How are American colleges and universities responding to institutional pressures?
Today I’ll share exemplary stories from the past two months. I’ve been blogging this theme for months now (March 1, March 20, March 28, April, May, June, July), partly as evidence for some points in the book I’m writing. This post will follow the same structure as the others, starting with campus closures, followed by mergers, staff cuts, and looming financial problems. At the end are some brief observations.
1 Closing colleges and universities
Let’s start with a big picture observation. The total number of American higher education institutions shrank by 2%, “from 5,918 in 2022–23 to 5,819 in 2023–24,” according to federal data. In terms of absolute numbers, “[t]he number of Title IV institutions in the U.S. and other jurisdictions decreased from 5,918 in 2022–23 to 5,819 in 2023–24.”
Now, down to cases. The University of the Arts (Philadelphia: private), which announced it would close this summer after failing to find a merger partner, filed for bankruptcy. The Higher Ed Dive article notes several legal actions by former staff seeking to get paid.
2 Mergers
Lackawanna College (Pennsylvania: private) and Peirce College (Philadelphia: private) announced they would merge their institutions by next summer. Interestingly, both colleges say they’re financially healthy. Yet note this: “Under the agreement, Lackawanna is set to absorb Peirce’s revenue and balance sheet, officials told Higher Ed Dive.”
Speaking of Pennsylvania, Gannon University (two campuses in Pennsylvania, one in Florida: Catholic) and Ursuline College (Ohio: Catholic) announced they would enter a “strategic partnership.”
Why merge? The official statement describes reasons of ambition mixed with decline:
Gannon has been exploring expansion opportunities; Ursuline College has been looking to partner with a larger institution; and the Ursuline Sisters wanted to find a partner who would preserve their legacy as the number of Sisters has declined.
Further:
The move, which is contingent on the successful completion of due diligence, will create an institution with about 6,000 students, 1,300 employees, and campuses in three states – Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Once complete, it will be the largest Catholic university system in the region.
The combination has this imbalance: “Gannon would replace the Ursuline Sisters as the sole member of the Ursuline College Corp., according to an FAQ page devoted to the combination. Gannon would also take ownership of Ursuline’s assets and liabilities.” Signal Cleveland notes the announcement doesn’t use the word “merger.”
3 Campuses cutting programs and jobs
Western Illinois University (public university) announced personnel cuts. “57 faculty… and 32 staff positions will be eliminated, affecting a range of departments and roles.” Additional cuts are in the works, including not filling vacant positions (“including two vice president positions”) and many departmental budget restrictions. One list of the ended positions includes quite a few in the humanities, along with eight librarians. Faculty and staff protested.
Why such cuts? Financial pressures, and an eye to reducing operations overall. According to WIU’s president, “In order to address financial stability, we must recognize that our institution, like so many others across the country, must be the right size and the right shape to serve this number of students.” A local newspaper adds:
WIU has found itself struggling with a shrinking student body, the fallout of the 2015-17 budget impasse and state appropriations that haven’t kept pace with inflation. Now, the university is trying to shrink its budget deficit and escape a cash crunch.
Emerson College (private) will lay off ten staff due to declining enrollment. Additionally, “[t]o further realize savings, the college developed plans for voluntary faculty buyouts and will reduce faculty searches, freeze and delay selected staff searches, strengthen hiring controls, defer capital projects, and reduce operational expenditures.” The reason? Declining enrollment.
Wittenberg University (Ohio: private, Lutheran, liberal arts) will lay off around 40 faculty and staff members. That’s a huge proportion of the university’s workforce, which has around 100-110 (Wikipedia) instructors. The University will also end a set of programs: “five majors and their corresponding minors from its offerings: music, music education, German, Spanish and East Asian studies. The university is also cutting a minor in Chinese.” Additionally, “the men’s and women’s tennis program, as well as women’s bowling, will end after the 2024-25 season.”
One earlier plan would have cut even more:
A plan, put forward by the university’s president, Michael L. Frandsen, and its board in late July, proposed eliminating 60 percent of full-time faculty and about a quarter of noninstructional staff, and relying more heavily on online course-sharing to teach students.
Why make such cuts? The attentive reader will have surmised the answer, but let’s give Higher Ed Dive the opportunity to explain in some detail:
Wittenberg posted a $13.7 million total operating deficit for the fiscal year ending June 2023, more than double the previous year’s $5.7 million shortfall, per its latest financials. The university carries $38.2 million in debt stemming bonds issued in 2016.
For fiscal 2023, Wittenberg saw its tuition and fees revenue decline to $15.3 million, down by about $1.7 million compared to the year before. Meanwhile, its total operating expenses increased by $2.8 million, to $59.6 million.
That drop in tuition revenue follows a long-running decline in enrollment. Between 2017 and 2022, the university’s fall headcount fell about 31% to 1,299 students, according to federal data.
Wittenberg is exploring outsourcing some teaching and other campus functions online. David Staley argues that this suggests a shift away from relationship-rich education.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (public, research) is considering laying off 32 tenured professors by closing one program. That program served two campuses which had merged with UW-Milwaukee, but:
The College of General Studies was created to support two-year degrees at UWM’s Waukesha and Washington County campuses when they merged with UWM in 2018. However, the Washington County campus has closed and the other is slated to shut down by the end of the next academic year.
As states the official proposal.
Enrollment is at the heart of it, and the trends are clear. From 2010 to 2023, CGS saw a 65% decline in students without a corresponding reduction in staff. We see no evidence this trend will reverse, consistent with national and state data and similar institutions. UWM lacks the student demand for the liberal arts associate degree and cannot justify additional investment in it.
Can the rest of UWM rehire those faculty members? That official page thinks not: “After a decade of enrollment declines and budget cuts, the main campus also cannot simply absorb dozens of faculty positions.”
Meanwhile, across the country, Stanford University (!) (California: private research university) fired nearly two dozen creative writing instructors. Apparently the decision to do so came from their tenured colleagues. Reasons include neither enrollment nor financial problems, given that Stanford is extremely exclusive and wealthy.
4 Budget crises, programs cut, not laying off people yet
The California State University system (23 campuses) is developing cuts to address a budget shortfall. So far this is taking the form of fewer and larger classes. The financial problem is several hundred million dollars, apparently, which raises the possibility of staff cuts to come.
Drexel University (Philadelphia: private university) is considering staff cuts, after deciding on other cost-cutting measures, like voluntary early retirements and not filling open positions. The reason? A 15% enrollment decline yielding a $22 million budget hole on top of a $63 million deficit, according to the local Inquirer. The FAFSA debacle may have played a role as well.
Naropa University (Colorado: private, Buddhist) is going to sell its main campus. According to an official email, the goal is fundraising: “the campus is an asset Naropa can leverage to ensure the long-term financial health and sustainability of the university.” Further, Naropa is focusing more on online learning: “With over 40% of students (and a significant portion of staff and faculty) now operating primarily in hybrid and virtual spaces, we are redefining the very essence of what it means to be a community…”
What can we observe about these cuts?
I note that the queen sacrifice (giving up tenure-track faculty as a winning gambit) continues to be in play, notably with Western Illinois.
On a related note: the humanities tend to bear the brunt of such cuts, although they are not the sole victims. This Chronicle column concurs.
I used the word “merger” to describe two cases, but note that in both one party absorbed the other’s liabilities. Are these better thought of as acquisitions?
Inside Higher Ed ran an advice column about how a faculty or staff member can best protect themselves against such job cuts. We might see more efforts along these lines, including coaching and consulting services.
Final note: Wittenberg is in the same Springfield, Ohio that’s the center of the Trump “immigrants eating pets” story. They are enduring all kinds of stresses and threats from that campaign nonsense. They already shifted classes online in response to the most disturbing calls. I wish them well, and fear the experience might cause them additional grief during the next financial year.
(thanks to Lisa Hinchliffe, Peter Shea, Karen Bellnier, Steven Volk, Glen McGee)
I notice that the number of Title IV institutions declined by 1.67% in 2023-24. (It was flat in 2022-23.) This is slightly higher than the average annual percentage decline during the decade from 2010-11 through 2020-21, which was 1.57%. While public institutions declined by 0.61% and private nonprofits declined by 0.32% annually in this decade, private for-profits represented the largest decline, closing at an average annual rate of 2.89%. For-profits made up 84% of the closed institutions in the decade.* I can’t find updated data by sector for 2022-23 or 2023-24, but I’m interested to know whether the closure rate among traditional institutions — public and private nonprofit — is accelerating.
*From NCES’s report The Condition of Education 2022, table 105.50.