Outsourcing the experts
Just months away from budget approval season, with rising costs and increased enrollment in mind, institutions have started to hire consultants to help college and university administrators identify where they can cut back — for some, where they can save hundreds of millions of dollars.
One of those consultants, Bain & Company, recently made recommendations to the University of Carolina’s chancellor that could save the system upward of $150 million dollars, according to an article in yesterday’s New York Times.
Some of those recommendations included consolidating the university’s management (more than half of its managers have three or fewer people reporting directly to them, according to the article), as well as streamlining the more than 100 university institutes and centers, many of which have their own HR, IT and finance departments.
The cost for the analysis is $3 million dollars — a small price in the face of more than $150 in savings.
Some critics told the Times that hiring consultants to deal with university finances was too (dangerously) close to treating institutions like corporations instead of institutes of higher education.
Tanya Smith, president of Local 1 of University Professional and Technical Employees, which represents about 900 Berkeley employees. “What we’re seeing is centralization and treatment of the university as if it were a corporation. And I’m just not sure education and efficiency are on the same page.”
On paper, the idea of a consultant may not be bad — and it looks like UNC saved serious money that way. But you have to wonder how well a firm that deals with dozens of institutions each year can understand what’s important to the campus and what’s not, independent of finances. Cutting a department that isn’t efficient but is a central part of the campus culture could do more harm than good.
Harvard wiping out tuition costs for law students
Let’s play How Much Money Can Harvard Give Away: The Ivy League university’s law school recently announced that third year law students who pledge to go into public sector jobs for at least five years will receive as much as a $40,000 break in tuition costs.
Although Harvard already had a generous loan forgiveness program, this new policy of just giving away money is an attempt to send Harvard educated lawyers into jobs like public defenders, positions usually reserved for students who graduate from crappier law schools.
But it’s obvious that the choice for lawyers who graduate with a Harvard degree is still pretty clear - according to the Times, first year lawyers can still earn $100,000 a year starting out in a law firm. Being a hot shot, well-paid corporate lawyer sounds much more tempting than clerking for a judge in some rural county in upstate New York. But that’s just me.
Here’s another question to ask: do we really want lawyers from one the most elite, prestigious institutions in the world representing murderers and child rapists? I, for one, would rather they serve the interests of the people, meaning they should be figuring out how to merge giant multinational corporations in order to better capture markets and further enslave the working class. Again, that’s just me.
Odds & Ends: in which more dominoes fall
Everybody’s doing it: Yesterday Stanford University became the latest elite school to kill tuition costs for middle class undergrads. Next year, families of students making less than $100k a year won’t have to pay tuition, and those making less than $60k won’t have to pay room and board, either. Now, if only I got into Stanford…
Following suit: Washington University also declared a similar plan yesterday, only they’re not super rich, so they’ll only be replacing loans with grants for families of students making less than $60k. I’ll still take it.
NIU shooter destroyed his hard drive: No one still has any idea why Steven Kazmierczak came back to his alma mater to shoot five other students and then himself on Valentine’s Day. And we’ll probably never know for sure - although he was off his meds for three days - because he destroyed his computer’s hard drive, and his cell phone memory chip.
Don’t read the writing on the wall: St. Peter’s College was shut down for a day after officials found a 15-word note taped to a bathroom wall referring to the Virginia Tech shootings. Nothing happened, but the 3,000 student campus was evacuated as a precaution. I’m guessing the prankster referenced VTech because he couldn’t spell Kazmierczak.
Obama makes me cranky: After an Obama rally at Youngstown State University, students complained to the newspaper that there was “no parking” and classes “should have been canceled.” Give me a break - skip class and then park on the sidewalk, and stop whining. It’s what all the cool kids are doing.
Strict, or just like everyone else? Muslim student associations across the U.S. can’t decide what’s worse - letting Muslims smoke pot, or letting Muslim women wear skirts. C’mon, folks, 21th century here. Make way for inclusivity -and hot pants !
But it is practical: Students in a Practical Botany class at the University of Michigan are in a little bit of police trouble after campus security found 11 ?very small plants that appear to be cannabis? in the greenhouse. Whoops! You caught us. We should have used the basement, I told you guys.
Syracuse students arrested for armed dorm robbery
Police arrested three Syracuse University students and one former student for allegedly breaking into a university apartment wearing masks and brandishing handguns on Saturday morning. They took cash and weed and left, after threatening waving their guns around at the SU students in the apartment.
No word yet on how they were caught, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say they won’t be coming back next semester regardless.
The $5 million check is in the mail, Temple
You can’t take it with you, I guess: Temple University in Arizona just received two anonymous donations totaling $5 million in their mailbox. $5 MILLION. Anonymously. In an envelope. That’s a whole lot of money to just give away, but when the school tried contacting the bank the money was sent from to thank their angelic donors, the wealthy sneaks insisted on keeping their anonymity.
All they’re asking for in return? Periodic updates on how the money is being spent, and a commitment to spend $4 million of it to endow scholarships for women and minorities.
Hey, rich, weirdo philanthropists who enjoy sending absurdly large money orders:
Ithaca College
953 Danby Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850.
Thanks.
Northwestern becomes the latest school to increase aid
See here. Starting next year, students at Northwestern University with family incomes below $55,000 a year will have all their loans replaced with grants. About 450 undergrads are expected to be affected by this change.
Northwestern’s policy shift comes on the heels of changes made at other elite, wealthy schools like Harvard, Cornell, Yale and Dartmouth to lessen the college financial burden on the middle class. And the upper middle class. Because people making $120,000 a year need help too.
These funds will come primarily from the endowments of the wealthiest universities, and smaller colleges aren’t expected to be able to keep up. Unfortunately.
I’m now taking bets: What school’s going to fall next, in this giant domino game of higher education financial aid? C’mon, administrators: It’s budget season!
Odds & Ends: cult edition!
Join our club cult: Student members of a Korean sect of Christianity that worship a man named Ahnsahnghong as the embodiment of Christ have started using aggressive recruiting techniques at the University of Pennsylvania, even going so far as to follow some students to their classes. Religion prof at the school insists they are a cult. Creepy, regardless.
Cornell playing catch-up: The “hottest “Ivy has just followed the lead of other elite, wealthy schools like Harvard and Yale in announcing vast changes to their financial aid programs intended to help middle class families afford college. After two years, “the program will take full effect by eliminating need-based loans for students from families with incomes up to $75,000, and capping annual loans at $3,000 for students from families with incomes between $75,000 and $120,000,” according to The Ithaca Journal. If only some of these aid packages were retroactive, and applied to Ithaca College. Damnit.
Democracy Now Later! Students at Washington University in St. Louis are pissed after their school recently prohibited presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama from speaking. The administration’s reasoning? A visit by a candidate would disrupt academics and open the door for other candidates to visit the campus. How is this democracy thing disruptive? The campus paper ironically notes that although the school feared losing its tax-exempt status if it only allowed one candidate to speak, “Brown University, Wellesley College and Boston University have hosted presidential candidates and have not lost their tax-exempt status.” Owned.
Kevin Bacon plays “Six Degrees” of beer pong: After giving a talk at Dartmouth College and receiving the Dartmouth Film Award, actor Kevin Bacon got down with his college self and played some pong with students in a dimly lit basement. Follow the link for pictures of the celebrity beer pong goodness.
Getting naked … for the environment? Students in an environmental group at Northern Michigan University graphically protested a nickel and copper mine near their school by printing a black-and-white calendar of nude group members posing at the site of the proposed mine. The calendar will be sold to “raise funds” for the group. Sure.
Court throws out NYU Jell-o wrestling lawsuit
I thought the absurdities of our litigious society had finally played out after that lady who spilled hot coffee on herself sued McDonald’s. Thankfully I was so awesomely wrong, as this story proves.
In 2004, junior Avram Wisnia and his New York University dorm mates held a “Beach Bash” party. During the Jell-o wrestling segment (is that really beach-themed, guys?) poor Avram “shattered” his hip, which until now was something I thought exclusively happened to old ladies.
In 2005, he sued NYU for 1 MILLION DOLLARS, claiming that the school should not have allowed them to put on the event, or provided the Jell-o. The court threw out his silly little lawsuit - which was probably just a slick attempt to pay off his loans - and NYU had the last laugh:
“This case broke the mold, but in the end, justice was served sweetly,” said a spokesman.
Senate to wealthy colleges: stop being stingy
The Senate, concerned with the huge growth of the endowments of wealthy, elite universities, demanded information this week about endowment spending from the 76 colleges and universities in the United States whose endowments have surpassed $1 billion.
?Tuition has gone up, college presidents? salaries have gone up, and endowments continue to go up and up,? said Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the committee. ?We need to start seeing tuition relief for families go up just as fast.?
It seems like the government has finally caught on to the fact that maybe these super-rich colleges should be providing some serious tuition assistance to their students. Although in the past few weeks/months many schools, including Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth have replaced loans with grants and basically thrown money at their students, the Senate has said with such huge endowments (Harvard’s is $34.6 billion), huge tuition assistance should be the norm across all levels of higher education. However, for those of us with smallish endowments (Ithaca College’s is $237 million, for perspective, and the endowments of all the colleges in New York state combined do not equal Harvard’s) this kind of sweeping tuition assistance would cost millions that smaller colleges just can’t afford.
While we applaud this move as it pertains to wealthy universities, we hope that the federal government can do something to help students at all other universities (read: 99% of us) afford our increasing tuition.
$500 for every Maine baby’s college fund
Change my birth certificate, Mom: Starting in 2009, babies born in the state of Maine will get a $500 wad of cash stuffed into their college fund.
The infants’ windfall comes from the fortune of the founder of the Dexter Shoe Company, Harold Alfond, who died last month. And don’t you worry about that sticky little thing called inflation: the money will be deposited in a tax-free savings account, and according to the Finance Authority of Maine,
“With no additional contribution, each $500 account could grow to $2,000 by 2026.”
This little nest egg is already making some college students from Maine upset, jealous, and even a little steamed.
Blogger Wild Bill hails from Cumberland Maine, and thinks it’s horribly unfair that HE didn’t get any dough.
“I deserves 500 dollars, I think,” he said, wiping his tears on the sleeve of his tacky red sweater.
Good to see Maine taking care of the kids.
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