News of college closures and budgetary challenges faced by even large institutions speaks to the increasing pressures on U.S. higher education and highlights that its business model needs fixing.
These stressors require that many of our colleges and universities make dramatic cuts to programs and begin to seriously consider a merger or other major strategic partnership. Major institutional restructuring, including mergers, corporate conversions (e.g., for-profit to nonprofit models or vice versa), and even planned closures, are what I like to call Big Scary Change.