Global.Chronicle.Com Shi, a former president of Furman University, “We should be worried,” said Nancy L. Zimin South Carolina. He notes that the financial pher, chancellor of the State University of New pressures faced by many such colleges during York system. “We are in a flat world. We are the economic downturn have been acute. going to have to evolve.” Their bottom lines were not buoyed by federAmerican higher education has never been al stimulus research grants like those of the a monolith, of course, but the findings of the Sign up for a free weekly top research universities, they couldn’t make survey of more than 1,000 presidents, conelectronic newsletter from The Chronicle of Higher Education at up lost revenue by increasing tuition like elite ducted March 10 to April 25 by the Pew Chronicle.Com/Globalnewsletter colleges, and, unlike wealthy institutions, Research Center, in association with The The Chronicle of Higher Education is they have little in the way of endowments or Chronicle, suggest how deep its divisions are. a US-based company with a weekly cash reserves to fall back on. What’s more, those fractures are intensifying newspaper and a website updated “The recession really has had an asymmetjust as the country faces formidable and col daily, at Global.Chronicle.com, that cover all aspects of university life. rical impact on higher education,” said Mr. lective challenges, such as meeting President With over 90 writers, editors, and Shi, now a senior fellow at the National Obama’s goal of having the world’s highest correspondents stationed around Humanities Center. The system, he said, “has proportion of college graduates by 2020. the globe, The Chronicle provides become fragmented between haves and haveThroughout the survey of presidents, the timely news and analysis of academnots.” most positive responses, and justifiably so, ic ideas, developments and trends. Take Sinclair Community College, in Daycame from leaders of highly selective colleges, ton, Ohio, where the budget has shrunk by 20 which have healthy balance sheets, more topper cent, in inflation-adjusted dollars, from a decade ago. Durachieving applicants than they can possibly admit, and a strong ing the same time, the college’s student body has swelled with portfolio of global partnerships. laid-off workers looking for retraining, but its tuition, among But they occupy a tiny space in American higher education. the lowest in the state, has been frozen or tightly capped by the The responses of non elite institutions—two-year, for-profit, legislature. “I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy,” said Steven Lee and less-selective four-year colleges—largely reflect their more Johnson, Sinclair’s president, “but I think we’re going the precarious situation. The public institutions among them must wrong way when it comes to public disinvestment.” grapple with declining state support, while tuition-driven priTo remain in the black, Sinclair officials have ferreted out vate colleges confront a student market that has said “enough” inefficiencies, put more of the college’s courses online, and to paying more. Proprietary colleges face greater government whittled away at non essential spending. Still, Mr. Johnson said, scrutiny and regulation. “I’m not confident I can keep doing that and offer something of All will have to educate a student body that is underprepared, quality. We’re starting to cut into muscle.” many of whom are from groups that have traditionally not Sinclair is not alone in its cutbacks. The University of Hartattended college. “The view from the bottom,” said James ford, too, has reduced its expenditures significantly. But the Jacobs, president of Macomb Community College, outside private college ended up plowing much of last year’s savings Detroit, “isn’t so bright.” back into financial aid, says Walter Harrison, its president. “I And unless they rethink the way they do business, education hear every day from people about how expensive they think colexperts say, some colleges will be forced to down shutter. “We’re lege is,” he said. staring fundamental change in the face,” said Stephen R. Portch, Indeed, the general public is fairly shouting its concern about a former chancellor of the University System of Georgia. “Our college costs in a companion survey of 2,142 Americans, ages system is bankrupt, and we’ve got to have a new model.” 18 and older, by the Pew Research Center. Three-quarters of those polled said college was out of reach for most people. It’s the Money, Stupid Twenty-five years ago, six in 10 Americans felt that way, accordIt’s not surprising that colleges with less, or that serve students ing to a survey by the Council for Advancement and Support with less, should strike a more downbeat tone, said David E. of Education. The squeeze is real. College costs have been on the rise, increasing 50 per cent over the last decade, Mr Shi said. By contrast, family incomes actually fell between 2000 and 2009. Ask young adults why they’re not enrolled in college or don’t have a bachelor’s degree, and the overwhelming response in the Pew survey: money. “The affordability of a college degree—whether it is affordable—is becoming a third rail in the national conversation about higher education,” said Jamie P Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation for Education. The belief that college has become prohibitively expensive is
Unless they rethink the way they do business, education experts say, some colleges will be forced to shut down
July 2011 EduTech
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