Low enrollment for first-year and transfer students at Rutgers-Camden causing major concerns
Faculty and union officials blamed new computer software for lower-than-usual enrollment at all Rutgers-Camden.
Low enrollment for first-year and transfer students at Rutgers-Camden causing major concerns
- Thread starter Tango Two
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This basically is the scribblers transcribing the faculty union talking points. So there's that.
This is a concern of course. But it is part of a larger "flight to quality" I would suggest in a shrinking college student market.
They want to make it a central admin favors New Brunswick issue. I don't know about that. I think what makes NB a more desirable destination goes way beyond anything a university bureaucrat can influence in the short term.
This is a concern of course. But it is part of a larger "flight to quality" I would suggest in a shrinking college student market.
They want to make it a central admin favors New Brunswick issue. I don't know about that. I think what makes NB a more desirable destination goes way beyond anything a university bureaucrat can influence in the short term.
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27% in one year seems more than a "flight to quality," especially considering that over the years the Camden campus's enrollment has been steadily increasing, Something seems to have gone wrong here, but it's hard to know how much of it is the central administration's failure and how much of it is the Camden administration's. Chancellor Tillis has gotten off to a poor start, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the blame should be put at his door. The Camden faculty and administration have felt slighted by the central administration for over half a century, but it's also hard to know how much of the failure here was a deliberate act by the central administraion.
Been saying for a long time. RU Camden doesn't need to exist. Definitely not part of RU. Let Rowan have it.Low enrollment for first-year and transfer students at Rutgers-Camden causing major concerns
Faculty and union officials blamed new computer software for lower-than-usual enrollment at all Rutgers-Camden.www.nj.com
You'll probably get a lot of agreement on that, but the problem is that it'll siphon more state $ away from Rutgers, which isn't good considering how low funding already is. The politicians like Sweeney would love this.
Why would anybody want to enhance Rowan by giving it the Camden campus? All that would do is to increase Rowan's ability to compete with Rutgers for South Jersey students.
Short-sighted but that surprises no one.
I'm guessing U of Michigan is not in any rush to sever its Flint campus and just gift it over to Wayne State or Eastern Michigan.
'Where the heck is everybody?': NJ college enrollment is declining. We asked experts why
'Where the heck is everybody?': NJ college enrollment is declining. We asked experts why
While traditional colleges and universities see a decline in enrollment, trade and technology postsecondary schools are not.
www.mycentraljersey.com
This post deserves its own thread. First, the reason there's been a substantial increase in students majoring in Legal Studies is that the major is new. I have a very low opinion of such programs, but this probably isn't the place to talk about that.'Where the heck is everybody?': NJ college enrollment is declining. We asked experts why
'Where the heck is everybody?': NJ college enrollment is declining. We asked experts why
While traditional colleges and universities see a decline in enrollment, trade and technology postsecondary schools are not.www.mycentraljersey.com
Second, notice how well trade schools and the colleges that stress STEM programs are doing. Students are realizing that, with the high cost of college, it's important to have a return on investment. From the standpoint of American society, these are excellent developments.
Third, the long-term demographic trend is downward. Planning a career as a professor in non-STEM fields is not a good move right now! I was very lucky; those following me in "professoring" will not be as fortunate.
Makes sense. Not sure how you're familiar with it but is this program at Camden, Newark, NB, or all three? Is it a glorified pre-law program and/or meant to put folks into paralegal careers?
The programs are at all three schools. I'm pretty familiar with them and their purpose. I prefer not to say more.
I'll just say this:I don't think there's a good reason for a student to major in Legal Studies. I'll stop there.
The only info I found through an admittedly cursory glance was a ULS program that leads to a minor at Newark and Camden, but not a major. Apparently nothing at NB. It may not be current information since as you stated up-thread the majors are new.
The goal is to expand the programs. The larger these programs are, the more money the law school makes.
Basically the same box as gender studies. Get rid of these terrible auxillary campuses. They do nothing for the school. Or for students if we are being honest.
If American's are paying for the education of loan takers now, we need to be much more involved in which schools exist.
It's really a different kind of box: it's not what you would consider the PC box. And the program would exist in New Brunswick even if the law school were there, so the existence of the "auxiliary campuses" is irrelevant.
I sympathize with your second paragraph. A significant number of loans were taken out to attend for-profit institutions that didn't do anything for their students but load them with a lot of debt. In addition, a lot of prestigious institutions have established graduate degree programs in things like film studies that do nothing for the students' job prospects.
I don't think this is true. For-profit colleges are a tiny, tiny portion of the entire market. Still, definitely sucks for those students!
Yes, there are some macro level changes going on, not specific to any one campus. Some campuses will weather the storm better than others though.
I'm sure you'd agree that it's not just campuses ---we're going to see more and more colleges going out of existence. A good friend of mine did her best to keep Mills College in Oakland alive -- with all her savvy and hard work, she couldn't do it.
As for the Camden campus, it's hard to know what the future will bring. I think Rowan is increasingly eating the Camden campus's lunch. Rowan has an engineering program; Camden does not. Rowan has a much bigger program to prepare teachers than Camden. And Rowan has a much more energetic administration that is willing to take chances.
^^ This cannot be understated.
As an aside, a family friend who grew up partly in the Bay Area is a Mills grad from the late 80s. Its demise was unfortunate.
Yes, it's sad that Mills is no longer a degree-granting institution. The college dates from 1852 -- right after the Gold Rush began. I think the pandemic was the last straw.
During the controversy over whether Rowan should take the Camden campus, one union official on the Camden campus said that Rowan was not as financially secure as Rutgers because Rowan takes chances. I thought to myself that being at an institution that takes chances is not always a bad thing! After all, any entrepreneur knows that you have to run risks in order to have a reward.
Exactly. In this case I meant campuses in the broadest sense of the word. Beyond any intra-RU comparisons or competition.
It's a real shift. Where I live in Boston there has been a series of small privates in the region that have already consolidated or folded. More to come I imagine.
Jersey City State might be one off the first publics to really get slammed?
There are so many private colleges in the Boston area that I'm not surprised some are closing or consolidating. Can you give an example or two? I happen to know a little about Wheaton, and apparently it's OK.
My guess is that Jersey City State will come under new management rather than close. There is such a shortage of college seats for NJ high school graduates that the school would be able to attract enough students if competently run.
Honestly - Some of these I didn't know existed before I heard of their problems.
Becker College in Worcester closed, some bits folded into Clark
Mount Ida in Newton closed
Wheellock in Boston merged with BU
Newbury College in Brookline closed
Hampshire College in Amherst had a near death experience
Others in New England
I never heard of any of these! The story you linked is from 2019, so all of the schools it mentions died before the pandemic hit in early 2020. My guess is that there are now even more small private colleges in trouble. I wonder if we'll start to see private colleges close in the mid-Atlantic.
I think you are right on more bad news to come for smaller outfits.
The only one I was really aware of was Hampshire. Only because my wife went to UMass Amherst and she described the Hampshire students she ran into as odd sorts back in the day. Seems they were into the alternative scene.
Wilkipedia says (and the Hampshire College website confirms) that the place was founded "as an experiment in alternative education." So I'm not surprised the students there were odd.
These private schools are *so* expensive -- some will hang on because there are kids who legitimately need to be at very small colleges, and some will hang on because they are prestigious, but a lot will go by the boards. I can't think of a private college down here that's in trouble, but maybe that's just a matter of time. The University of the Sciences, as you probably know, was taken over by St. Joseph's.
Yes. The University of the Sciences was doing badly. St. Joe's is definitely the senior partner in the merger.
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Wonder if schools like Rider are in trouble here in Jersey. I know Georgian Court is having problems.
Rider has cut its tuition a *lot,* and says it is focusing on preparing students for careers.
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