It’s a bleak time to be a college leader in America — and a new survey of nearly 300 presidents suggests that as the pandemic wears on, many are simply focused on their institution’s survival.
The American Council on Education, in conjunction with the TIAA Institute, reached out to presidents September 14-22 and asked them to identify their most pressing concerns. Here are five of the survey’s top findings.
Campus mental health is the No. 1 worry. The college leaders were asked to select their five top concerns from a list of 19 Covid-related issues. Fifty-three percent of presidents listed student mental health, and 42 percent pointed to faculty and staff mental health as being among their biggest worries. Anxiety, uncertainty, depression, and grief — compounded by the isolation of the pandemic — have exacted an often invisible toll on people who study and work in higher education.
Financial viability is in question. The pandemic has weakened the financial foundations of many colleges, though the full extent of the damage remains difficult to assess. Long-term financial viability was the survey’s second most-frequently cited concern, with 43 percent of presidents selecting it. Tuition-dependent private colleges are already suffering, and the funding situation for public colleges is about to get a lot worse if the federal government doesn’t extend some relief.
Enrollments are down, but maybe not yet at the bottom. Enrollments are dropping at institutions across the country, but particularly at public two-year colleges, where 79 percent of presidents said the number of students had declined. Over all, more than half of presidents reported that their college’s enrollment was down this fall compared to the same time last year. And 39 percent of those surveyed said that spring enrollment numbers were a major worry — No. 4 on the list of leaders’ concerns.
Layoffs are the new harsh reality. Nearly two-thirds of presidents surveyed indicated that they had either laid off employees, are currently imposing layoffs, or “may implement” layoffs within the next 12 months. Twenty-eight percent of presidents had already overseen layoffs, or were in the midst of them. Thirty-eight percent left the door open to layoffs at some point during next year.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month that the higher-ed work force has shrunk by at least 7 percent since the arrival of Covid-19. Colleges and universities cut jobs at the fastest rate since the agency started measuring such things in the 1950s.
Revenues are dwindling, and pandemic costs are rising. More than nine out of 10 presidents reported a drop in revenue from special programs, and most saw decreases in profits from auxiliaries (73 percent), room and board (61 percent), and endowment earnings and/or gifts (54 percent).
At the same time that colleges are witnessing a drop in revenues, the task of reopening during Covid-19 has created additional expenses. Some colleges are proactively conducting surveillance testing of asymptomatic individuals, which can cost millions of dollars.
The survey results show that most college presidents aren’t going quite that far. Only about a third of colleges offering in-person instruction are testing their students on a continuing basis. Other mitigation strategies had near-universal adoption by colleges, including requiring face masks (96 percent), providing personal protective equipment to faculty and staff (88 percent), and reducing class sizes for social distancing (87 percent).
The ACE survey was one in a series to gauge how college leaders are responding to the rapid changes affecting higher education.
