Higher Ed in the News
Dunkirk NY – There have been a slew of articles this past weekend on the state of higher ed. One would expect that during the traditional start of the school year. But this year seems different, as a lot more of these articles are starting to peel away the secrecy surrounding many of higher education’s dirty little secrets. I’ve chosen a few excerpts for your consideration.
This first is from the NY Times, an article entitled Why College Costs Rise, Even in a Recession. The article details why it’s so hard to contain college costs. Three reasons predominate: you can’t fire professors, you can’t cut departments, and professors teach less while doing more research. It contains insights from Mr. Lawrence Weiss, President of Lafayette College in PA. A small quote:
About all Mr. Weiss will say about this is that he agrees that Lafayette needs to do a better job of discriminating between the things it can and cannot do well. He is too good on the politics to single out any department. But there is little doubt that he and administrators like him will need to give up on some foreign languages, minor sciences or parts of the arts pretty soon.
Note the comment about reducing the arts. I’ve said before that the arts make a tempting target for college administrators as the economy worsens. It still could happen. Continue Reading »
