Higher Education Offers Support to Students from Ukraine and Russia
In the wake of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, students from both countries who are enrolled in American colleges and universities continue to grapple with significant challenges, including pressing financial issues. Thousands of students need help, student advocates say, and in response to students’ plight, higher education institutions across the country have been developing multifaceted approaches.
According to the most recent “Open Doors” report of the Institute for International Education (IIE), 1,739 Ukrainians and 4,085 Russians were studying in the United States from 2020 to 2021. To help such students pay tuition and meet their immediate financial needs, some colleges and universities have reached out to organizations such as IIE, which has an Emergency Student Fund that offers up to $5,000 per student.
Various institutions have also been putting financial packages together to help students deal with their immediate financial distress. But as Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Aid Administrators, told Inside Higher Ed, such assistance, while crucial, doesn’t resolve the longer-term issue of whether these students will be able to remain in college long enough to complete their degrees. He said he has found that Russian students are especially challenged when it comes to paying tuition, because their nation’s currency has lost much of its value. They often also can’t get access to funds because of economic sanctions against Russia.
A number of institutions are soliciting donors for additional support. For example, Pace University has developed a “Pace Cares” emergency fund to channel financial resources to students and has also reached out to churches, community partners, and foundations for donations. In addition, the university is offering group counseling sessions where students can express their fears and concerns, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Pace president Marvin Krislov stressed that creating a community in which the students feel welcome and that their needs will be met is as crucial as providing financial support. “When students are going through these experiences, they’re very disconnected from their typical support base, and they may not even be in touch with family, because communications may be cut or are very difficult. It’s really important for us to embrace them, to try to help them, and to listen to them,” Krislov said.
Richard Shadick, director of the counseling center at Pace, said he has found that Ukrainian students often feel pressured to “be emotionally stable since they aren’t in harm’s way” as other members of their family and friends may be. Meanwhile, Russian students have their own concerns, most notably a fear of government retaliation if they speak out against it in any way and a sense of stigma for being citizens of the country that is waging the war. “Some Russian students are living in a state of fear they’re going to be physically or emotionally harmed simply because they are Russian,” he said.
Experts have observed that colleges and universities must continue to offer a wide range of programs that not only help meet Ukrainian and Russian students’ financial needs—including food, housing, and other basic services— but also support those students’ mental and emotional health.
Why Are Students Leaving Higher Education?
The number of students in the United States who have left college before receiving a credential, certificate, or degree has grown from 36 million in 2019 to 39 million in 2021, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. And a recent research study by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup has found that the majority of students who considered stopping or dropping out of college within the last six months did so due to emotional stress.
In the study, as many as 76 percent of bachelor’s degree students who said they had thought about leaving cited such stress as the most important reason, as did 63 percent of students pursuing an associate’s degree. That’s significantly more than the 41 percent of bachelor’s degree students and 24 percent of associate’s degree students who cited emotional stress as their reason for dropping out when asked several years ago.
Lumina and Gallup surveyed more than 11,000 U.S. adults last fall as a follow-up to a previous study that investigated students’ views about shifting from in-person to remote learning. The recent study asked students whether they had considered leaving college and, if so, why. It also questioned those who left about why they were no longer in college. Respondents were twice as likely to cite stress as the reason as they were to cite the three other most-reported reasons for dropping or stopping out: the pandemic, cost, and difficult coursework.
Students of color, including those who were multiracial, were among the most likely to report that they found it very difficult or difficult to stay enrolled. Significantly more low-income students, those from households that earned less than $24,000 a year, also said it was hard to remain in college compared to high-income households (45 percent versus 28 percent).
Among respondents who were not attending college—including those who had been enrolled before the pandemic and left during it, as well as those who had never enrolled—more than half gave the cost of tuition as the reason. More than a third of those surveyed also cited family responsibilities.
Yet the study also contained some good news. As many as 65 percent of the students who have remained in college believe higher education will help them obtain knowledge and skills; 61 percent said it will help them achieve a more fulfilling career; and 60 percent said it will help them get a higher-paying job. About half of them cited financial aid and confidence in the value of their education as the reasons they stayed enrolled. Moreover, as many as 85 percent of those attending a certificate or degree program who stopped out said they were thinking about re-enrolling in college.
College Towns Begin to Rebound
The arrival of the pandemic greatly impacted the local economies of college towns, as students left the area, employees worked from home, families and alumni no longer visited, and sporting events and other public activities ceased. Cornell University recently organized a conference of higher education and community leaders to discuss the economic challenges that local towns experienced over the past two years and how best to prepare for the future.
College towns experienced particular difficulties at the height of COVID, especially those that are home to universities with major athletic programs. A small but telling example: In 2019, one football weekend at Pennsylvania State University’s main campus generated $75,000 in parking fees, but over that same weekend a year later, it reportedly brought in less than $10.
In recent months, however, the situation seems to have improved significantly for college towns, and the participants in Cornell’s forum were generally optimistic about the future.
During the worst of the pandemic, for instance, Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, lost nearly half its hospitality workforce, as the city’s average hotel occupancy rate dropped from 60 percent to 20 percent, reported Inside Higher Ed. Today, however, the occupancy rate has rebounded to between 40 and 50 percent. Chad Wiebesick, vice president of marketing and communications at Destination Ann Arbor, which promotes the town’s tourism and economic growth, observed that the return of college-related activities this past fall— when the university hosted football games and other athletic events that filled restaurants, bars, hotels, and retail shops—has brightened the town’s financial picture significantly. “A home football game has a $10 million economic impact on the economy,” he said.
In Ithaca, N.Y., the home of Cornell, air travel tumbled 70 percent during the height of the pandemic, and visitor spending dropped 46 percent, but both have since risen substantially, according to tourism officials. Peggy Coleman, vice president for tourism and director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau Division of the Chamber of Commerce in the region, predicted that, depending on gas prices, travel to the region will continue to grow over the next several years.
New construction projects will also help spur economic recovery. For instance, Coleman said she expected the building of a new conference center with 15,000 square feet of new space will allow Cornell to organize additional conferences and events that will bring more people and money back to the region.
Post-Tenure Review Law Enacted in Florida
Legislation recently passed IN FLORIDA requires public colleges and universities to establish a five-year post-tenure review cycle for their professors. The law, which takes effect in July, also requires state institutions to post a list of the assigned instructional materials for most courses.
The State University System of Florida’s Board of Governors will establish and oversee the review process, which must include assessment of faculty members’ “accomplishments and productivity; assigned duties in research, teaching and service; performance metrics, evaluations and ratings; and recognition and compensation considerations, as well as improvement plans and consequences for underperformance.”
Upon signing the law, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis noted, “It’s all about trying to make these institutions more in line with what the state’s priorities are, and quite frankly, the priorities of parents throughout the state of Florida.” However, said William Lange, a professor at the University of South Florida, St.Petersburg, and president of the campus chapter of the state’s faculty union: “Every major university in the state of Florida already has sustained performance reviews in their contracts. It’s a solution looking for a problem.” What’s more, he added, each institution conducts its tenure reviews and assessments differently, so streamlining them into a single process could ultimately be quite challenging.
The new law also mandates that the state’s public universities change accreditors every accreditation cycle. The state system’s board of governors will select a slate of accreditation agencies recognized by the U.S. Department of Education by September 1.
Inflation Rises While Faculty Salaries Fall
Inflation is impacting all aspects of the American economy, and higher education is no exception. In as many as 39 states, appropriations for public institutions either rose by less than the rate of inflation or declined in fiscal year 2022, the Chronicle of Higher Education has reported. And while state appropriations, another key source of revenue for colleges, rose significantly in the 2022 fiscal year, inflation has cancelled out most of those increases.
Meanwhile, faculty salaries have been falling. According to data from the American Association of University Professors, average faculty salaries in fiscal year 2021–2022 registered the smallest yearly increases since 1972, even before factoring in this year’s inflation.
Adjusted for inflation, salaries decreased 5 percent—the greatest decrease in real wage growth since 1980. This presents particular challenges for colleges, especially given that the pandemic has resulted in workforce shortages. Many faculty members have retired or simply left their institutions as part of what’s been called the Great Resignation of workers throughout the U.S. economy.
To remain as affordable as possible, colleges generally haven’t increased tuition over the past few years, but they may no longer be able to continue to hold the line. A report from the College Board last year found that higher education institutions on average had historically low tuition increases in academic 2021–22. “But short of additional help—higher education enjoyed a massive windfall from the federal government in 2020 as a result of the pandemic—for some institutions, raising tuition is the only alternative,” noted University Business. Thus, without tuition increases, many colleges will find it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to cover costs.
Several public and independent colleges and universities have, in fact, begun to raise tuition—especially community colleges experiencing enrollment declines—since state appropriations often are partly based on funding formulas tied to enrollment. But that often presents a type of Catch-22, because “cost increases, no matter how minor, have met with resistance from students across the country who have expressed worries about affordability as they see first-hand the rising prices on everyday items, along with hikes in living expenses,” University Business added. As a result, other institutions have worked to keep tuitions level. An example is Grand Rapids Community College, where the chair of the board, David Koetje, said: “Our world has changed in many ways since most of our students were on campus, and we are working to support them as they face new challenges.”
The financial challenges will most likely only intensify, as experts predict inflation will be a long-term issue for colleges and universities. Said Robert Manning, chair of the board at the University of Massachusetts: “It’s going to increase the cost of debt financing. It’s going to increase food costs at all our campuses. It’s going to increase labor costs and energy costs, and it’s really going to be another difficult period where we’re going to have to be very fiscally responsible to get through this.”
Proposed New Regulation on Title IX
The U.S. department of education in June released for public comment proposed changes to the Department’s Title IX regulations, concerning how colleges should investigate and address sexual misconduct. In its announcement the Department stated that the new regulations’ intent is “to restore crucial protections for students who are victims of sexual harassment, assault, and sex-based discrimination.” The proposed regulations make significant changes to existing definitions of “sexual harassment”, the scope and applicability of the regulations on the basis of sex characteristics and gender identity, requirements for postsecondary institutions to provide live hearings with cross-examination, and more. In its announcement the Department stated that the agency would address transgender participation on athletic teams through a separate proposed rulemaking. The Department had twice postponed its release, in April and May. According to Higher Ed Dive, the Department claimed it was “taking the time necessary to ensure that schools are providing students with educational environments free from discrimination.” The draft rule is the latest in a decades-long conversation regarding appropriate compliance with Title IX. In hearing from victims, survivors, and allies that sexual harassment and violence pervaded at educational institutions, the Obama administration stepped up the federal government’s emphasis on preventing sexual violence, issuing guidance in 2011 and 2014. Then, in 2020 the Department under former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos promulgated new amendments responding to criticism that the Obama-era policies limited the due-process rights of students accused of sexual harassment. This proposed rule now seeks to infuse the current administration’s perspective into the regulations while also protecting gay and transgender students from sex-based discrimination. This last matter has evoked criticism and threats of lawsuits from several Republican state attorneys general. Now that the Department has published the proposal in the Federal Register, there is a 60-day public comment period. After reviewing comments and making any changes in response to them, the Department will then finalize the new regulation. As in years past, AGB will continue to monitor the situation, provide comment to the Department when necessary, and apprise its members with details and updates.
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