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College Financial Health/Management


Memphis College of Art, in financial straits, weighs personnel, program cuts

Memphis, Tenn., Commercial Appeal
May 11, 2012

Ron Jones, Memphis College of Art president, has issued a statement asking his board of trustees to grant him the power to eliminate programs and suspend contracts for the school's employees. Jones's statement "declared a state of financial exigency, signaling the need for program retrenchment in the coming year." The declaration, Jones wrote, "confirms the college's inability to meet current faculty salary obligations; and, if confirmed by the Board of Trustees, enables MCA to try to stabilize the operating budget by making faculty decisions without regard to seniority or contract status."

Fairfield U. faces faculty pay crisis

Connecticut Post, Bridgeport
May 10, 2012

Fairfield University officials, faced with budget woes and shrinking enrollment, want to abandon an 18-year practice of paying professors as well, or better, than peers in comparable institutions. In the midst of finals week, about 100 faculty and students, carrying signs and chanting, trekked across the university's well-appointed lawns in the rain Wednesday to the university president's annual address to faculty. For nearly two decades, faculty salaries at Fairfield have been set at a level higher than 95 percent of faculty at similar comprehensive masters-granting universities.

Law School Plans to Offer Web Courses for Master’s

New York Times
May 9, 2012

The law school of Washington University announced Tuesday that it would offer, entirely online, a master's degree in United States law intended for lawyers practicing overseas, in partnership with 2tor, an education technology company. Legal education has been slow to move to online classes, and the new master's program is perhaps the earliest partnership between a top-tier law school and a commercial enterprise.

Chester College Students and Faculty Demand Resignation of President

New Hampshire Public Radio
May 8, 2012

Students and Faculty at Chester College are demanding the resignation of college President and former Manchester Mayor Bob Baines. While students rallied in front of Baines' office on Monday, faculty and staff members submitted a vote of no confidence against the president. But College trustees say they still have full faith in Baines. Baines says the recession brought enrollment down, making a serious dent in Chester's budget, but he and trustees have been tight-lipped on specific plans for how to keep the college open.

New College, New Model

Inside Higher Ed
May 7, 2012

Ameritas College, launched last week, blends for-profit and nonprofit elements and has a singular focus on Latinos who are working adults. It is part of Brandman University, a private, nonprofit institution with 26 campuses in California and Washington. Co-located at four campuses in Southern California's Inland Empire, Ameritas will offer relatively low-cost, accelerated associate and bachelor degree tracks. Its curriculum is designed to "crack the code" of helping Latinos get to graduation, administrators said.

Why College Students Matter

Huffington Post - Opinion Piece
May 7, 2012

While America has expressed a clear yearning for social change since the recession began in 2008, the focus of that change has been both divisively partisan and elusive.  The bottom line is that change is not happening in Washington no matter the seeming urgency of our never-ending news cycle or a presidential campaign getting into full gear. Real change is happening on the ground in a place ironically considered by much of America to be a universe apart: college. In tangible ways, the American university is challenging the social selfishness that has come to dominate our civic life.

Cities seek more money from tax-exempt colleges

Associated Press
May 7, 2012

The town-vs.-gown confrontation between Providence, R.I., and Brown University reflects a trend across the nation as cities desperate for revenue try to get more money out of tax-exempt institutions such as universities and hospitals. These institutions argue they already contribute to a city's economy and quality of life through jobs, economic activity and community services. But as cities grapple with deficits and cash-flow crunches, they are succeeding in getting nonprofits to pay up.

Cutbacks planned at Sweet Briar College

Lynchburg, Va., News & Advance
May 6, 2012

Over the next two years, Sweet Briar plans to cut the equivalent of 11 full-time faculty positions, a mix of part-time and full-time employees, reducing the faculty size to 85 full time-equivalent positions. The college will eliminate the German and engineering management majors, along with a minor in law and society. Sweet Briar's central problem is that enrollment has fallen below the critical mass needed to support the college's programs and operations, president Jo Ellen Parker said. By expanding the student body and reducing the faculty size, Sweet Briar hopes to improve its financial outlook.

Mercyhurst University: Economic effect tops $100 million a year

Erie, Pa., Times-News
May 6, 2012

Mercyhurst University is the latest Erie-area employer to size up its own economic effect on the community. And the numbers are substantial. The newly released community- impact report, the school's first, shows that Mercyhurst contributes more than $101 million to the Erie economy each year. That contribution, which includes both direct and indirect spending, includes the $22.9 million in payroll paid to the school's 524 full-time and 100 part-time employees. Like most such studies, this one includes a multiplier that weighs the indirect effect of direct investments. The study also makes the case that Mercyhurst and other private schools save taxpayers money.

What's in a Name? For Yale in Singapore, a Whole Lot

Chronicle of Higher Education
May 6, 2012

It was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in January 2009, that Richard C. Levin, president of Yale University, and Tan Chorh Chuan, president of the National University of Singapore, began discussing what has become a deep-seated collaboration between the two institutions to create the first liberal-arts college in the island nation. But three years after that first handshake, Mr. Levin faces vocal campus resistance to the project, which is known as Yale-NUS College.

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