In the last few years, small liberal arts colleges struggling under financial siege have been forced to re-examine their missions and justify their existence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/us/small-colleges-losing-market-share-struggle-to-keep-doors-open.html
They dumped math??? Ugly.
Looks like the Franklin Pierce math department has 2 tenured professors and 4 lecturers, according to page 188 of the 2015-2016 catalog. Even in the 2013-2014 catalog, there were only 3 regular courses that would normally be considered junior/senior level courses in other math departments (MT361 Modern Algebra, MT373 Probability and Mathematical Statistics, MT375 Introduction to Operations Research).
I think it’s reasonable to ask whether we have exactly the right number of small LACs in this country, or whether the market can’t sustain all of them and some should close. We may believe some students are making bad choices when they pick bigger schools, but ultimately it has to be up to the kids. Guidance counselors can’t force them to be open to this option (heaven knows I’ve tried).
I wish more states had real public LACs.
I realize that these struggling LACs all discount themselves to virtually everyone with a pulse, but is the huge sticker price an initial application deterrent? FPU charges $46,000 a year in tuition alone and though no one pays this, an upper middle class potential applicant might still be turned off by that since merit aid strategies are not common knowledge.
The problem facing small LACs is that we may very well have the right number of LACs in this country, but they are not in geographically optimal places. The [Northeast and Upper Midwest](List of U.S. states and territories by population - Wikipedia) have seen extremely slow, and in some cases declining birthrates. This means less applicants to the smaller schools, particularly given that a slow growth rate could indicate the lack of a growing economy and thus diminished capital available to send students to the more expensive private options. By contrast, places like Utah, Colorado, Arizona, etc have all seen their populations drastically increase over the last two decades yet there are comparatively few private colleges that pose a viable academic alternative to the public options.
@Hanna, how many public liberal arts colleges are there? St. Mary’s in Maryland pops to mind. William & Mary?
@whenhen I remember a thread a while back about a small LAC (I think it was Sewanee) that tried to lower tuition by $10,000 instead of combining a high sticker price with large merit awards. It didn’t work out too well. Firstly, because some people view college as a Veblen good, and won’t even consider a $40,000/year college; what kind of rinky-dink directional has a $40,000 COA? Others have more sensible views, but many in this group can’t begin to afford $40,000. Secondly, people like getting merit aid. Some of this is rational - attending college X on a scholarship looks good on a resumé - while much of it is about vanity.
They have a consortium:
Though some members may meet CC LAC ideals more closely than others.
https://colleges.niche.com/franklin-pierce-university/
Not surprised it is in trouble.
I have been surprised that more are not failing already.
@NotVerySmart – I think Elon is a school that keeps their sticker price lower and when they offer merit awards, they are in the $5-&K range, I think. All anecdotal as I have never looked at Elon, but it seems that instead of discounting $20K from $60K, they discount $5K from the mid-$40s.
Elon does keep their sticker price lower, merit award ranges go a bit higher than that - but you often read posts about how Elon is “stingy with aid” even though the bottom line is still competive. People look at the $$ of the award, not the net price. Look how well everyday discounted pricing worked for Penny’s. People like to think they’re getting a deal.
@Hanna I see some great schools for people who don’t want their state flagships: Mary Washington, New College of Florida, Geneseo, NC Ashville, Evergreen, St M of MD. Probably the others are great too, but I don’t know anything about them.
Among that list of public LACs are some relatively low cost (even for out-of-state students) ones like Truman State and University of Minnesota - Morris.
Interesting combo of cuts, dance and . . . math??? Yikes.
I find this sad. Love LAC’s. Great places for a kid like my youngest to get a solid education in an atmosphere that is supportive, attentive, and not overly competitive, but will push her to stretch herself. We toured several recently, and all were lovely schools that have a lot to offer.
I agree that many of the LAC’s are not in optimal locations. More than once this year, as my daughter and I discussed LAC’s located in the midwest, we said, wow, that is a great school – if only it were located in the south, it would be a top choice . . . the weather here . . .
@mstee, you just aren’t acclimated yet. 
two things…I actually was at franklin pierce one time it was freezing cold!
and second like they mention in the article…schools added things like a rock climbing wall.
adding a rock climbing wall is not the cause of schools financial issues. I hear that as an example all the time.
I have long wondered how small LACs are able to sustain programs with only a few thousand students. Many/most LACs are smaller than my high school which routinely canceled classes due to low enrollment.
To be clear, I have absolutely nothing against LACs. I have just always wondered how the logistics work.
My daughter was interested in the small schools (maybe not 1400, but under 3000). She’s so happy she picked a bigger school as she’s already changed her major once, and likes the bigger variety of classes. Even with 10,000 students some classes are only offered once a year and it takes planning to get the sequence correct. Other daughter looked at a very small college and the first thing we noticed was that there were only 5 math professors.
I don’t think dance and math are such a strange combination. Daughter’s roommate was a dance major but also in the honors program so was taking some advance since and math classes.
I think some of the small LACs try to offer too much and they then get stretched too thin. Don’t offer every major or minor. Pick a handful of subjects and make them the focus. Music, creative writing. foreign language. My daughter goes to a smaller school, and it offers engineering and a few related majors (sciences, math, medical bio). It also has a big psych department, a business school, and a communications major. There just aren’t very many other courses offered. There are enough English classes to meet the requirements of the other majors, but you can’t major in English, or a foreign language, or art.
@intparent – how long does it take to become acclimated? I’m not sure I have enough years left to accomplish that . . .
It’s really expensive to run a small college well. I don’t have a better logistics answer than that.