Tag Archives: college & universities

Argument for no epidemic of college closings…yet?

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How many colleges in the United States have closed in recent years?

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But it is not, as the New York Times claimed, part of “an epidemic of college closures.” Nor is it part of “a slew of small colleges that have closed because of financial instability or are at risk of shuttering,” according to the Christian Science Monitor. It is simply false that, as the Washington Postreported, “college closures have become increasingly common as campuses compete for a shrinking pool of U.S. students.” And Hampshire’s demise is certainly not an example of “a structural realignment” linked to an intentional “downsizing” program led by the Trump administration, as per the Washington Times.

The facts: According to a very good compilation list, since the beginning of 2020 exactly 49 degree-granting nonprofit colleges and universities have closed or announced their closures. That’s an average of seven per year, out of the 3,227 such institutions that existed in 2020. Now, I’m no epidemiologist, but an annual mortality rate of 0.02 percent does not sound like an epidemic to me.

Furthermore, the schools that have closed fit a specific type: super small. Hampshire had 844 students when it announced its closure, and that puts it at the high end of the 49 schools. Only five had over 2,000 students. Nine had less than 200 students. (For reference, the average nonprofit institution enrolls about 5,500.) And most fail an obscurity test I like to call “Have I heard of it?” I study higher education for a living. But of those 49, I’ve previously heard of just 10. Hampshire is well known despite its small size, and places like Cardinal Stritch University in Wisconsin and Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama had local recognition. But Limestone University? Eastern Nazarene College? Alderson Broaddus University? Cazenovia College? I could go on. No offense to their alumni, but these are not exactly name-brand schools.

The reason for the “…yet?” in the title of the post is because, as noted later in the article, there seem to be some with vested interests in this area:

So who is pushing the “epidemic” narrative? Many of the recent news stories have cited, often without name, a recent report that trumpeted past closures and identified 834 American colleges and universities facing “existential threats” in the near future from declining enrollment and other financial pressures. It’s from the Huron Consulting Group, a “global professional services firm” that offers its wares to manufacturers, utility companies, oil producers, commercial real estate investors, and—you guessed it—higher education. The Huron report is not publicly available and their press release offers no details on methodology except that they “analyzed more than a decade of data to develop a model with some predictive potential.” No worries about that though; presumably, colleges and universities would get to learn all the details once they pay Huron to help them navigate “a platform for the coordinated exchange of institutional assets.”

Several quick thoughts in response:

  1. Numbers do not interpret themselves; humans measure and report data, making interpretations along the way.
  2. Do we have longer-term data on the closings of colleges and universities? Having a baseline over time could be helpful.
  3. Going back to #1, this is an example of how some social issues get discussed in media and in the public. There is some data or evidence and people start talking about it. Predictions are made. People look for patterns and trends. They can tend to look for patterns and evidence that fit their predictions.
  4. Even if there is not a big change at this point, does this necessarily mean there won’t be big changes in the years to come?

I’m sure there will be more to come on this topic.

The ongoing parking issues at American colleges and universities

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New policies about class scheduling at the University of Utah have touched on an important issue for many campuses: parking.

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Debates about parking, of course, have long been frequent and contentious on college campuses. Clark Kerr, who led the University of California system in the 1950s and ’60s, once described colleges as “a series of individual faculty entrepreneurs held together by a common grievance over parking.”

At Utah, an online petition that has received over 7,000 signatures says that “parking congestion is undeniably a concern that needs addressing, but the solution should not compromise educational quality or student well-being.”

The university, which has 36,881 students and 18,300 full- and part-time employees on the main campus, had a combined 9,314 parking spots in 2024, according to commuter-services data. But the ratio of parking spots to parking permits sold is not one to one. Knowing that not all permit owners will park on campus at the same time, the university sells more permits than they have spots, which aggravates many students. For example, though the campus last year had 5,843 parking spots in “U” spaces that are farther from campus, it sold over 12,000 permits for those spaces, at a price of $345 for the year.

Still, the lots are never at full capacity, said Collin Simmons, executive director of auxiliary services. While spaces in the “A” lots, near the center of campus, are usually full every day, spots can be found on the outskirts of campus, or within a 10- to 15-minute walk to the campus’ center, he said. But these spots can also be scarce, especially between 10 a.m. and just before 2 p.m., when fewer than 10 percent of the U spots are available, leaving parking-permit owners to circle the lots across campus before they can find a spot.

Americans like to drive. So it should not be a surprise that they also like to drive to school campuses. This includes employees who commute to college campuses but also students who may live on or off-campus and want easier access to college buildings.

The description above from one university suggests this is a complex issue to address. I wonder if what every driver wants is this: a close parking spot to where they want to go with little to no cost to the driver. Why should I inconvenienced in reaching my on-campus work or activity?

To provide everyone a great parking spot every time comes with costs. How much does it cost to build and maintain parking lots and structures? A better parking spot for all might cost drivers more money. Would it be worth it? How much land on campus should be devoted to this purpose as opposed to other competing land uses? Colleges have numerous kinds of buildings and landscapes to build and maintain and space can be at a premium for many institutions.

Imagine a different kind of university: all the lower floors of the major buildings are large parking garages. Everyone can park underneath offices, classrooms, dining halls, recreational facilities. While this might get people a parking spot, does it then eliminate the streetscape? Many colleges and universities like to portray a bucolic image of ambling through green trees and lawns surrounded by traditional buildings that look like learning and knowledge.

Not discussed in the case above is whether the University of Utah has alternatives to driving. How many students can or do walk or bike to class? Is there viable mass transit available?

Society enables people through institutions and social movements, part five

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Every human is affected by institutions. These durable social collectives outlive individuals, have particular social structures, and can do things that individuals cannot. They are good examples of how society enables people more than it constrains them.

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Take for example a college or university. This past semester, I taught a class where we looked at American institutions of higher education over time. The oldest institutions are nearly 400 years old while many others have at least a century of history. These institutions have changed in important ways over time – think of the curriculum, their size, their purpose, their values – but they are recognizable in the past and present as places of learning.

No college or university is dependent on the actions of just one person or even a small set of people. We could tell the narrative this way; focus primarily on the president or founder or key leaders. At least some of them likely did consequential things. But there is a broader story to tell of the institution. What did the Board do? How did the college or university interact with legislators or the local community or other actors in higher education? What was the experience of faculty, staff, and students at different points?

As an institution, the college or university can enable people. It can offer classes, experiences, and opportunities that an individual or a small group could not do. There are things it cannot do but there is a reason these kinds of institutions have served societies for hundreds of years.

Institutions are durable and enabling. How might one change an institution or set of institutions? Social movements are mass movements of people working toward a common goal. They are relatively unusual; it takes a lot of effort to get large numbers of people to do something. To organize a local protest or march or campaign needs organizers, participants, resources, and a space. They get receive attention and can rally people to a cause.

And even then, social movements often need openings or certain conditions where what they ask for can be achieved. Hundreds of thousands of people might march within a country and nothing happens. Or it might take years and decades for a movement to see change happen. Successful movements are remembered for a long time because they harnessed the activity and actions of many people and changed societies.

In both of these examples, people are empowered. Institutions can constrain people and they are often associated with bureaucracy. However, bureaucracy exists because large complex institutions need ways to structure their activities. Social movements can fail to reach their goals or disappoint the people who participate. However, they can achieve things that only large numbers of people working together can do.

More colleges in places with higher costs of living

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Where do colleges tend to be located? This graph in The Chronicle of Higher Education uses one metric:

Two quick thoughts in response:

  1. Does the presence of these colleges over time help contribute to a higher cost of living? I am reminded of Richard Florida’s argument about the creative class. If I remember the analysis correctly, places with colleges tend to have higher percentages of creative class residents. And he suggests colleges and universities can help attract people and development.
  2. When Ben Norquist and I looked at the locations of smaller Christian colleges, we found they tended not to be in the biggest cities (which account for some of these higher cost of living places). In contrast, research schools are often in big cities according to the article: “Almost a third, or 32.2 percent, of colleges in The Chronicle’s analysis were in counties where cost of living was at least 15 percent higher than the national average. The types of institutions found in these expensive regions tended to vary. About 10 percent of doctoral-granting universities and 23 percent of four-year special-focus institutions (like those specializing in health professions or religious training, for example) are in the priciest 1 percent of the nation’s counties, where the cost of living is more than one-and-a-half times the national average. In contrast, nearly half of associate- and bachelor’s-granting institutions were in counties with below-average costs of living.”
  3. The other category with a larger percentage discrepancy is among the percentage of institutions in counties at 90 to 100 in cost of living.

Let an AI robot deliver the commencement address at graduation!

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A New York university had a commencement speech – a Q&A with a student leader – delivered by AI:

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The speaker certainly had the résumé for the job. She’d spoken at the United Nations, graced the covers of Cosmopolitan and Elle, and been a frequent guest on the world’s most-watched talk shows.

But she didn’t feel proud of her achievements. She didn’t feel excited to be speaking to the graduates. In fact, she didn’t feel anything at all.

Her name is Sophia, a human-like robot created in 2016 by Hanson Robotics and a “personification of AI in real life,” according to Lorrie Clemo, D’Youville’s president…

Unable to tell personal anecdotes about overcoming adversity or pursuing success, Sophia instead delivered an amalgamation of lessons taken from other commencement speakers.

“As you embark on this new chapter in your lives, I offer you the following inspirational advice that is common to all graduation ceremonies,” the robot said. “Embrace lifelong learning, be adaptable, pursue your passions, take risks, foster meaningful connections, make a positive impact, and believe in yourself.”

If the goal of commencement is to provide a speech that attendees will remember and look to in the future, that is a high bar.

If the goal of commencement is to provide a memorable experience, having a robot talk might fulfill that (even if the speech itself is not memorable).

It might be a niche market but how long until there is an AI robot that delivers a respectable commencement speech and is available for hire at high school, college, and graduate level ceremonies?

The value of a discipline’s knowledge and methods in a gen ed curriculum (and introducing more students to the discipline)

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With sociology removed from the general education curriculum in Florida, at least two arguments could be made opposing the move. The first reason involves the value of the discipline’s knowledge and methods:

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What do students learn by taking sociology? What is lost if fewer students do? It struck John Reynolds, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, that these are the kinds of questions his discipline can help answer. While the Board of Governors overseeing the state’s public universities on Wednesday voted against a proposal to pause and collect more evidence to assess the impact before taking its vote, the “budding social scientists” in his “Sociology of Education” course were learning the very skills needed to conduct such research. So he walked students through the process in class on Thursday.

Reynolds and his students examined various arguments key players had made for and against keeping sociology. Then Reynolds split the 37 students into small groups and had each propose a research study to evaluate those claims using one of the research methods they covered in the course — school ethnography, intensive interviews, social survey, and analysis of school administrative data. Reynolds plans to award a small prize to each group whose proposals “were most detailed and true to the strengths of the method they were assigned,” he told The Chronicle in an email…

Offering a course as an avenue for meeting a general-education requirement signifies that the state regards it as important, said Alison C. Cares, an associate professor and the associate chair of the sociology department at the University of Central Florida. And while there’s overlap among disciplines — students have many options for developing critical-thinking skills — sociology has something unique to offer, she believes. Sociology is a discipline that “really jolts students out of an individualistic approach,” Cares said. Of course people have individual agency, she added, but at the same time, “there are predictable patterns, based on how society is organized, that make decisions and actions more or less likely.” Understanding that can enhance the way a doctor cares for a patient, or a teacher instructs a student, or a businessperson leads a company.

The second reason involves the way that required general education courses help students find courses and what they want to study:

Students will still be able to take introductory sociology — and it could still meet other university-specific requirements — but professors anticipate that its absence from the gen-ed menu could significantly reduce enrollment. This is partly because of exposure — a large share of students likely have found or been pointed to the course in order to fulfill the social-sciences requirement. Sociology is what one professor called a “found major,” that is, one that students might not have heard about before they get to campus, but fall in love with during their first course…

That’s not the only problem. Some degree programs (or combinations thereof) have such exhaustive requirements that students often look to meet as many of them as efficiently as possible, so they are unlikely to take other courses even if they really want to. The ability to meet a state requirement while taking introductory sociology is especially helpful, Aranda said, for students planning to attend medical school, many of whom have sought out the course since the MCAT added a section on social sciences nearly a decade ago.

I imagine faculty in many disciplines would make this same argument. Their field of study offers a unique perspective that students benefit from. This is the reason we have different academic disciplines: they have particular ways that they study, write, and operate. Additionally, general education classes offer gateways for more students into that field of study. Not all disciplines are represented in required courses so this is valuable real estate.

Sociology and other disciplines will continue to have to make arguments for why they should be included in curricula and why students should take their courses. If college courses and majors are a marketplace where students respond to different incentives, disciplines offer different perceived advantages and disadvantages. Whether this market logic should determine the worthiness of disciplines and their presence is worth debating but there is no doubt that the market does have some patterns and cycles.

As a sociologist who has regularly taught Introduction to Sociology over the years, these two issues come up in this class. What value does sociology have to college students who may never touch sociology again or know little about it? I enjoy teaching sociology and its methods so this is a fun challenge.

The (long) time it takes to develop academic arguments

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One feature of summer and breaks for college faculty is the possibility of more time for writing and working on projects. While this writing time does not always happen given other responsibilities in life, time is needed to develop academic projects. And we may need numerous summers, breaks, and semesters to fully put together works. What do we need this time for?

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-Writing and submitting proposals and grants.

-Developing ideas and precise research questions.

-Becoming familiar with the already-existing literature.

-Collecting data and evidence.

-Analysis.

-Crafting narratives that align with the research question, existing scholarly conversations, and the evidence we have.

-Writing and rewriting.

-Conversations with others.

-Presentations, whether to the public, academic groups, students, or others.

-Responding to reviewers and editors.

-Thinking (all throughout the process)

While the activities above are in a rough order from a beginning of a project to the end, it does not always work this way. These are also not necessarily discrete stages; they can blend together and are often recursive and connected as working on one part leads to going back to an earlier step or portion.

All of this means that a single writing project can easily take years. Some projects take longer than others. It can be hard to predict how long a project can take. What does this all add up to? Hopefully a coherent and compelling project.

If we added to publications and presentations a clock for the time involved, this could help reveal the time spent. Without letting such figures turn into a competition or a quest for efficiency, it could open conversations about processes and resources.

College change: syllabi requiring students to check email every day

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As technology shifts, college syllabi must as well: there are syllabi that ask students to check email each day.

How to get students, some of whom consider their school e-mail accounts so irrelevant that they give their parents the passwords, to take a look?

At the University of Southern California, Nina Eliasoph’s Sociology 250 syllabus reads: “You must check e-mail DAILY every weekday,” with boldface for emphasis…

When job offers arrive, Ratliff often has excited students turn up in her office only to realize they have forgotten a form they need to send to the company. Using e-mail to get the form or to send it apparently does not cross their minds.

“Some of them didn’t even seem to know they had a college e-mail account,” May said. Nor were these wide-eyed freshmen. “This is considered a junior-level class, so they’d been around.”

That is when he added to his course syllabuses: “Students must check e-mail daily.” May said the university now recommends similar wording…

 

The next step would seem to be having students and faculty and college staff all start using text messages or social media. However, this leads to other issues. Asking people to switch to new technologies which could then require training and practice. Privacy concerns could arise, particularly compared to more impersonal emails. There might be the argument that doing this means getting on a technology treadmill that goes faster and faster – students switch to the next big thing and everyone else must follow.

Another interesting question to ask is what kind of interaction aided by technology best leads to improved learning outcomes? Needing to communicate information is important but what exactly boosts learning? In The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlein argues new technologies don’t typically boost learning even as they might improve engagement. Yet, colleges are moving to moving to more online learning. This can lead to learning at different paces, cuts down on costs, and makes classes available to more people. But, does it lead to more learning?