(04-22-2020 08:04 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 09:10 PM)Dwight Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 08:09 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  They're using the virus as an excuse to do what they knew they were going to do anyhow but now they won't have to take the flack for mismanagement. Bet.

I think this is right in a number of ways. The University administration is assuming worst case and using that assumption to justify giving faculty the choice of either taking a 20% pay cut or facing massive layoffs. On the one hand, faculty can't complain too bitterly since they are far from the only ones who will suffer financially due to coronavirus. On the other hand, the administration is making use of coronavirus in a cynical way.

Yep, but, were this coronavirus to not happen, this all wouldn't have gone on for another few years at least. This has expedited a lot of corrections in a lot of industries/markets, higher ed is probably going to be the heaviest hit because they were the furthest away from stable.

Looking at profiles of other schools in comparison to Urbana, there are three who are very close to seeing the same fate in Ohio IMO. Bluffton, Malone, and Antioch are going to struggle to stay afloat big time, as none have any unencumbered money to support a drop in revenue from enrollment that will most certainly come. Hell, Lourdes Administration just informed all of their coaches that they MUST recruit 5 more athletes in every team or face potential cuts. That's not a great sign, especially considering how over-recruited all of their teams are already.

Many of these smaller schools are under scrutiny because athletics is how they've been keeping their enrollment numbers is a theory I've seen posed. As I posted originally, I thought Lourdes was going off course with the uptick in athletics but perhaps that is what is being taught in Small University Administration 101. I doubt it is only the universities.