The higher education landscape is probably going to look very different a decade from now.
Syracuse.com reports:
Syracuse University issues financial warning as admissions slump: We’re in the redFor the first time in a long time, Syracuse University faces a budget deficit.In an email to staff and faculty, Chancellor Mike Haynie said SU did not hit its undergraduate enrollment target for next year. As a result the school will not bring in enough revenue to cover its spending.“This a moment for urgency and purpose — not panic. Universities that respond with focused, strategic effort will emerge stronger. Those that do not will find their options narrowing,” Haynie said in the email. “I am committed to ensuring Syracuse is in the former category.”The email was a candid update from a chancellor who takes over at a perilous time in higher education. Haynie assumed the top job in April.A deficit could mean more cuts at a university already tightening its belt. Earlier this year, the university offered retirement buyouts for 175 professors. The school is also sunsetting 93 majors.A big factor in the decline in students is what’s known as the demographic cliff. In 2008, there was a steep drop off in the number of babies being born that never recovered. That generation is now reaching college age, meaning there are fewer traditional students enrolling in higher education.The population of 18-year-olds peaked at 3.9 million last year and will decline for the next 15 years, Haynie said in the email.Student services revenue, which consists of tuition, room and board from freshmen and sophomores and student athletic ticket sales, makes up 65% of SU’s operating revenue. A drop in students means the university makes less money.Undergraduate tuition for the upcoming school year is $69,180, with the total cost for attendance hovering around $95,000 a year for a freshman.“The stream of revenue into this institution that keeps us alive is very dangerously not diversified. Tuition and housing charges pay virtually all faculty and staff salaries,” Haynie said during a Newhouse meeting in May.
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