The Private University and the Impact of Budget Cuts
By Kathryn McClintock
Photography by Wikimedia Commons
<Newberg, Ore.> The closing of Concordia University in Portland, Ore., came as a surprise. According to an Inside Higher Ed article, students as well as shareholders were blindsided by the sudden closure announcement. Some worry it’s a herald of difficult times for private, liberal arts universities.
As Concordia has closed, George Fox University (GFU) has offered incentives for the students stricken by the announcement. Concordia students who transfer to GFU will receive additional financial aid, expedited applications, and 100% credit transfer.
To many, it seemed that Concordia was doing everything right. They expanded their online and graduate programs, and were no longer relying solely on residential undergraduate students. However, even with the rise in online enrollment, the university’s debt was growing each year, their profits decreasing.
Many small private universities are looking to diversify, and create a safety net to weather the storms of rocky enrollment numbers. For a time, it seemed that Concordia was doing this well, according to the Inside Higher Ed article. However, even with strong online enrollment numbers, their progress was more stagnant than it seemed.
A CNBC article estimated the ratio of small private universities under financial strain to be 1 in 5 across the country. Administrators are trying to find new ways to keep their institutions flexible, including cuts to programs, majors, and faculty. Some institutions have lowered tuition price, along with the amount of aid they give out.
Recently, George Fox University (GFU) has taken some steps to move towards this more sustainable paradigm, but it has caused some friction between the administration and the student body. Nine professors have recently been informed their contracts will not be renewed for the following academic year, a large portion of them from the Christian Ministries major.
For students in these majors, it’s less like losing a professor than it is like losing a friend. “I think the students and myself have felt known by these professors,” said Student Government President Lexi Hamaker, “These people were going the extra mile to be there for students, to support students.
“It’s been on the horizon for the College of Christian Studies to restructure, but I didn’t think it meant cutting so many people. Sixty percent of their [full time] personnel are now gone,” said Hamaker.
These cuts, regardless of intention, worry some about the future of George Fox University as a Christian institution. “I think it’s kind of hypocritical to have a dying College of Christian Studies at a Christian university. I think it should be top priority to revamp it and make it all that it can be,” said Hamaker.
Rob Felton, director of Executive Communication at GFU, explains the university’s position behind the layoffs: “It has nothing to do with how good they were as professors, it has nothing to do with their views, it’s just—and students may not understand or appreciate this—a decision about the long-term financial health of the university.”
Felton recognizes that these professors were beloved by students, and says that no one at the university wanted to lose friends and mentors like these professors. Enrollment for the majors or departments where professors were cut has been in decline, he says, and that was the biggest reason for the cuts. A few of the professors’ majors had already been phased out.
However, he explained that the number of professors the university employs will likely increase in the coming year, most to popular programs. Felton said that tuition may increase modestly next year, but these decisions are intended to keep those increases as small as possible in the coming years.
For the professors impacted, Hamaker urges students to speak up, and send them messages about how much they have impacted them, and how much their time here at GFU has meant to them.