Letters to the Editor
Business Week

To the Editor:

To suggest that private colleges are in crisis is an exercise in journalistic hyperbole (“Colleges in Crisis,” April 28). Presidents and chief business officers at virtually every private college and university can tell a compelling story of the financial challenges they face in today’s declining economy, with the coming wave of low-income and minority students, and how their institutions have worked effectively to lower costs and improve operating efficiencies.

Since the last economic downturn a decade ago, private colleges and universities have redoubled their efforts to balance academic quality with student access and cost containment. The challenges facing higher education today require college leaders who are entrepreneurial, creative, and expert managers. During the early and mid ’90s, private institutions followed the example of corporate America, slicing off administrative fat and learning how to do more with less. To further control expenses, hundreds of private colleges and universities have deepened their involvement in cost-saving academic and administrative consortia, and outsourced more of their campus operations, including information technology and residential living.

As a result, private colleges and universities have kept annual tuition increases to about 5 percent in the past seven years, less than half the double-digit rates common during the last recession. And their enrollments continue to grow—the U.S. Department of Education projects that enrollment at private colleges will increase an average of 1.7 percent annually for the next 10 years. Yet they’re still providing the world’s best academic experience and an unparalleled commitment to educating all academically qualified students, regardless of background.

The commitment of private college and university presidents to cost containment and prudent management is meeting head-on the financial challenges facing American higher education. The idea that these institutions are in crisis fails to grasp their innovation, flexibility, and endurance.

Sincerely,

David L. Warren
President
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities