It is very interesting to note that recently one state after another is facing budget problem which negatively affect the US colleges’ operational budget. It started with UC System followed by others such as Washington, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Illinois and the last we heard was from the state of South Carolina where the state House Budget Committee has voted to temporarily close South Carolina State University. Poor management and applying the out-of-date approaches are the common cause of such troubles. The Association has informed the players that competitive environments where they are operating have experienced massive phenomenal changes. Therefore, there are no questions that past approaches or strategies may not work to deal with the new reality. In addition to declined enrollment trends and lower graduation rate, college decision makers are also facing budget shortages which may cause potential course reductions and faculty lay-off or any combination of these unfortunate options. Postponing taking the new approaches in managing the organization will only make things go from bad to worse.
The Association has anticipated such a situation to occur, so it has conducted intensive study based on real data and the results have been shared to the American public at least two years ago. It is up to the school administrators to make strategic changes or just go BAU.