Thursday, August 31, 2017

Wherefore Evergreen State College?

Apparently, not all publicity is good publicity. We recall the events that roiled the Evergreen State College Campus last spring.

The College Fix explains what happened:

First they [progressive students] cornered white biology Professor Bret Weinstein and shouted him down over his choice not leave campus during a “Day of Absence,” in which white students and employees were asked to stay off campus for the day. The aggressive actions against the professor forced him to hold class off campus at a nearby park.

Next, students accused the university’s administration of racism during a contentious meeting, during which they yelled at and belittled President George Bridges. At this meeting, some white students were told to stand in the back of the room because of the color of their skin. The progressive student protesters also issued a string of demands to combat the alleged racism on campus, most of which the university agreed to implement at an unknown fiscal cost.

The college was also shut for multiple days in early June because of threats it received. Student vigilantes even took to patrolling campus with bats. Later reports about the school revealed that radicalism and anarchy had been pushed at Evergreen State College since at least 2008.

The consequences echo what happened at the University of Missouri. Student enrollment fell. The university faced a budget shortfall.  Employees were laid off. Now if only alumni stop contributing. It’s the only way to stop the madness.

The College Fix reports:

Administrators at The Evergreen State College have announced that the embattled school faces a massive $2.1 million budget shortfall due in part to a drop in enrollment, and the institution has already handed out some temporary layoff notices as officials grapple with balancing the books.

In an Aug. 28 memo to the campus community titled “Enrollment and Budget Update,” officials report that fall 2017-18 registration is down about 5 percent, from 3,922 students to 3,713. But the problem is nearly all of the students they lost are nonresidents, who traditionally pay a much higher tuition to attend, officials explained in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix.

Combined with a shortfall in funding from state coffers to shoulder a mandatory cost-of-living salary increase and a rise in the general cost of operations, and the school must find a way to resolve a $2.1 million shortfall for the fiscal year that began July 1, according to the memo.

In the end these antics diminish the value of everyone's degree. Good job, radicals. Good job, weak-kneed administrators.

5 comments:

Sam L. said...

I am so BUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMED for Evergreen. They didn't THINK before getting what they wanted. Unintended (and unexpected--like, toooootally) consequences.

James said...

The Evergreen of other people's money apparently wasn't evergreen after all.

Sam L. said...

Got kinda wilted, it did.

James said...

Sam,
And looks like it's going to fall off the tree.

Ares Olympus said...

College Fix: But the problem is nearly all of the students they lost are nonresidents, who traditionally pay a much higher tuition to attend, officials explained in the memo.

A shortfall of 2.1 million by losing 209 students comes out to just over $10k/student. That actually sounds on the low side of tuition these days. I wonder what the lower tuition is for residents? But as best I recall, resident tuition is subsidizes by state taxes, so the college themselves don't necessarily get more total tuition from nonresidents. Apparently that's not always true.

Overall it would seem to be a difficult problem for any school - to match supply with demand.

With only a single year of data, its not clear we can say we know the cause of the decline, but for conservatives looking for punishing schools that fail to protect free speech, it's the desired outcome.