[Alumni-chat] Re: Alumni-chat Digest, Vol 14, Issue 3

[Bob Devine]

Laura, you provide too many sensible answers.  Off with your head!
(figuratively, of course).

Bob

---------- Forwarded message ----------

> From: Laura Fathauer <pas0705 at yahoo.com>
> To: Alumni Chat List <alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu>
> Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 14:47:18 -0700 (PDT)
> Subject: RE: [Alumni-chat] does Toni speak truth?
> During my research in the fall, I came across the article on budgeting at
> liberal arts institutions. It compared 50 liberal arts institutions. Key
> points
> were-
>
> -all but two of the institutions 'subsidized' the cost per student. That
> is,
> for the average revenue per student, the average cost per student anywhere
> from
> 10% to 100% greater then that revenue.
>
> -Places with larger endowments spent more per student, and subsidized more
> per
> student, then those with smaller endowments.
>
> This is still going on. Liberal arts colleges are still making it today as
> viable educational institutions. The base factors in budgeting in those
> other
> institutions are the same base factors in budgeting at antioch- there is
> no
> magic involved in "antioch college budgeting".
>
> The way Antioch is unique today is not that "liberal arts colleges are not
> viable" as the chancellor believes. The way Antioch College is unique is
> that
> we have a small endowment, AND the traditional other source of revenue
> (adult
> programming) no longer wants to contribute to the home institution. It is
> not
> liberal arts education that is not viable- it is the funding and the
> governance
> structure at Antioch that is not viable.
>
> Antioch College struggles because of the lack of "renewable resource" type
> funding to make up the difference between the revenue per student and the
> cost
> per student. The interest on endowment or revenue-generating programs you
> see
> at other institutions are continually taken away from the College- from
> spending the endowment on expansion, to canceling summer programs, to
> adult
> campuses that don't want to fulfill their historical obligations to the
> College
> (McGregor).
>
> Think about McGregor- a weekend and evening program, that utilized campus
> buildings when the College program wasn't. The same buildings are
> producing
> revenue during times they'd normally be unused. That's why those types of
> programs succeed in generating revenue. This stupid bloody university
> built a
> completely separate building- so now at every single hour of every day of
> the
> week, the University has unused facility resources in Yellow Springs.
>
> Toni's vision of 'viability' is budgeting based on the principles at
> revenue-driving, adult campus programs. The revenue of tuition covers the
> cost
> of education.
>
> Its not bloody rocket science.
>
> I have an article written by Shay in 1976 that lays it out better.. I'll
> post
> some when I get home tonight.
>
> -l
>
>
>
>      ____________________________________________________________