Economic Crisis and Student Affairs
You may have heard, but apparently the sky is falling. As a masters student in student affairs, I think if I hear the comment “in this current economic crisis” one more time I’m going to pull my hair out. In a meeting last week, someone requested that we “not talk about the budget” any more. In related news, Chicken Little has not left the building because he’s worried of the sky landing on their head.
My time in student affairs is admittedly brief, but I’ve seen a few responses in my public research 1 university to the economic challenges facing the country and higher education. I think there are lessons to be learned from each of these responses.
First, the governor trimmed our budget and told us to get ready for more cuts. Our institution responded by immediately cutting non-essential travel and by requesting us all to cut our budgets quickly and expediently. I found the trimming of travel a little curious as there was very little discussion given to what travel was actually useful, other than that the VP of student affairs would be required to approve all travel; there was even some discussion that travel ON YOUR OWN DIME was going to be cut. There is a lesson here though…Public perception is important and scrutiny/regulation is healthy.
Second, I have heard hundreds of discussions about trimming budgets and no discussions about raising revenue. Most of these discussions centered around complaining about how painful it was to make cuts, but very little discussion about how cuts probably needed to be made. I think this is why people don’t want to talk about it anymore, they feel helpless to make drastic change to the system and they fear that the next axe to fall may fall on them. The lesson here…Empowerment of people to make changes in their budgets will improve morale in difficult times.
Third, I have seen more of the costs of operation get passed on to students. I personally find it reprehensible to take a program that was being run through state appropriated funds and transfer it to being funded by student fees. The absurdity is that students were ALREADY PAYING a user fee to use this service; this is not budget trimming this is a shell game of hide the money. The lesson here…poor economic times reveal character and values both institutionally and individually.
Fourth, our particular department focused on values. It is tempting during times that are different than these to spend on infrastructure for the department ie computers or new office furniture; these expenditures are necessary and important. However, as we saw the budget being trimmed, we decided that the student fee money that funds our department should be spent in ways that can be directly and tangibly connected to a total student experience. We want to focus on providing the most high quality programs possible to our students at the least cost; the economic crisis helped us to reconnect with the mission and values of our department. The lesson….we provide the best service to our university and our students when we focus on our mission and values.
I know you’re probably tired of hearing about it, but don’t let the economic crisis get you down. It’s a challenging time for sure, but I liken it to the Lent season of the church year. Just like Lent, economically challenging periods are a time to cleansing and purification that will sow the seeds for times of growth and development, and they encourage us to connect to what makes us good at what we do.
Source: Jeff Lail