How much longer will Kent be Chancellor?

[JRHEETER]

Agreed with pretty much all of this. I've worked in Higher Ed for almost 20 years now and could absolutely 100% without a doubt have made more money in those 20 years in the private sector. But I believe in the mission of the school and doing my part to advance that, and I appreciate the work/life balance that comes with working in Higher Ed, which I can compare firsthand to my wife and her corporate job.

It’s why I just recently took a job at a higher ed instead of a traditional corporate job.

Two weeks off for Christmas and every Friday off in the summer? Plus all the holidays and then 3 weeks of vacation.

Yeah I’ll take that

 

[kingtidge]

I was at one of them that already did. For Saint Rose, they took on debt in the 2000s when they were booming to buy real estate and put a sparkly new dorm on Madison Ave... then the 2008 collapse happened. They never recovered. They were treading water after some severe staff and faculty cuts in 2015, and then covid made things all but untenable. They had enough reserves to hold out for a few years, but were unable to identify a strategy to get their enrollment back up. At the time (and to this day) I believed that the only solution was to GROW their way out of it, but they went in the other direction with cuts to some of their more attractive programs, rather than some of the actual deadweight, due to internal politics (just like in 2015).

The demographic cliff is a thing now as well. Some familiar names will probably be meeting the same fate as Saint Rose in the next few years.

I find it ironic that these failing schools all seem to fail because they can't run a business.

 

[oldpinepoint]

It’s why I just recently took a job at a higher ed instead of a traditional corporate job.

Two weeks off for Christmas and every Friday off in the summer? Plus all the holidays and then 3 weeks of vacation.

Yeah I’ll take that

I agree, the benefits are usually good but the pay is usually garbage, at least it was when my wife worked at SU

 

[upperdeck]

At my level pay at private would probably be 5-10x more.

But less stress, time off, not a profit based job is a good thing.

We have many people coming back from Corp jobs just because of the work environment

Profs can make big bucks. It usually takes many years to get to that point.

Many I know make more money in summer salary doing side projects than they do at the school gig, But its the school gig/research that gets them the side projects.

The new gov decisions probably have many schools worried. Its a level of chaos that hasnt been seen in a long long time.

I am glad I am almost done.

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

I find it ironic that these failing schools all seem to fail because they can't run a business.

Yes, in their case they made some very, very bad decisions and followed them up with decisions that were just as bad or worse. As an environmental guy, I have some obvious bias towards those fields, but they had a popular and rapidly growing environmental science program that was one of the first things they cut in 2015. I came in well after that, but none of the faculty and admin that I personally interacted with could ever get over how they cut programs that made money to protect other programs that were financial liabilities. The internal politics back in 2015 must have been something else.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

There are many, many professors that had careers prior to academia. Your blanket statement about their skills - and implication about their worth - couldn't be more misguided.

That would be different than the straight to academia English lit prof.

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

That would be different than the straight to academia English lit prof.

I don't think I've ever personally encountered what you're describing. Most faculty in English and lit that I've known have had some pretty diverse backgrounds. I do know somebody that thought they could do a PhD in philosophy (with no research) just to teach it in higher ed and stay in academia forever... they now work a cash register at a UPS store.

Point being, the academics with no translatable skills is more of a social meme than anything I have actually encountered as a faculty member in academia.

 

[shandeezy7]

That would be different than the straight to academia English lit prof.

Most English Lit professors that I know are also published authors. Those still exist in the "real world," right?

 

[kingtidge]

Yes, in their case they made some very, very bad decisions and followed them up with decisions that were just as bad or worse. As an environmental guy, I have some obvious bias towards those fields, but they had a popular and rapidly growing environmental science program that was one of the first things they cut in 2015. I came in well after that, but none of the faculty and admin that I personally interacted with could ever get over how they cut programs that made money to protect other programs that were financial liabilities. The internal politics back in 2015 must have been something else.

I mean with Caz College... when they folded they had more faculty and administrators than students??

Obviously, that is remedially unsustainable.

I mean, no one can look at enrollment #'s, profit/loss and EBITA and form and implement a cogent business strategy??

I also get that if you let it devolve to the point where your faculty and admins outnumber actual students, it's probably WAY too late to right the ship. It's going down.

 

[shandeezy7]

I mean with Caz College... when they folded they had more faculty and administrators than students??

Obviously, that is remedially unsustainable.

I mean, no one can look at enrollment #'s, profit/loss and EBITA and form and implement a cogent business strategy??

I also get that if you let it devolve to the point where your faculty and admins outnumber actual students, it's probably WAY too late to right the ship. It's going down.

Yeah I don't know how true that number is, and I'd assume it would be including adjunct faculty and part-time staff as well. But it's a chicken or the egg situation. Enrollment was a couple thousand students in the 90's. It declined steadily over the years, but even just 5 or 6 years ago, it was over 1,000. Then the precipitous decline happened and it went off a cliff, which is how you supposedly end up with more faculty/staff than students.

 

[SU68]

Meanwhile, for the second straight year, SU was a Fulbright top Producing institution (US Dept of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs)

SU received a record number of first-year undergraduate applications for the fifth straight year, with more than 46,000 applying to the class of 2029. (D.O.)

82% of Syracuse University students receive some form of financial support totaling more than $498 million.

That's not bad for an expensive private university.

 

[Newhouser]

Yes, in their case they made some very, very bad decisions and followed them up with decisions that were just as bad or worse. As an environmental guy, I have some obvious bias towards those fields, but they had a popular and rapidly growing environmental science program that was one of the first things they cut in 2015. I came in well after that, but none of the faculty and admin that I personally interacted with could ever get over how they cut programs that made money to protect other programs that were financial liabilities. The internal politics back in 2015 must have been something else.

Wasn't there some oddity in the recent sale of the St Rose land? Higher bidders but the land went to a government entity (which I'm sure thrilled creditors).

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

Wasn't there some oddity in the recent sale of the St Rose land? Higher bidders but the land went to a government entity (which I'm sure thrilled creditors).

Couldn't tell you. I've been following the reporting on it, but I don't have any connections with what's been going on. I suspected that it would end up being parceled out to some of the entities that are associated with some of the board members, so I was happy to see a public agency win out (if they actually did).

 

[kingtidge]

Wasn't there some oddity in the recent sale of the St Rose land? Higher bidders but the land went to a government entity (which I'm sure thrilled creditors).

Yeah, "Pine Hills Land Authority" that Hochul and the Albany County Legislature set-up and put a non-profit economic development executive in charge of to run it. They bought the entire St. Rose campus of properties (sans the President's former house) for $35 mill and are trying to re-develop it as one whole parcel (as opposed to splitting to to sub-properties and selling off parcels to the highest bidders.)

There were other bidders but no higher bidders.

Whatever they come up with for a plan, they hope to keep the integrity of the neighborhood intact, as the small campus sits smack-dab in the middle of an Albany city residential neighborhood.

We'll have to se how it goes.

 

[orangenauburn]

Yeah I don't know how true that number is, and I'd assume it would be including adjunct faculty and part-time staff as well. But it's a chicken or the egg situation. Enrollment was a couple thousand students in the 90's. It declined steadily over the years, but even just 5 or 6 years ago, it was over 1,000. Then the precipitous decline happened and it went off a cliff, which is how you supposedly end up with more faculty/staff than students.

It had 718 total students (full and part time) when it closed. There was 620 total employees on payroll (including facilities and support staff, administrative, and educators).

 

[shandeezy7]

It had 718 total students (full and part time) when it closed. There was 620 total employees on payroll (including facilities and support staff, administrative, and educators).

Yeah I’m gonna guess a decent chunk of that 620 were food service, custodial and maintenance staff. Unfortunately, difficult areas to cut staff in if you’re still trying to operate and maintain a college campus.

 

[orangenauburn]

Yeah I’m gonna guess a decent chunk of that 620 were food service, custodial and maintenance staff. Unfortunately, difficult areas to cut staff in if you’re still trying to operate and maintain a college campus.

Yes. I have to find the link again that had a breakdown but educational staff (professional, assistant professional, TA, and educational admin) was (I believe) 250 or so. There were some programs that only had two or three students enrolled in them.

I found something that had 97 professors, but those were just the full on professors.