Higher ed people may think we are insulated from the layoff contagion spreading to our campuses. We aren’t. It is distressingly simple to come up with scenarios where many colleges and universities might need to resort to downsizing to stay financially viable. The drop in post-pandemic enrollments may not reverse. High inflation and low unemployment are major disincentives for working adults to take on graduate school debt. Labor costs, which comprise the vast majority of every university budget, continue to increase rapidly.
