Antioch College Faculty Concerned About Drop in Enrollment
“as it comes off a period of furloughs and pay cuts”
Small liberal arts colleges will likely be the most vulnerable to the higher ed bubble.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Worries at Antioch College
Some faculty members have grown increasingly unsettled about Antioch College’s future, worrying the small private liberal arts college in western Ohio is trailing enrollment goals for its upcoming fall quarter even as it comes off a period of furloughs and pay cuts.
College officials on Thursday disputed an anonymous tip that Antioch currently has 34 new students signed up for its Class of 2022, significantly trailing a goal of 75 that was made public earlier this year. Antioch is focused instead on enrolling the right mix of students to hit a new revenue target, they said. But they did not share any alternative new student enrollment snapshot Thursday, saying only that the college is on track for a significant increase over last year.
Last year, 28 new students came to campus against a goal of 60 for the fall of 2017. If Antioch were to miss an enrollment target again, it could increase pressure on a college that has been heavily dependent on donations since it reopened in the fall of 2011. Antioch offered full-tuition scholarships for several years after it reopened as it re-established its accreditation, but it has since struggled to transition to charging tuition. Consequently, its enrollment and budget figures draw scrutiny as those within the college and across higher education watch to see if students are willing to pay — and if a once-closed college can stabilize its financial model.
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Comments
A friend who works at a prestigious, competitive NYC high school told me that many students vowed to avoid applying to colleges in states that went for Trump. I don’t know how widely that actually happened, but it can’t be good for places like Antioch and Oberlin.
My favorite comment from the 2016 election was the Oberlin student who didn’t understand how Trump won because they personally did not know anyone who voted for him. So much for a diverse collection of friends.