While economists continue to clash on whether the end of the recession is here or near, one thing is clear: the fiscal state of higher education is far from good. This week, California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed unveiled his proposal for next year’s budget for the 23-campus CSU system, which includes Long Beach State. The aim of Reed’s recommendations is to restore most of the funding that was slashed this fiscal year due to a $564 million budget cut.
The fiscal crisis in the CSU system is not only affecting continuing students. Already, the CSU system has reduced student enrollment by 4,000 and must cut another 36,000 by the end of this fiscal year at the same time that the number of applications has increased 53% over last year. Facing its own contracted budget, CSU Long Beach has had to make deep cuts of its own. According to Long Beach State officials, student enrollment at The Beach is down by over 2,000 from last year. As a result, graduating high school seniors and community college transfers are finding the CSU system more competitive. Moreover, those out of work hoping to find refuge in school are also feeling the effects. It is widely known that college enrollment rises during recessions, when the opportunity costs of attending school are lower. However, reduced enrollment and shrinking financial aid packages are making this opportunity less likely.
No one likes the idea of cutting student enrollment but in tough economic times administrators are left with no choice. There are only so many faculty furloughs and fee increases that a school can absorb before its core mission begins to be compromised. That is why many schools across the country find themselves in the midst of a restructuring, if not a reinvention. They are doing things that, until recently, would have been considered unorthodox in the name of cutting costs. In a recent article that appeared in Governing, Josh Goodman described Virginia Tech’s new delivery model for freshman math: a converted department store housing 537 computers from which 5,000 students learn math each semester. This is certainly not your typical college math class; yet, as Goodman reports, school officials have found this approach more cost-effective AND more effective in helping students learn math.
It is precisely when resources are limited as they are now that fundamental questions begin to emerge. Goodman, for example, raises the following questions: “Why does a standard college education last four years? Why do schools with low graduation rates keep getting so much state money?” The future of higher education may depend on how these and other questions are answered. It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. In the case of higher education, necessity may give birth to a reinvention.
Are higher education institutions ready for a paradigm shift? Should Long Beach State and other colleges re-examine the way they deliver education in response to shrinking budgets? Should our elected leaders turn their attention to education reform? What do you think?
Source: Goodman, Josh. “Can Higher Ed Control Its Costs?” Governing. November 2009: 43-46.