Feds intervene as financial turmoil worsens at Union Institute

What is and is not included in "humanities" is a well-established concept. It is what it is, and it doesn't need my explanation. Nor do I wish to win a senseless argument.

 

Union's woes continue. Now the president has gone MIA. (She scampered back to Indiana.)

When the going got tough, this president left town: As Union Institute spiraled, its president relocated

Things were always wild and wooly at Union. Creative, innovative, weird. And the administration was always the source of its troubles, until Roger Sublett took over. Then, when he retired, it all went south again. This time, perhaps for good.

I don't care personally. My degree is from more than 20 years ago (and no one cares anyway). But I really feel bad for current students, especially graduate students. There doesn't seem to be a teach-out plan in place, and a Union degree is pretty much all-or-nothing. Bad stuff.

 

The article also notes that the financial losses started immediately after Webb arrived and despite 4 straight years of losses the Trustees never intervened. I've sat on some Boards before and financial stewardship is one of our most important roles. In small orgs sometimes the Board Members are the only ones looking at the financials at all. I wonder what she was doing wrong when compared to Sublett, or what Sublett was doing right. Do you have any insight?

Edit: https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/what-went-wrong-at-union-institute-enrollment-declined-spending-did-not

This article is interesting. Enrollment fell 36% and the resulting loss of tuition was 41%, meanwhile they didn't cut any programs. They did cut the advertising budget 14% and spent 25% more on maintenance and facilities.

No real attempt to right the ship.

 

Well, Steve, didn't Laurentian University (Sudbury ON) also have "the benefit of taxpayers as a backstop?" But they went BANKRUPT. Yes, BANKRUPT - like any other insolvent business. That's something you once said (years ago) on DI could not happen to a public entity.

The discussion at the time was about Anglia Ruskin U. in UK, which had faced financial difficulties years previously and had been said, at that time, by reliable sources, to be possibly facing BANKRUPTCY during that crisis. So.. do you still believe "the benefit of taxpayers as a backstop" is a 100% prevention or prohibition when it comes to BANKRUPTCY?

If you still do, what about ORANGE COUNTY, or DETROIT, and other public US entities that have gone officially BANKRUPT. Bungled finances won't be shored up by taxpayers forever. A prudent government will often see to that.

 

Regarding Sublett, yes. Schuster Webb, no.

Sublett came in and cleaned house. He wiped out the faculty, especially the long-termers, and brought in new people. He hit fundraising hard. He eliminated unproductive degree programs and modernized administrative systems. He divested property. This all had the combined effect of lowering costs and increasing revenues. It also destroyed the unique nature of Union. Completely.

But enrollments were always the big bugaboo. Union simply couldn't compete in the burgeoning DL market. It had also lost its identity, but it's hard to gauge the impact of that, if any.

I don't know about Schuster Webb. I was involved with some of the conversations around those changes under Sublett, having taken a couple of lunches with him. But my involvement with Union ended soon after that.

 

Ironically the Vermont College of Fine Arts, which separated from Union during that time to become a freestanding MFA school, survives. VCFA has recently been divesting property of its own.

 

A little off-topic but I have a sour taste in my mouth from applying to Laurentian shortly after dropping out of Humber College. Laurentian insisted I present them with a transcript for courses I took at Humber, but Humber refused to grant me a transcript because I dropped out before mid-terms (the date when a "W" would have registered on my transcript instead of nothing at all.) Because it was my first term, I had no coursework at all, and therefore Humber could give me no transcript. It was as if I had never attended. Laurentian refused to accept that fact (or a letter from the registrar saying as such!) as proof of my time there, so they denied me admission because they said I was missing the required transcript.

I re-applied a year or two later, leaving Humber off my application the second time, and they pulled my previous application and asked me again for a Humber transcript. I gave up at that point. It all worked out, but it was a little Kafkaesque.

 

(1) Gladly.
(2) And yes - I was pi.... I mean, 'animated, I guess.
(3) I erred - the posts were 10 years ago and it was University of Cumbria, not Anglia Ruskin, which was under discussion.

A comment here. Post #4
https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/robert-kennedy-college-zurich.43521/#post-441805
And the original kerfuffle here, with several comments by me.
https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/anyone-has-any-idea-about-roberb-kennedy-college.42303/#post-430148

And please accept my apologies here, Steve. Turns out it wasn't you, but Rich Douglas I disagreed with on this. And I also forgot it was settled pretty well, by post 24. My memory is really going...

 

Neither do I, and apparently I did.

 

Before I deleted my Quora account along with my 2018 Top Writer award and 2000 answers, I would occasionally click into a Google search result looking for information only to see my own words staring back at me from years earlier, though I couldn't remember writing that specific answer or sometimes know that information anymore.

If I didn't cite my sources (failing to do so was rare) I wouldn't know if the answer were correct but I usually did and the info was solid.

To tweak an old expression, "the master has forgotten more than the beginner has ever learned."

 

I've averaged two posts per day for 22 years on this board. I would not at all be interested in reviewing any of them.

 

Nobody's asking you to.

 

Which is why I didn't post that as a response to anyone. I expressed an opinion, nothing more. Problem?

 

I shouldn't fire off posts right before my head hits the pillow. No, no problem. I misinterpreted the tone of your post as a negative response to mine. I apologize.

 

Cool.