U of Oregon is closing dorms due to falling enrollment. The brilliant administration is still building 2 more while facing a significant budget shortfall. Turley has an opinion
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Current aberration but will be a trend. But not for anything Turley propagated. Which wasnât anything just railing against the amorphous demon âwokeâ.
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Similar slanders have been thrown at UH over the last few decades, too integrated, too inclusive, etc. Whatâs enrollment trend been? Yeah, exactly.
Would be more interesting to see an article that focused more on population related and comparable regional university statistics.
That article headline and opening premise makes you think it is about budgeting but really its just some complaining about âwokenessâ being the cause of all problems.
I donât particularly care what is happening on the University of Oregon campus but I was intrigued by the headlinbe thinking there was actual discussion or analysis related to the closing of dorms while building new ones. Like, how far along are the new ones? How old are the dorms they are closing? Could they just halt construction? Or at least halt the interior portion (leave floors unfinished until needed) or what. What would the cost of that vs. cost of completion be? I would have found that interesting to read the financial/contractual issues at play.
I did do a google ai search on why enrollement has dropped and here is what it said:
So, not sure if âwokenessâ is really the cause of the enrollment issues. Anyways, I have no skin in the game per se, so while I was interested in the fiscal management/contractual issues I though were going to be in that article, Iâm not interested enough to look into it further.
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Turley has evolved from a fairly respected legal mind to a right wing shill, specializing in justifying extra legal positions of the current admin, which was the downfall of his credibility.
His arguments against impeachment, not just of the current guy, but of NIXON! are genuinely laughable.
He has entered the Dershowitz phase of his career, and should always be looked at warily by serious people.
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Any state schools that bias a high level of out of state/international students in their population (and thus a large share of students paying out of state tuition) are increasingly coming under a crunch. This was foreseen YEARS ago. Tuition costs are higher than ever, AI is threatening white collar college educated jobs like never before, and the demographic cliff off kids coming into college years has now tipped - kids entering college now were born during the great financial crisis and at that point less and less have been born in the US each year. This is not going away and is the new reality.
University of Vermont (UVM) is going through the same thing in a more extreme form. In the end UVM has a VERY large flagship college for their state population and so will likely need to retract size which is not ideal obviously because then some built infrastructure becomes overbuilt/unneeded along with having excess faculty/staff on the payroll that must be addressed.
However, Oregonâs school size is somewhat commensurate with that expected based on their state population so the most painful course, contraction, isnât necessarily needed. However, they are going to have to pivot off so many out of state/international students (or offer them better scholarships) and take more in state students to hold their size OR contract size somewhat while maintaining heavy OOS presence.
Either way the school revenue seems likely to fall. It would do good if they got costs under control to help the balance sheet and Iâd be shocked if an extremely progressive school like Oregon doesnât have a sizable cost allocation towards progressive issues/staffing, etcâŠ
I donât think they are losing a statistically significant number of students based on progressive issues that is just a good âgotcha talking pointâ without addressing the real structural issues they are facing.
as long as theres no mass exodus from Houston, i think UH should have a bright future
Luckily for UH, I donât see many structural issues being faced compared to some of these other schools. The 2 âflagshipsâ in Texas (UT, ATM) are already enormous schools and basically maxed out in student population allowing room for UH to scoop up our share especially as Houston and Texas in general continue to grow like crazy. Houston is a major business city, Houston is a major international city which has draws to students. The student population is extremely diverse at UH which helps buffer against policies that might affect potential enrollment of one demographic over another. Houston has always had a mentality of trying to do more with less so has been less prone to unwarranted bloat through the years exposing UH as a system to unnecessary risk. Also, in the short term our sports, especially basketball are awesome, which is a known draw to students and we have a billionaire backer that inserts enough when necessary to keep major UH sports excellence on course. So yeah, UH should fare fine for the most part at least compared to a lot of schools.
Of course one other constraint on international students is the current political climate as related to student visas. Not stating this to make any political point or argument (positive or negative), just a fact that it does have an effect on attracting international students beyond scholarships.
Certainly that is a factor that is affecting schools with high international populations - no doubt. If those school leaders think that is the principle culprit of their financial woe then they may try to wait out the current administration. However, what if the new administration in 2029 doesnât significantly and swiftly right this ship? Even if they immediately act you are talking FOUR years from now before that negative effect might be eroded from that alone. What if many of those students decide to stay overseas? What if other schools have become more desperate in the meantime and aggressively acted to scoop up some of their other potential American students while they âwait outâ a potential solution?
In the end we are seeing somewhat of a free-market rebalancing of higher education because of many of the factors I listed above. Schools need to effectively understand and mitigate their risk points in a controlled and aggressive manner. In the end, schools that donât have enough to âsellâ students or are severely risk exposed will be greatly affected and potentially even have to close. Already happening for some smaller schools.
I think you raised good points.
Turley is far too dignified when he talks about the woke. He needs to be tougher.
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Is he dignified enough to explain what the hell it is?
No but I can do it
I donât know. I quit listening to him when he went soft.
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Musk made him do it
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