A crisis is looming for U.S. colleges.... :(

[PopsnTuff]

Dozens of colleges and universities nationwide started 2020 already under financial stress. They’d spent the past decade grappling with declining enrollments and weakening support from state governments.

Now, with the added pressures of the coronavirus pandemic, the fabric of American higher education has become even more strained: The prospect of lower revenues has already forced some schools to slash budgets and could lead to waves of closings, experts and researchers say.

At worst, institutions under financial stress can fold — sometimes overnight, as government and accrediting oversight fails to prevent precipitous closures that throw students’ lives into disarray. Even in the case of orderly closings, students’ educations can be significantly disrupted — many drop out and never finish their degrees....read on...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/educat...s-colleges-not-just-because-pandemic-n1235338

 

[MarciKS]

This viral sh*t show has turned into quite the fiasco hasn't it?

 

[PopsnTuff]

College students speak out about the stress of going back to school.

It gives me stress because no one knows how much it's going to affect your body, because everyone's different,” said Meredith Nash, 21, a returning senior who will be attending Indiana University Bloomington.

The psychology major, who spent the summer quarantining with her family in Savannah, Georgia, will share an apartment with four other students. With more than 40,000 students headed to Bloomington, Indiana for the fall semester — all from various parts of the U.S. — Nash fears that she or one of her roommates will contract the virus. Her university will provide a mix of in-person and online learning until Thanksgiving break — afterwards, classes will be fully remote until February, according to the university’s website.

Nash is most concerned about an in-person lab she will attend with about 25 other students.

Many of these students are not just worried about getting sick — they’re worried about whether campuses will shut down again, and how it may disrupt their education and their futures.

For students with medical conditions that put them in a high-risk category for severe illness — a common problem for people of color, who represent a disproportionate number of COVID-19 illnesses in the U.S. — the prospect of returning to campus is even more nerve wracking.
read on.....

https://www.today.com/specials/coll...the-stress-of-going-back-to-school/index.html

 

[JustBonee]

It just seems like this crisis will be a 3-4-5 (or longer) year thing that keeps on evolving until we get to a 'new normal' some years down the line.
People keep talking in terms of "months" for a turn around, but they probably should be talking in terms of "years"...
No one wants to say that though.

 

[Tommy]

Pure speculation on my part, but I believe the big losers will be the mega-universities and prestige schools that typically draw students from all over the country/world. Community colleges, smaller residential colleges, and existing on-line learning may well see increased demand.

It makes little sense to spend big money to attend a residential college 1000 miles away with the risk of the school promptly switching to an on-line learning format or, worse still, cancelling classes mid-semester.

 

[Aunt Bea]

In this area, it seems to be the little upscale private liberal arts institutions that are struggling.

Syracuse University seems to be having trouble convincing some parents that it's worth paying $53,849.00/year for their kids to sit home in their underwear while earning a degree. The University has an endowment estimated at $1,390,000,000.00 so I think that they will be able to muddle through.

The others seem to fall between those two extremes.

 

[Don M.]

The University of Missouri has already announced quite a few layoffs and cutbacks. One of their biggest "revenues" is their sports programs, which draw huge crowds, paying high dollars for stadium seats, etc., and the lack of paying fans will cost them 10's of millions.

 

[911]

Pure speculation on my part, but I believe the big losers will be the mega-universities and prestige schools that typically draw students from all over the country/world. Community colleges, smaller residential colleges, and existing on-line learning may well see increased demand.

It makes little sense to spend big money to attend a residential college 1000 miles away with the risk of the school promptly switching to an on-line learning format or, worse still, cancelling classes mid-semester.

I see it the other way. The smaller colleges are already feeling the effects of the virus here in PA. State run universities have seen decreased enrollments and some of the smaller private colleges are seeing likewise. Sports programs being cut, suspended and/or eliminated haven't helped either. A lot of kids choose a certain university based on their athletic performance. The Big 10 has already announced no football, but maybe make it a spring sport should we get a vaccine and a return to some normalcy.

ASU (Arizona State), which has about 70,000+ students has announced that they will return to class come 8/20. They will use preventative measures, but will hold classes. Classrooms are to be sterilized each evening. I can't even imagine the cost of that.

 

[Phoenix]

Every night on the news we see pictures of college kids who returned to school and party. Those kids get the virus, and the campus has to be shut down again. Not all kids attend those parties. So the ones who do are ruining it for the others. Since at the best vaccines are generally 75 percent effective according to Dr. Fauci and the CDC, we have a long road ahead.