youth were supposed to primarily use schooling to prepare for jobs (or if girls/women for lives at home/under someone’s orders in an office or a plant ) whereas those who came from money or would have positions of responsibility (or boys who had such aspirational views) would study broadly: Nursing or Allied Health vs. Chemistry or Physics or premed (the Biology major remains), Social Studies (for education licensure) rather than History or Political Science…
Of course, here, it’s demand-driven and FDU is tuition-dependent, with students attending primarily interested in college as a social space+degree as gatekeeper to jobs they want - so, the move makes sense from FDUs perspective.
The US may recreate what the UK called “Polytechnics”, France “IUT”, Germany “FachHochSchule”.
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These cuts at Fairleigh Dickinson are stunning:
Programs are discontinued at both New Jersey campuses unless otherwise indicated.
Undergraduate Programs
Art*
Chemistry**
Creative Writing*
Entrepreneurship
Environmental Studies
Fine Arts*
Government and Law*
History*
Literature**
Management
Marine Biology
Mathematics at Florham only
Philosophy**
Social Studies*
Sociology*
Theater Arts*
*We are pleased to announce the creation of the following new undergraduate programs that will likely be of interest to our students:
Bachelor of Arts in Individualized Studies (BAIS) with new concentration in the Arts
BAIS with new concentrations in History and Politics, Health and Society, Hispanic Studies, and Environmental Studies (Metro only)
**We are pleased to invite students to consider these exciting options:
Students interested in Literature and Philosophy are encouraged to major in the Humanities.
Students interested in Chemistry are invited to consider the major in Biochemistry.
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Comparing the undergraduate programs to be discontinued with the list at Undergraduate Programs | Fairleigh Dickinson University , we see that the remaining ones will be:
- Animation
- Biology
- Business and Accounting (but not Entrepreneuship or Management)
- Communication
- Computer Science
- Criminology and Criminal Justice
- Cybersecurity and Homeland Security
- Degree Completion
- Education
- Engineering and Technology
- Film
- Graphic Design
- Health Sciences
- Hospitality and Tourism
- Humanities (general only, not History, Literature, or Philosophy)
- Information Technology
- Mathematics (discontinued at Florham campus)
- Nursing
- Psychology and Counseling
- Sport Management
According to the entries at College Navigator - Search Results , it looks like the majors to be discontinued mostly have small enrollments. The biggest major group at Florham is business, while the biggest major group at Metropolitan is general studies.
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Seems it’s the season for branch campuses to close! Troy University will close its Phenix campus
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Do we have to go back 100 years to see that situation? More overtly pre-professional majors are more common at colleges with greater percentages of students from lower SES families. This may be because students from lower SES families have to worry about more immediate financial return upon graduation, rather than taking financial risks to aim higher like those who come from money can.
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Though those targeted preprofessional majors are often less flexible down the line. It’s a risk either way.
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Everyone wants a flagship for the “experience” these days so these satellites closing doesn’t surprise me.
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True. However, when the short term is more precarious (e.g. need a job immediately after graduation to pay back the student loans), the long term considerations get deprioritized.
It is also true that some more specialized pre-professional majors have limited labor markets, or do not confer significant labor market advantage over less specialized majors. But high school seniors and college students may not be aware of that, if their parents, school counselors, and others they know are not familiar with the labor markets in those areas.
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Which is honestly a big problem across the higher education sector—the asymmetry of information between institutions and individuals. It occurs through all phases, from application to graduation, and it’s not good.
And to be thoroughly topical for this thread, it occurs when things happen like a board of regents knows for months or even years that a college isn’t going to manage to continue being a going concern, but they put off announcing that until sometime late in what will end up being their final spring semester.
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In the end, one has to go where the consumer is vs leading the consumer to a place they don’t want to be.
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I’m not entirely sure I agree. Who knew that they needed to have Stanley water bottles? Some influencers got in on the act and swayed more people and then it became a thing. Consumers weren’t demanding the Stanley water bottles, but they were led there.
Similarly, I think that if universities got with the 21st century and had better PR/marketing to talk about some of the issues and to get people interested, I think it could be influential. Right now it’s just bed parties and dorm room decor, etc. But maybe universities could actually get influencers to communicate in a way that they haven’t successfully done to young people for them to see how to maximize a college education (and I mean the breadth and skills that are traditionally associated with a college degree and not just a narrow pre-professional degree).
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Higher education may also move slowly on other fronts. For example, if certain types of majors are getting popular, does a college add those majors or increase the size of those majors (e.g. hire more faculty, add more facilities needed for the major, etc., which often takes years to complete and can result in long term maintenance)? It could do that, but then if demand for the major ebbs, it could be stuck having spent money on something that is not used. Or it could choose not to do that, but then find that its other majors and the entire college are underenrolled. Either could lead to financial loss making, which can bring a financially struggling college closer to closure.
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Fair enough. But in a lot of ways universities aren’t change agents like an influencer can be. In some aspects they may be but few, such as Northeastern and High Point, truly lead.
From a business POV, cutting unused part of the business makes sense do they can put the capital where it matters.
My fear is that it likely limits the liberal arts part of the education.
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