<p>Cutbacks</a> Threaten College Experience - WSJ.com</p>
<p>One of the things I felt when the financial mess began was sorrow that my D would attend college during a time of austerity. I attended college during what seemed to me a time of austerity (the 70's), and compared to more recent grads of the last 8-10 years, more had been offered recently in terms of campus quality of life.</p>
<p>What are you seeing out there?</p>
<p>IMHO the college experience is principally about the people ... and those haven't changed. I suspect there may be some "casualties" (students that is) of the economic crisis. But I don't think colleges are going to shut down the Chemistry building or stop serving food in the dorms.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt (mentioned in article) just opened The Commons in Fall of 2008....brand new dorms for freshman to ease dorm congestion for upperclassmen....why would they need to build more? unless they were originally planning on expanding? or was this a renovation plan that was discontinued?</p>
<p>Vanderbilt got burned so badly by the Common Fund failure back in October that they were within hours of missing a payroll. </p>
<p>Colleges and universities, including some of the biggest names and grandest endowments have been scrambling to scrape up cash.</p>
<p>I looked at some old yearbook pictures at my son's school and the pictures were of people and what they were doing. The plant and equipment weren't much to look at but they aren't today either.</p>
<p>If you go back and look at old yearbooks, is it the plant and equipment or the people that you form relationships with?</p>
<p>I thought austerity WAS a college experience. Every kid should go through hard financial times in order to appreciate what their diploma is going to allow them to obtain.</p>
<p>Lots of people my age talk about being poor college students. That was when you only needed a few thousand to go. It's obvious that there are a lot of college students that aren't poor - if you have to come up with $50K, you probably have a few bucks (I'm not talking about those with free rides). It's been a race to the nicest campus. Boston University has a really nice fitness center that was built after I attended. Is that necessary? No. Nice to have? Definitely.</p>
<p>I agree with Rodney that the article is very confusing about Vanderbilt. Yes, the Commons is open and gorgeous.
I think there have been plans to start doing dorm renovation for upperclassmen but I don't know when that will happen. Part of the reason for all of this is that Vanderbilt is going to require that all students live on campus all 4 years unless your parents live in Davidson or Williamson county, which we do, actually. If my daughter is admitted and decidedes to attend, she will spend all 4 years there in on campus housing.</p>
<p>Harvard is cutting back on a planned expansion. They will finish up the foundation work and then reconsider their original plans. They've already found space for some facilities that were supposed to be in the new buildings. I don't think they are doing much that will effect the students at this point. I haven't heard anything from CMU. They are still building the new computer buildings.</p>
<p>Here's what CMU said in late January
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<p>Beginning next fiscal year, I am asking all academic and administrative units to reduce the centrally funded portion of their annual operating budgets. For academic units this will be 5 percent by 2012 with a minimum reduction of 2 percent in 2010. For administrative units it will be 10 percent by 2012 with a minimum reduction of 2.5 percent in 2010. These cuts will result in a significant reduction in the university's projected operating deficits.
.......</p>
<p>With regard to our review of capital projects, at this time, we have decided to continue moving forward with the new School of Computer Science Complex and with renovations to the west wing of the Tepper School of Business. We are also moving ahead with renovations to selected laboratory spaces supporting science and biotechnology research. These projects reflect university priorities, have reached a substantial level of completion, and already have funding arrangements securely in place. Unfortunately, there are many additional worthy projects that will not be pursued at this time. In determining which capital projects to undertake in the future we will remain committed to our priorities.
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<p>And now they've been burned by the Westridge mess but that was in their long term investments.</p>
<p>Even if some colleges take away 50% of the "perks" the kids enjoy on their campuses, their students will still be living pampered lives.</p>
<p>My husband is a non-faculty employee of Yale University. Yale had sent all employees a memo in December advising that their endowment had taken a 25% hit and as a result several steps would be necessary to cut expenditures. Strict caps on raises have been enacted. Each department was instructed to reduce salary and benefit budgets by 5% hopefully through attrition and by not filling vacant positions. Capital improvement projects already underway were to be continued and completed. Projects approved but not yet started would be put on hold until the credit markets improved. (This has had a real ripple effect on contractors and other vendors in the New Haven area who depend on Yale for contract work). This week, another memo was sent out saying that deeper budget cuts would be necessary as it has become apparent that the market downturn is going to be more prolonged than originally thought. Budgets are now to be cut by 7.5% in 2009-2010 and another 5% to be cut in the year following. No raises at all for employees over a certain salary threshold. The first hint about layoffs appeared in the memo. And so forth. Within the university, my husband works for Yale Medical School which is far less dependent on endowment income than the rest of the University but these directives show that these are daunting times even for Ivy League universities who depend greatly on their large endowments for much of their operational budgets. It should be remembered that these directives are for non-faculty employees and that Yale states they remain committed to providing strong financial aid programs for the students.</p>
<p>When I attended college in the late 70s, being considered a "poor college student" was actually a very acceptable state of affairs, almost a bade of honor (although not one you'd pin to your jacket.) I remember one poor girl barely on fumes with scholarships and loans who was unfortunate enough to get a jay walking ticket and was on peanut butter sandwiches for weeks. I consoled another because somehow he aid money had not yet come through and the university was rumbling they were going to cancel credits for the classes she was 2/3 through completion on! Now that was ugly and fortunately did not come to pass but the stress sure took her off her game for a few weeks.</p>
<p>wow!, the that link goes to Harvard's endowment, they could essentially be illiquid?</p>
<p>now i hope my son doesn't get in</p>
<p>The Vanderbilt Commons for the freshmen does not include only new buildings. Some buildings were already there, and they have been totally renovated to help institute this new concept of keeping the freshmen all together on the Peabody campus. hope4freeride is correct that Vanderbilt expects that with this expansion all students will spend four years living on campus.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, I did not mean austerity for student's personal finances. I did that for 8 years myself with loans, jobs, scholarships, poor living conditions etc. </p>
<p>I was more bemoaning the other cutbacks. For example, in my major, one course that almost all the students wanted to take was one given only every other year, and open only to juniors and seniors. As it worked out, that meant only seniors every other year, and although I was initially closed out of the course, after I went crying to the professor, he opened it to all seniors in that major. It was twice as large a seminar as he wanted it.</p>