A Plan to Save Small Colleges

Michael Alexander, president emeritus of Lasell University (MA), writes: 

The notice of a college closing is almost a weekly occurrence now. We have known for more than a decade that the combination of a declining number of high school graduates and tuition and fees that are too costly for most lower- and middle-income families would result in significant decreases in enrollments. Fighting over a declining number of available students with ever-increasing tuition discounts is a doomed strategy. Recruiting more adult students has been a stopgap for some institutions, but the competition for these students is now intense and dominated by the online behemoths. And the number of potential graduate students in their 20s and 30s is now starting to decline as well. The challenges are significant.