May 28, 2020
Extinction Event
Given what is to come, schools of every kind are now at risk
Tuition and fees, for decades the apparently inexhaustible engine of growth in higher ed—backed as they are by federal student loan guarantees—have begun to hit a ceiling. Tuition and rental income has long been the gold standard of revenue in higher education: unlike private gifts, federal grants, or state appropriations, it has no restrictions on its use, and can be deployed freely to pay the staff salaries, pension liabilities, debt service payments, and other operational expenses that regrettably cannot be embossed with a donor’s name.
