LCMS Higher Education - The Drought - Just Like the ELS, WELS, and CLC (sic)

Jesuit Trained Dr. Erik P. Ankerberg, earned a PhD at Marquette University.

Straddling two universities at once, did he expect things to go well?

The ninth president of CUW and seventh president of CUAA.

The professor they canned at Mequon also had a Jesuit PhD.

 
The reality of higher education is two-fold. One is that the bachelor's degree finally stopped being a requirement for a job. Twenty years ago, students at the University of Phoenix (now non-profit) told me of being refused an interview for a job if they did not already have a degree. So they signed up to finish a degree. Two - higher education kept increasing tuition and letting students borrow for a lifetime of paying the loan. Three - the potential population for higher education is shrinking. (I am not a math major.)

Ankerberg only recently became president of the Mequon-Ann Arbor twin schools. But wait - I remember when - "In 1982, the former campus of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mequon, Wisconsin, was purchased and now has become the permanent home of CUW." I heard WELS was offered the white elephant and Missouri grabbed it. Did anyone realize the Church of Rome was dumping properties? 

 "Maybe if I established a new, radical look..."

Most universities are in trouble now, because they have been increasing their tuition faster than the cost of living, back to the 1980s. I know only two universities who have not done that and are thriving. Did anyone think the online education shift would keep those lush, country club campuses flush with funds? They invested in online equipment too, but they lost the gusher of money that comes from charging big money for old dorms and stale, greasy food. One wealthy business man told me how college dorms are money-gushers for the school. "Get a rich guy to pay for the dorm and the college gets all that money free and clear. Or they use the cash to pay off the mortgage and soon run in the black." 

All higher education entities are frantic to do things that will reverse the inevitable trends. WELS and the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie (Bethany) have recently built sparkling gyms with enormous costs. Their two colleges are 34 miles apart. Bethany cut two academic areas to build their gym. Unsound minds in sound bodies.

The Great Depression of higher education jobs is shrinking faculties, and all those under-employed scholars are looking for replacement jobs. 

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