Today in the College Collapse

Affluent White Students Are Skipping College, and No One Is Sure Why

White students are falling out of higher education more quickly than any other racial group, and recent data suggests that middle- and upper-income white students are skipping college at a higher rate than their lower-income peers. That flies in the face of entrenched narratives about more-affluent white students following a well-marked path to college. Experts can only speculate about why it might be happening. The enrollment declines are coming from the country’s more affluent neighborhoods, and the more affluent the neighborhoods, the steeper the decline, on average. [Emphasis added.]

“Experts.” And our elite institutions wonder why more and more Americans hold them in such low regard. I dunno, maybe it’s things like “Critical Whiteness Studies,” which essentially tell all white males, “Drop dead.” Or things like this:

Meanwhile, the latest data are in:

Fewer 18-Year-Olds Enrolled in College This Fall

Enrollment of 18-year-old freshmen dropped 5 percent this fall compared to last, a reversal of gains made in 2023, according to a new data analysis released by the National College Attainment Network Monday. . . Bill DeBaun, senior director of NCAN, said the magnitude of the decline among recent high school graduates is “very large and very discouraging.”

Enrollment declined across racial groups for 18-year-old freshmen, though white students saw the steepest decline, the analysis found.

Many private colleges especially have been wringing their hands for over a decade now about the problem of women outnumbering men on campus. The unofficial over-under line is that colleges where women outnumber men by 60-40% risk becoming known as “chick schools,” after which they enter a downward doom loop for male students. Just wait until some colleges start to confront the reputation that whites in general don’t want to attend.

Meanwhile, the credit rating people at Fitch have downgraded their estimate of the fiscal health and solvency of higher education:

Fitch Ratings anticipates a deteriorating credit environment for U.S. public finance higher education in 2024 relative to 2023. Uneven enrollment dynamics, rising competitive pressures and continuing margin pressures will challenge credit factors across the sector. Public funding has flattened as states return to normalized budgetary means following the pandemic, and net tuition growth prospects are modest at best. This revenue trajectory is unlikely to be sufficient to fully offset still-elevated labor and wage costs, rising capital needs and a sharply uncertain legislative landscape.

Have a nice day, college administrators.

Chaser—The San Francisco Standard reports on the fiscal crisis at San Francisco State University:

SFSU lecturers canned amid financial emergency

An unknown number of lecturers at San Francisco State University are being let go as the college faces a “financial emergency,” The Standard has learned.