Quick hits.
- Texas Tech University officials are reviewing the institution’s hiring processes after a conservative advocacy group criticized how the university’s biology department rates applicants’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. (The Texas Tribune)
- Officials at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln are figuring out how to cut roughly $13 million from the institution’s budget in order to deal with a revenue shortfall caused by declining enrollment. (Lincoln Journal Star)
- Temple University graduate students who are striking for higher wages had their tuition assistance withdrawn. They must pay the balance in full or they will be faced with late fees and financial holds on their accounts. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
- The University of Akron paid $550,000 to settle a lawsuit with 12 former students whose therapy and counseling doctoral program lost accreditation before they graduated. (Akron Beacon Journal)
- Alabama lawmakers said that it is unlikely that the legislature would provide $30 million for Birmingham-Southern College to remain open. (AL.com)
Six out of 10 of colleges have seen drops in tuition revenue.
Net-tuition revenue — the money that institutions earn through enrollment minus any discounts and allowances provided to students — is the lifeblood of many colleges.
It’s the largest source of revenue for private four-year colleges, and it accounts for just over $1 of every $5 of revenue for public four-year institutions, about the same, on average, as their combined earnings from state grants, contracts, and appropriations.
But over the first part of the Covid-19 pandemic, 61 percent of campuses saw that source of revenue fall. A likely factor in the dip was colleges’ struggle to bring back students two years into the pandemic, according to a Chronicle analysis of finance data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which examined how net-tuition revenue fluctuated from 2019 to 2021.
Read more from our Jacquelyn Elias here.
Weekend reads.
Check out this week’s batch of Chronicle staff-recommended reads:
- Vice’s Maxwell Strachan wrote about how used furniture dealers in Manhattan are selling thousands of Herman Miller office chairs left behind by corporations downsizing due to the “death of office culture.”
- Cathy Free of The Washington Post wrote about a dog day care facility that caught on fire in Seattle, and how neighbors raced to save all 115 dogs that were inside.
- Do you follow proper 2023 etiquette? The Cut published a guide on “how to text, tip, ghost, host, and generally exist in polite society today.” From “don’t try to help a stranger parallel park” to “don’t scroll through your friend or acquaintance’s photo roll,” the guide contains 140 rules across eight categories.
Comings and goings.
- Suzanne Smith, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Georgia Southwestern State University, has been named president of the State University of New York at Potsdam.
- Carrie Castille, senior vice chancellor and senior vice president for the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, has stepped down after less than a year.
- Hilary L. Link, president of Allegheny College, in Pennsylvania, has been named president of Drew University, in New Jersey.
- Karen Rohr, assistant vice president for engagement and annual giving at Bowling Green State University, in Ohio, has been named vice president for university advancement at the State University of New York at Fredonia and executive director of the Fredonia College Foundation.
To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.
Footnote.
Officials at California State University at Fullerton were on high alert after campus police received an email sent to a faculty member that they perceived to be a “vague threat to campus.” The email urged the professor to cancel class the next day due to a “once-in-a-lifetime event,” “for the good of humanity.”
But the message turned out to be a reference to a Nintendo event. Yes, the multinational video game company.
“After hours of investigation by our detectives, we learned of a Nintendo Direct event that would occur at the exact date and time the individual suggested the class be canceled,” acting Chief Scot Willey said in a statement. “The individual, believed to be a CSUF student, then reached back out to the professor via email admitting it was a bad joke regarding the Nintendo Direct event.”
The event in question was a livestream announcing some of the new games to be released for the Nintendo Switch.
Has your campus experienced anything similar? I’d love to hear from you at marcela@chronicle.com.
