The College Fix reports my graduate alma mater University of Oregon has declining enrollments and a consequent financial problem. It needs to slash $65 million in spending. Steps taken include a hiring and pay freeze and the shuttering of two off-campus dorms.
Enrollment changes do not arrive unheralded in academia. Today's birthrate predicts the size of the entering freshman class some 17-18 years later. That's nearly two decades of foreknowledge.
The Great Recession of 2008 cut the birth rate and it never truly recovered. Universities have ignored the demographic reality and hoped to make up the difference with marginal students, including foreign students.
Doing so has damaged the reputation and value of their product: degrees. It was administrative willful 'blindness' and the financial chickens are coming home to roost.
I am reminded once again of the truism that timing is (almost) everything. The DrsC got into academia in its boom years and exited before everything went pear shaped. We are thankful for our good fortune.
