Published by The Baltimore Banner
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MICA is one among a constellation of small colleges and universities finding themselves at a painful crossroads as the dust from the pandemic settles. A new college landscape has come into focus, one that must factor in inflation, an aggressive labor market pulling away prospective students, and reduced demand for higher learning in general.
The losses have been drastic at the historic Baltimore arts institution: Revenues dropped more than 25% from fiscal year 2020 to 2021, according to its latest consolidated financial statements. Expenses, salaries and wages, and other line items, including instruction, academic support and student services, also decreased, the statements show.
Those who study and advise colleges say MICA’s problems are not new or unique in higher education. But several factors — MICA’s size, stature and arts niche, for example — may make its challenges more pronounced and tougher to resolve.
“It’s expensive to run an art school,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor of education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, who researches college finances. “There’s the cost of equipment, the cost of supplies — it’s one of the more difficult ones to fund.”
At MICA, small class sizes and high student-to-instructor ratios have made the campus tight-knit and congenial; several alumni have returned as employees, and a strong cohort of graduates have stayed in the city to work and make art. Now, some worry that the culture of the community may suffer as administrators work to restore the bottom line from the loss of the precious residential undergraduate dollars over the last three years.
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Hoi said MICA’s next chapter entails offering more options for students, including online graduate school programs, more emphasized career readiness training and more interdisciplinary studies. He said he expects fewer students to pursue four-year degrees at MICA given concerns around affordability: MICA’s sticker price stands at more than $50,000 for tuition and another $12,000 for a year of room and board, plus thousands more for meal plans and student fees.
Though MICA often receives public pushback against its high cost of attendance, most students receive financial aid to attend, Hoi said.
That’s common among private institutions in the U.S., said David Strauss, principal at the Art & Science Group, which provides consulting services to higher learning institutions. Still, families are rethinking college affordability more now than ever before, he said, and an institution’s listed price may scare off prospective students from even applying.
“It has a lot to do with value: Why bother spending that much, even after financial aid, for what?” Strauss said about consumers’ concerns about tuition. “It’s true that small schools have fixed costs to distribute over a smaller number of students, and that it’s harder to find efficiencies. You also are delivering a more personalized and individualized product, which makes them more expensive.”
There also are now fewer students to sell the vision to, Strauss added, as the U.S. high school population shrinks and fewer teens go straight to college. “You’ve got institutions doing battle, if you will, competing for the kinds of students they’ve always competed for, and then figuring out new populations not traditionally at the center of the model. That phenomenon is putting pressure on them.”
Strauss said small, liberal arts colleges and small public schools must contend with “a great deal of strain” for the time being, and several have responded with deep cuts, leadership changes and unrest among board members concerned about survival. He said most won’t shut their doors completely, though they may operate differently in the future: “It’s survive versus thrive,” he said.
That provides only some comfort to MICA students, who said they have lost faith in the college’s ability to meet the moment.
Kobert, the senior animation major, said many of her peers feel disillusioned. Some are worried about losing mentors, seeing their specialty areas shrink and paying more for less. Would she still recommend the experience to others?
“So much has changed,” said Kobert. “The actual teaching and community are great, but it feels like there’s just something hanging in the air. I don’t have the confidence to recommend with my full heart that they go here.”