Right now, on the Ohio website (www.ohio.edu/bursar/undergraduate-tuition ), “Athens Undergraduate Tuition” comes out to $508/credit-hour for Ohio residents (The instructional fee is listed as $449/credit-hour).

In contrast, “eCampus Undergraduate Tuition” comes out to $240/credit-hour for Ohio residents ($243/credit hour for non-residents), of which $237/credit-hour is labeled as instructional fee.

Based on its own pricing structure, this would seem to indicate that the university does not consider eLearning to be of the same quality as in-person learning. Leaving aside the last half of Spring Semester 2020 as a separate discussion,, i think most universities would find it EXTREMELY difficult to hold the line on tuition pricing if they are or are likely to be online-only for Fall-2020

Under the cover of the Coronavirus, it seems many Higher Ed institutions are finally addressing measures that needed to be done long ago. I think they are acting now while there is still a lot of fear and realization that changes have to be made. I am an optimist by nature, so I believe a vaccine will be found quicker than we think and the economy will recover quicker that we think. However by June 30, I believe many will join Akron in making big cuts. Now we are concluding the first year of the state's biennial budget, so that gives some leeway in how they deal with this. If this were the second year, I am not sure what would occur. One administrator told me that he never thought he would see closures or consolidation by state school, now he's not so sure. Youngstown State, Kent State and Akron are within about 50+ miles of each other in a region of the state and country that's in a demographic spiral.

There are many side stories to Higher Ed. For example there are a couple dozen community colleges across the state, including technical colleges who all have their own governing boards, trustees etc. Many of these institutions aren't much bigger than a large suburban high school. One administrator told me that there are so many money saving possibilities just in this structure, not to mention the dozens to hundreds of administrators added by each mid size and large institution since 2000.

Another administrator told me that there are dozens of heath care professionals hired since 2000 by mid size and large universities to deal with student stress and well being. This administrator told me you can't tell students to suck it up, which is what those of us before 2000 were told. Now we have to provide all kinds of medical care and counseling which isn't cheap. If you try getting rid of that, you are cold and insensitive, and that's not going to happen today, she said.

She went on to say that athletics has a target on it's back because people see coaches salaries for big time sports like football and basketball. However, the non-revenue generating sports cost money too. She's not a big sports fan, but feels there is far more waste that could be cut in college administration and promotion, especially bigger schools. Yet, small colleges need promotion because they need to promote what makes their niche programs worth the price. While some students like big schools in big cities, not everyone desires that and that's where small colleges make their mark.

When I mentioned to the first administrator that I recently told my wife that college might be totally different in cost and outlook when our kids arrive in a few years, he laughed. My kids are older than yours he said, I told my wife that I haven't the faintest clue what it might look like when my kids arrive in 3-4 years, and I have been in the business my whole life, he concluded.

The severity of the coming moment is going to be magnified greatly due to the type of system that arose in Ohio from the mid 60s onward. The system was over built and under regulated. Four year campuses all went on empire building sprees determined to turn themselves into the next Berkeley. The community college system was overbuilt and decentralized at the same time that a completely redundant branch campus system was being put in place by the four year colleges.

For a long time, the city-state nature of Ohio politics, periods of favorable demographics and some of the nation's highest tuition levels propped this absurd system up, but judgement day was inevitable. The pandemic was merely the spark on a field of dry foliage.

Now contrast that to the centralized and highly regulated system that California instituted at roughly the same time: the "Master Plan" of Pat Brown and Clark Kerr preceded the unregulated free for all of Jim Rhodes and John Millett by only a few years. In California, the community colleges are under a centralized board of regents. The Cal State colleges are barred from doctoral programs and basic research. Even within the UC system, there is an understood hierarchy. Imagine how long a Chancellor at UC Irvine would last if he went around giving interviews demanding to be a co-flagship with Berkeley in the manner that the former Cincinnati President did?

Not only did California build the global standard for quality in a public higher education system, but they've done it with some of the lowest tuition levels in the nation. And I have a feeling that, while their campuses and systems will definitely need to do some belt tightening in the near future, we will see nothing resembling the full-on bloodletting that appears to be just around the corner in Ohio.

OUPride: Let me just add that Ohio's branch campuses (as they were then called) were instituted much earlier than any others in the state (from what I've been told). They were begun way before the 1960s under a dean whose last name was Armbruster. I don't recall his first name. I heard my father, who began teaching at Ohio in the late 1930s, talk about the visionary leadership of Dean Armbruster in this regard.

In addition to Akron, Kent State and Youngstown State both announce cuts. As I mentioned on a previous, a state school administrator told me he didn't think it was politically possible for a big Northeast Ohio merger, but if it ever was going to happen now is the time. Think about it, you would be hard pressed to find another state where three state schools are that close to each other, and that part of the state has seen a rapidly declining population trend going on 50 years. Something has to give.

https://www.beaconjournal.com/news/20200506/kent-state-cu...
https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/ysu-president-taking ... /

That’s a great thing!

Thanks, Alan. Interesting that that description doesn't mention his key role in starting the branch system. Sounds like this was written to highlight his work in starting the Business College, of which he was later the first dean. I just looked up in my Hoover History and see that he was also acting dean of the College of Applied Sciences (precursor of the College of Engineering) for a time. He was a man of many talents.

For a public university Miami has a very large percent of students from the top 1% at 7% (vs 2% at OSU/>1% at Ohio and for comparison's sake 20% at Kenyon), but I feel that a lot of those Chicago kids are coming from comfortably affluent but not wealthy families. What happens when there's white collar layoffs or no bonuses in the coming years? In any event, I think it will more likely affect the decisions of new students rather than current ones. If a kid has both an admission to U of I and Miami, how is the percent who choose U of I going to shift? OSU has the deep pockets to throw scholarship money at their oos students and admits; Miami doesn't.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobi...

Or schools will lower standards to increase numbers.

I love those who believe that all these others are in trouble but act like OHIO is sitting in a Cats Bird Seat. Before this hit, applications were down 10%, the acceptance deadline has been pushed out to June. It’s not like we are sitting with a royal flush.

Oh, I don't think we were in any great position before this hit much less afterwards. It's just that I think Miami is in a little more precarious position than they like to believe, and I'm going to enjoy my schadenfreude should they get hit.

As for our problems, I still think much of it has to land at the feet of Rod McDavis. He failed to take advantage of favorable demographics to improve Ohio's admissions profile, rankings and reputation. Now, with those demographics reversed and the hit from the pandemic, we're in a bad spot moving forward. Not as bad as an Akron or WSU, but nowhere near as strong a position as we could have been.

McDavis loved to talk a big game and throw out the red meat that he was going to make Ohio more selective and prestigious than OSU. Yet here is what his administration really felt as evidenced by this 2016 quote from one of his top administrators in response to falling rankings:

[I]In a presentation to the board and community members, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Stephen Golding analyzed the latest numbers and justified OU’s standing among other universities in the nation and region. Golding said OU’s main priority is competing with the third tier of Ohio public schools, such as the University of Cincinnati, Kent State University and Bowling Green State University.[/I]

Not exactly what we were being told publicly by Rod.

https://thenewpolitical.com/2016/11/01/president-mcdavis-... /

I shudder to think what cbus' definition of fringe, kook students and faculty members is.

The man who brought us record enrollment, new buildings, expansion of the medical college to include partnerships with the Cleveland Clinic etc. What kind of thank you did he receive.? Not a nice bon voyage, farewell party that others preceding him got. Why? Because a few powerful members of the aforementioned fringe, kook, student and faculty group didn't ordain it to be so. Does that help?