All Those Smart Students and Professors

16 Replies to “All Those Smart Students and Professors”

1. Innumeracy is the curse of this generation. $28 million in deferred maintenance and $25 million in debt means the college needs an immediate cash injection of at least $50 million.
   But Aaron may be being too charitable here. The lawsuit may not be about forcing it to stay open but forcing it into bankruptcy and trying to seize whatever is left of the trust fund assets after the college is liquidated.

2. Math is racist, especially basic math.

3. That story cheered me up.

4. Smart bedamned. Outside of physics and physical chemistry and possibly engineering both faculty and students are innumerate. In my university the BA has just been dumbed down even more by the removal of anything resembling quantitation in its blessed program.
   As anyone with an ear can tell as the snowflakes stream past the door, their ignorance of English is also almost total. Well-some of the foreign graduate students speak decent English.
   A few years ago one of our Classics people sat on a pension monitoring committee. He was an expert in the chthonian gods, gods of the earth and underworld, and we were afraid that he might try to take the pension fund there! His notion that a 10%-per-annum loss of principal was sustainable horrified those of us who actually could do arithmetic.

5. “I now know more about nonprofit law than I feel I know about chemistry — and I’m a chemistry major,” said Leah Humenuck….
   I’m sure wherever she works non-profit will follow.

6. With approx 100 full-time equivalent faculty at say $80K each (halfway between “prof” and “assistant prof” salary averages) that’s $8 million in direct staff wages alone.
   Their campus directory has 320 names on it, less 110 faculty leaves 210 staff. Assume 2/3rds are full time and the rest half-time and average $50K each full-time equivalent. Another $9 million wages.
   Add in benefits and Board stipends and wages alone are already in excess of $20 million per year or $37,600 for every full-time student. Assume all students pay 100% of tuition of $47,000 per year (which they don’t) that still leaves only $5 million to cover every single other expense, never mind retiring the $50+ million in debt/deferrals.
   Math may be hard but reality doesn’t care.
   532 students

7. “…Math may be hard but reality doesn’t care.”
   That’s why it cheered me up. You can’t force someone to learn if they don’t want to. But the situation at that college is about to teach the students and staff. Hard.

8. Katherine A. Chavigny, a history professor and one of the homeowners,“I understand that liberal arts colleges are struggling,” she said.
   I wonder why? Is is because people are wising up to the almost useless social activist degrees being awarded?
   John Lewis, my sister-in-law in Ontario would agree whole-heartily with your comment.

9. You forgot the revenue stream from boarding horses! /sarc

10. New math came out in the 70’s a total failuer now their trying it again under Common Core

11. Gee, maybe it’s not too late to turn it into a trade school,or something useful but then you would have to accept those damned men too. And what about the useless professors and staff that would have to be traded in for real teachers and instructors ? Nah, there wouldn’t be that prestigious liberal arts degree that in a failing economy is equivalent to toilet paper. Guess feminine studies in useless subjects have run their course. Too bad they had no “stem” subjects, like math. Must be a shock to face the real world.

12. Education is a trillion dollar bubble that’s about to burst. As in, the graduates of the U.S. college system owe a trillion dollars in student loans. Thanks to Obamanomics most of them aren’t working in their field of study, they’re fortunate if they got a barista gig with that Masters of Social Work.
    What cannot continue will stop. Small colleges will go first obviously, their financials are weakest. Personally I’m excited to see which Ivy Leage dinosaur will bite the dust first. Imagine the exploding heads when Harvard or Princeton goes into receivership.
    Looks good on ya, Lefties. You asked for it, you got it. Toyota.

13. So, the one young lady had an opportunity to study engineering at Cornell, but turned it down to study engineering at a place called Sweet Briar College?
    The mind boggles. If I was her daddy, I would have had a serious discussion with starting with “if you do go to Sweet Briar, I will eliminate your trust fund”. Of course, that would be a consequence, and today’s little precious snowflakes are not allowed to experience that.

14. “If I want it, it MUST be possible!”
    No, not really. This is why all-female colleges are bad. The women here are running on emotion rather than logic, which simply does not work in a real-world context. Having males around would cure that insanity.

15. O-darn. Ran out of other peoples money again.

16. They have a cash flow problem…..
    Just try to imagine what that realestate is worth….I can’t….
    The place has location, location, location and would be a ready made resort.