Why Is My Professor Working at Two Other Universities? Awareness of Adjunct Labor among College Students

BY JASON PHILLIPS Most students do not understand the hierarchy of educators in academia. What they tend to imagine when they talk about professors are tenured, full-time professors. In reality, colleges and universities are predominantly staffed by contingent and adjunct faculty members. According to a 2018 report from the AAUP, “at all US institutions combined,…

The Search for a Cash Cow & Other Strategic Planning Flaws

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL It’s no secret that American colleges and universities are under stress from a variety of challenges. Unfortunately, most try to tackle these challenges individually rather than strategically, a practice that rarely results in long-term solutions. The demographic crisis confronting institutions, most acutely those that are tuition-dependent, is laid out clearly in…

yellow bird

Deadline Extensions: The Canary in Higher Ed’s Coal Mine?

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Last week, Melissa Korn reported in the Wall Street Journal that Oberlin, the University of Chicago, George Washington University, Washington University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, among others, have extended their January application deadlines. She notes, “Some offered the extra time only to seniors who began but didn’t submit applications. Others sent broad…

Income Share Agreements: Improved Thinking on How to Fund a College Education

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL At the most expensive U.S. colleges and universities, the advertised price now exceeds $70,000 per annum although most institutions are significantly below this level. Financial aid lowers the actual cost of attendance for many students. Still, American families are less willing to shoulder the expected family contributions that make a college…