Spectrum

Colleges and universities and average families are all feeling the financial pinch from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts are dramatic. Dr. Richard Vedder, emeritus distinguished professor of economics at Ohio University, outlines, for the Spectrum Podcast, how these loses will really be felt. He notes that higher education was already under financial distress before the pandemic arrived. Many universities were facing declining enrollments and rising expenses. Cutbacks were already in the offing. However, the pandemic added another layer of financial losses on top of a crumbling financial model for many colleges. He notes, that across the country, universities were having to cut staff and administrators even before closing campuses this spring. Some colleges are even closing their doors—not to be reopened. Now, with declining state funds along with plummeting enrollments, higher education is making further cuts of staff, administrators and faculty in unprecedented fashion. At the same time, Vedde