Think Twice About the Economic Stimulus Lifeline

This one is for my university friends who grapple every day with charting the future direction of their institutions.

The economic stimulus bill now being considered in Congress must look like manna from heaven to colleges and universities. According to an article by Sam Dillon  in today’s New York Times, the stimulus bill would “shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget.”

However, the stimulus package might easily be the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Here’s a question for you. Does your strategic plan include the unthinkable, that university life as you know it may be coming to an end? Take a look around and listen to the distant rumblings that may portend trouble for higher education on the same scale as has already affected industries like music and newsprint.

Ask yourself, can my institution survive change of that magnitude? And then ask yourself, would the economic stimulus plan just further entrench my institution on an established path where change will be even more difficult? Would you be accepting a handout that just further cements your feet in place?

I could easily be wrong, of course. It may be that higher education leads a charmed existence so deeply buffered that it will be impervious to the rumblings of change. In which case, the stimulus money will be welcome.

But just for a moment, consider the possibility that you will be asked to steer your institution into troubled times that dwarf the current economic recession.

Let’s look at just one of the rumblings. In yesterday’s The Wired Campus of the Chronicle of Higher Education, there’s an article by Jeffrey Young that describes two new online universities that use extremely low-cost business models. Young ends his article with these words:

It seems that either University of the People, or P2PU, or some yet-to-be-created institution, will find a way to offer a radically cheaper college degree using online tools. The new models will probably take some time to mature until the right mix of teaching and self-study is perfected.

In the comments to Young’s article, there’s a revealing look into what some of your faculty (particularly your adjuncts) may be feeling. Joe Erwin asks:

Why are we who are highly qualified to provide educational services not being the entrepreneurs in all this? We could “cut out the middle man” (expensive physical campuses and expensive administrators) and enable motivated students to pay us more directly for our services. How essential are all the “overhead” aspects?

If you weren’t already concerned about the viability of today’s form of higher education, it’s time to be afraid. Perhaps very afraid.

In the course of being afraid, you’ll want to ask yourself if manna from heaven is worth the price.

I say this as a friend of higher education, a third-generation academic who has loved university life but now thinks it needs to change.