There will be a new college business model with legacy costs and college sports. Honestly when I attend a EMU sports event I don't see many students period. So saying sports is for the students may be true for some schools but sadly that isn't the case here. Maybe include sports in a legacy charge similar to what we essentially are doing now by charging sports.

Sinking more dollars into infrastructure that may not be needed in the future should be questioned. Maybe start making your on line offerings more competitive with state of the art IT backing it up may be a wiser investment. for those who want a campus experience you can still rent college owned apartments and do on line learning ie privatize housing or sell the dorms as real estate for those who wise to build more appealing living spaces.

I enjoyed my social life at college probably too much. But the post virus world will bring huge changes to all of us lucky enough to survive it. You can either get ahead of change or behind it. I hope EMU will get ahead of it.

My thoughts (and it has been many years since being a student) PART1:

It is easy to paint with a broad brush and say a university like EMU could have X% of its courses taught online.

Okay, I'll take the bait:

But if I'm a STEM major, what good does it do me to take an English class online if after the English class I have to get to campus for my biology lab course? Do I take the English class via a laptop in my dorm and then I go to a classroom for my biology course?

Colleges are moving further and further away from liberal arts, languages, etc. into many applied areas which are less practical online.

Could engineering be taught online? Health sciences? Physical education?

To me, online courses are best if say a student need one class to graduate maybe a math or statistics course. But would good does a laptop do if the course requires a student to use an electron microscope or be in a planetarium or onstage at Pease?

PART 2:

The discussion so far has been on the social aspects of college: being away from home, Friday night parties, the Spaghetti Bender, Saturday football games, etc.

So what are we talking about? A residential college vs. a commuter college. I have done both (my undergrad was Wayne State where I was first a commuter student than on campus).

The trend has really been away from commuter colleges. Colleges like Wayne State went from commuter colleges to colleges with thousands of on campus residential rooms.

And, of course, a student from Lagos, Nigeria can't commute each day from Nigeria (insert your favorite emoji here). Seriously, does an EMU student want to drive 40 miles to get to campus for his lab class one day and 40 miles the next for another lab course?

Using UofM as an example, what % of their students attended high school within a 25 mile radius of Ann Arbor? Probably not a high percentage.

Do Washtenaw County and Western Wayne Co students go to UofM or EMU? Oakland County students go to Oakland? Wayne County students go to Wayne State? And students in Traverse City go to????

The whole concept of staying at home and going to the nearest college or university is so foreign to us.

One post script to my remarks: If we and the world enter into something like a near economic depression then things will change. Assuming things bounce back to 'normal' or 'new normal' within say 12 months then I don't see a lot of old paradigms replaced by new ones...

PART III:

One of the 'problems' with education, especially higher education is that it is not an endeavor which benefits from changes we have experienced in technology, globalization, etc.

There are good and services. Our cost of goods have gone largely down in real dollars due to manufacturing improvements, globalization, etc. I can buy a 40" LED TV for say $250. I might have bought a color TV 40 years ago for $400 (and it was maybe what 26"). I can pay less for a pair of shoes today than I did when I was at EMU. Adjusting for inflation my shoes are dirt cheap. I don't even put new heals or soles on them. Out they go.

However, say a high school teacher today might make $65 - 75K. Forty years ago maybe $10K.

So goods especially those bought from low wage cost countries keep are inflation down. Wages and benefits keep risings (esp. things like health insurance). Colleges are very heavy into human labor be it professors, construction costs
to pay those workers who build those $50 - 100M buildings, etc.

So a college could go solar and try to save some $ there, but saving money on salaries isn't really possible. Or save some money with the COB move, but those are still not the big part of the budget.

Harvard re Fall 2020

If Harvard pilots a partially or fully virtual semester, Garber wrote that it will look very different from the past several months. With more time to plan ahead, faculty will develop courses for classrooms scattered around the globe, and affiliates will “reimagine” research, extracurriculars, and professional development.

“Should we not be able to resume a fully on-campus experience, our efforts will not end with a shift to remote teaching and learning,” he wrote.
Advertisement

Ending his message, Garber did not rule out the possibility that the fall semester might serve as a mirror image of this spring, beginning remotely and transitioning to in-person activities.

“Even if we must begin the semester remotely, we hope to return students to campus as soon as it is possible to do so while providing for their safety and that of the entire campus community,” Garber wrote.

“In its 384-year history, Harvard has overcome many adversities, drawing on the courage and determination of its community,” he added. “This extraordinary time calls on us to build on that history, working together in ways we never have before.”

—Staff writer Michelle G. Kurilla can be reached at michelle.kurilla@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @MichelleKurilla.

(04-24-2020 08:39 AM)JonesGoddard Wrote:  From what I've heard...

Lowell street is more of an investment opportunity later down the road like IHA @ EMU. Worst case, probably parking and storage for now.

COB, rumor has it plans will be, based off market research to design condos on 2nd/3rd floors and retail/businesses below to continue to attract downsizing retiring folks and new professionals that don't want to pay the Ann Arbor housing tax.

This is great news and imagine if we didn't make tough decisions 4-5 years ago (sports, parking, online learning, decrease faculty, dining, etc.) to gain more revenue streams to EMU. We would need to be purchased by U-M in order to still be a university. An example of leadership when you need to make tough decisions need to be made even if it's not what people want.

Your post has been judged in my opinion as incredibly prescient. The carnage at other Universities has been rampant. Smith looks like a genius today, although one might argue that he is the Allan Mulally of University presidents. Mulally and Ford hit bottom first in 2006-7 and arranged future financing while Chrysler and GM were still solid. When the 2008 Great Recession hit, Ford was in a far better place.

Smith, like Mulally, apparently heard the train wreck coming and reacted accordingly. Selling those assets when he did fetched a far higher price than they would have in our current environment.

(05-23-2020 06:48 PM)Jerry Weaver Wrote:  

(04-24-2020 08:39 AM)JonesGoddard Wrote:  From what I've heard...

Lowell street is more of an investment opportunity later down the road like IHA @ EMU. Worst case, probably parking and storage for now.

COB, rumor has it plans will be, based off market research to design condos on 2nd/3rd floors and retail/businesses below to continue to attract downsizing retiring folks and new professionals that don't want to pay the Ann Arbor housing tax.

This is great news and imagine if we didn't make tough decisions 4-5 years ago (sports, parking, online learning, decrease faculty, dining, etc.) to gain more revenue streams to EMU. We would need to be purchased by U-M in order to still be a university. An example of leadership when you need to make tough decisions need to be made even if it's not what people want.

Your post has been judged in my opinion as incredibly prescient. The carnage at other Universities has been rampant. Smith looks like a genius today, although one might argue that he is the Allan Mulally of University presidents. Mulally and Ford hit bottom first in 2006-7 and arranged future financing while Chrysler and GM were still solid. When the 2008 Great Recession hit, Ford was in a far better place.

Smith, like Mulally, apparently heard the train wreck coming and reacted accordingly. Selling those assets when he did fetched a far higher price than they would have in our current environment.

BTW, Hertz gets the un-prescient award. They managed to turn a silk purse into a sow's ear...

Too many companies played with too much debt. Never learned that cheap debt is still debt.