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Massachusetts is a microcosm for all public higher ed. State starves institutions. Institutions feel forced to take big swings at increasing revenue, accruing debt and risking entire future. It's not sustainable. Stop it, before it's too late. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
Maybe there is room for a couple more players in the national online university space. (I doubt it.) Even if there is, there certainly isn't room for all those institutions eyeing that space as a route towards sustainability. Taking on debt for this kind of long shot is foolish.
States need to examine the decades of favorable treatment they've given private institutions. This is particularly true in Massachusetts. The state is subsidizing Harvard, MIT, Amherst with millions of $'s of public money. Why not redress that historical imbalance?
This is not about "punishing" the privates, but is instead about leveling a playing field that has been tilted towards these wealthy/elite institutions that has benefitted them for decades. One of the reasons they're so wealthy is the favorable treatment they've received.
UMass's own consultants say that the UMass plan is unlikely to work and many factors have to fall into place. Why is an institution being forced into an untenable risk to have even a marginal shot at a future? This is a failure of top government leadership, not just the uni level
