A Plan to Save Small Colleges

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by MaceWindu, Jul 4, 2024.

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  1. MaceWindu

    MaceWindu Active Member

    MaceWindu, Jul 4, 2024
    #1
  2. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Don't know. Isn't what's been happening just a reflection of a changing marketplace? Capitalism is cold but will tend toward efficiency absent distortions.

    I'm skeptical of any solution that includes adding a layer of expensive management without a concomitant increase in income.
     
    nosborne48, Jul 4, 2024
    #2
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    The part where a bunch of colleges get rid of all their administrators and outsource their administration needs to a cooperative at least potentially makes sense. But the part where they each keep only their strongest majors assumes that a cluster of little colleges in the middle of nowhere will each specialize in something different, and I expect that scenario is awfully rare.
     
    SteveFoerster, Jul 4, 2024
    #3
    MaceWindu likes this.
  4. MaceWindu

    MaceWindu Active Member

    KEEP administrators because those are local jobs that feed into the local economies.
     
    MaceWindu, Jul 7, 2024
    #4
  5. Vicki

    Vicki Well-Known Member

    This is pretty much what they did throughout Pennsylvania, including my Alma mater.
     
    Vicki, Jul 7, 2024
    #5
  6. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Keeping administrators needlessly as some sort of jobs program doesn't make sense if your institution is going to go under altogether as a result.

    Higher education is an industry, and a university is a business. And those universities run by people who don't understand that will go out of business.
     
    SteveFoerster, Jul 7, 2024
    #6
  7. Suss

    Suss Active Member

    If a plan like this were implemented, they would have to keep a few local admins, just to get things done. It might reduce the numbers by 70-80% but would not eliminate them completely.
     
    Suss, Jul 9, 2024
    #7
  8. wmcdonald

    wmcdonald Active Member

    Mr. President, your points are well taken. In Eyring and Christensen's book The Innovative University (2011), the discussion was thorough and concise. They developed significant ideas for particularly small, tuition driven institutions. As usual, some long-term administrator who most likely couldn't read a balance sheet, scoffed. Now, Clayton and his coauthor predicted that 25% of said small institutions would close within a decade. He was not quite accurate in that predictions, but they are teetering on the brink! It's how we do business!
     
    wmcdonald, Jul 9, 2024
    #8
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