Sponge U

Latest news from 'the sky is falling' front, i.e., The Chronicle of (Woke) Education.

Amid Budget Shortfall, New Jersey City U. Will Slash Half Its Undergraduate Programs DECEMBER 15, 2022

Facing a budget shortfall of $12.7 million, New Jersey City University will ax almost half of its undergraduate programs and cut its academic offerings over all by 37 percent. The university will close 48 of its 101 undergraduate programs, 29 of its 67 master’s programs, and one of its three doctoral programs. It will also eliminate 24 minors and 10 certificate programs. The undergraduate programs affected include physics, environmental science, and early-childhood education.

As many as 30 tenured faculty members will lose their jobs at the end of the academic year, and up to 19 adjunct professors and staff members will not have their contracts renewed for the next academic year.

The cuts are expected to save the university at least $5 million annually starting in the next fiscal year, a news release said.

About five years ago, I interviewed at St Peters (SPC) to be the founding dean of their new business school. They realized that their liberal arts only ethos was unsustainable, so apparently like Loyola did forty years ago or so, they cobbled together a handful of faculty from existing programs and fields to form a business school, where a tiny percent of SPC faculty would serve a much higher percentage of SPC students.

I met with the president and when I asked him about full payers, and he said 'eleven.' I thought he meant 11% yet with a follow up question he clarified, not 11%. Rather, eleven students.

As Steve Walters says, prices communicate. And as the WSJ study showed, the colleges don't communicate very clearly. Does Colby-Sawyer cutting nominal tuition from $46k to $17k d anything any different -- really -- than a $46k tuition school with a 65% discount rate. Yes, the former is being honest, candid. The latter is being deceptive, especially when they make claims like 95% of students receive some sort of aid," even if some or much of that aid is loans or speculative work study hours, and none of that aid likely applies to pricey books, room and board.

I think that we have a supply-chain problem, maybe a scrap rate problem, or just gross inefficiencies. If a school gets 10,000 applications, admits 8,000, enrolls 800, graduates 600 of them, and only 200 of them end up with more income/wealth than college debt, then "Houston, we have a problem."

Maybe SPC should just merge with NJCU.... SPNJU, or "Sponge U."