In The Wake Of Pandemic Losses, Administration Explores Undergraduate Expansion

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28 August, 2021

5:46 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY DIA GILL AND ZACHARY SCHERMELE AUGUST 27, 2021 Since the spring, Columbia's senior administrators and faculty have been exploring the possibility of increasing undergraduate enrollment in an effort to increase tuition income and access to the University after the pandemic left Columbia accumulating losses of roughly $100 million a month at its peak. Expansion discussions began with an early February email from Amy Hungerford, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and executive vice president of Arts and Sciences, informing faculty that COVID-19-related deferrals and leaves of absence would result in increased class sizes in coming years, and that departments would have to determine which adjustments would be necessary to accommodate changing enrollment numbers. In addition to this announcement, citing a consistently low admission rate alongside a growing applicant pool, Hungerford expressed a hope to explore the broader question of what the "ideal numbers" for enrollment are across graduate and undergraduate populations. An email in April from then-School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Mary Boyce and then-interim Provost Ira Katznelson confirmed that an inquiry into undergraduate expansion was underway. The exact enrollment numbers to which Columbia College and SEAS could expand have yet to be determined, but in both cases, "modest" expansion could be defined as anywhere from 5 to 20 percent, according to several faculty members. Under those estimates, Columbia College could expand by 234 to 935 students, while SEAS could grow by 86 to 345 students. The last time Columbia College underwent an expansion, in 2009, it added just 50 students to its undergraduate class. The University is already one of the larger Ivy League institutions; in 2019, the undergraduate population totaled nearly 12,000 students across four schools, out of about 30,000 students across the University. In 2020, Columbia College enrolled approximately 4,500 and SEAS enrolled 1,700 students. The announcement of a potential expansion comes after the pandemic dealt a devastating blow to American higher education. Significant losses in clinical income and international student tuition left Columbia hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars. In remarks at an Arts and Sciences meeting in May, University President Lee Bollinger said the closest crisis to the pandemic in terms of damage to the University took place in the 1970s when Columbia essentially lost its endowment and fell perennially behind peer institutions, who went "full speed ahead" while it suffered financial debility that has taken decades to recover from. Three working groups and a steering committee were commissioned by the administration to study how the possible increase in student enrollment at the college and in SEAS could affect academics, student life, and the current availability of teaching resources. Over the summer, those committees were divided into sub-committees and task groups to look into specific areas such as classroom resources, large majors, and academic advising—among others. One committee is exploring the impacts of expanding Arts and Sciences and is chaired by Hungerford. Another committee is focused on SEAS and is chaired by interim SEAS Dean Shih-Fu Chang. The third committee is looking at the Core Curriculum and how expansion could impact student life in Columbia College and SEAS. It is chaired by Columbia College Dean James Valentini and includes undergraduate student representatives. The research effort comes as many faculty and student-workers have expressed concerns that if expansion occurs without the proper allocation of resources—including additional faculty and more classroom space—it could further strain their already-limited time and capabilities. Expansion, in their opinion, could both negatively impact the quality of undergraduate education and further over-saturate the Morningside campus. Additionally, some faculty have labeled potential expansion as a top-down administrative decision that they fear being shut out from. These concerns became apparent early on. One faculty member—Michael Thaddeus, a professor in the mathematics department—circulated a graphical analysis with immediate expansion-related concerns in March. Some worried it was a "fait accompli," or already finalized decision, while others expressed frustration at the lack of faculty involvement in initiating the expansion inquiry. "We were told how it's going to be evaluated rather than being asked to participate in structuring the evaluation," John Hunt, a professor in the biological sciences department, said. Hungerford, who is chairing both the steering committee and the Arts and Sciences working group, has stated that the final decision will be the result of extensive committee work conducted by faculty and administrators alike. She has also indicated a willingness to slow down the inquiry's original timeline; the committees are likely to request an extension from the provost until the end of the spring term so that fall conversations can continue "without the pressure of a November deadline." "There is no predetermined outcome," Hungerford said in a statement to Spectator. "What I can say, with confidence, is that this work will provide us with a roadmap for an undergraduate education worthy of our high standing and even higher aspirations. Even if we end up simply stewarding current resources for the benefit of current students, the study is showing where the real needs are and how to prioritize investments of time, energy, effort, and funding." Administrators have long praised the undergraduate experience at Columbia as central to the University's access-driven mission. But the University also relies on undergraduate tuition—one of the most expensive in the nation—as a significant source of income. Chronic underfunding has long been endemic to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, despite the role Columbia College plays in attracting revenue both through tuition dollars and alumni donations. Meanwhile, the "common cost tax," levied against each individual school to offset central administration costs, has risen significantly in recent years This is a factor that has forced Columbia College to raise tuition, even as Arts and Sciences still struggles to adequately cover the tax—on top of financial aid, graduate student-worker stipends, and faculty salaries. Over the past 15 years, Arts and Sciences has increased undergraduate tuition by 50 percent and increased enrollment by 30 percent in masters programs at the School of Professional Studies, where almost all students pay full tuition, just to stay afloat financially. "The college has always been seen as a way of—and not that people are going to admit to this—but as a way of funding other aspects of the institution," Michael Rosenthal said. Rosenthal is a professor emeritus in the English department and former associate dean of Columbia College who saw previous expansions firsthand. "The college is clearly the largest body of tuition-generating people. So that's the way it's been used. But the notion that it's better for students, I think that's complete nonsense." [Related: Columbia wants the best and the brightest students. To keep up with top-ranked schools, it needs the richest too.] In addition to raising revenue to address deficits in University finances, another expressed goal of expansion is increasing the University's scholarly impact through widening access to applicants. In remarks to faculty, Bollinger said, although he would not undertake expansion without "serious consideration to what it would require," the University has an "obligation to educate as many top students as possible." "There's sort of a moral argument with, you know, we only take six percent of applicants and clearly there are plenty of really good people not getting into Columbia and we could fit more people in," Stuart Firestein, a professor in and former chair of the biological sciences department and a member of the Arts and Sciences working group, said. "On the other hand, we want to maintain the 'something special' about a Columbia education." At the opening of a June 3 special Arts and Sciences meeting, Robert Jervis, Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Affairs, put forth a motion to ensure that if any proposals related to undergraduate expansion were brought before the board of trustees, faculty would have the opportunity to express their views beforehand, explaining that some saw expansion as a done deal. "I don't think that was entirely correct, but the faculty perception that this had a lot of momentum behind it was—I think—correct," Jervis told Spectator. "I did want to make clear that from the faculty standpoint that that was not the case, that this was very much an open question … about how we could expand and whether we could do it and meet both fiscal and educational objectives. So, it was a dual message: a message to the faculty that they had to pay attention to this—it was a choice they would influence—and a message to many of the administrators who might've thought that they could just do it without really listening carefully to the faculty." Jackson Mitchell, a second-year graduate student in SEAS and a bargaining committee member of the graduate workers' union, said in the months since expansion has been under consideration, the union has not been approached by the University to be formally involved in the inquiry. None of the committees looking into expansion include any representation of graduate student-workers, according to their union. "Without an expansion in teaching stipends and in classrooms, and in all those things that actually make teaching possible, this expansion is just set to make more money for Columbia, while putting ever more strain on the system of grad students and faculty," he said. The size of Arts and Science's faculty has been restricted in recent years by the Timely Replacement Policy, which—in its effort to fill vacancies in an efficient manner—has kept the size of the faculty at a stagnant number. Additionally, hiring and admissions freezes spurred by the pandemic have resulted in a shrinking doctoral population—almost all humanities and social science departments will not be welcoming Ph.D. students this fall. Many faculty members rely on support from doctoral students as teaching assistants in their courses. Faculty have raised concerns about how the instruction needs of more students will be met without reconsidering hiring policies and addressing the need for teaching assistants. Within expansion discussions, some administrators have proposed expanding the role of some master's students to include TA work, a proposition that has alarmed some faculty members due to the varying admission standards of master's and Ph.D. programs "Students are getting taught more and more by less and less experienced people," Hunt said. "Master's students serve at a similar point in training to first or second year Ph.D. students. The question is: Are they as good? Are they as capable? … These are students who have not been accepted into as high-level programs." Potential scenarios in which master's students might take on teaching assistant roles vary from program to program, but include taking on TA positions in a post-MA year or pulling from the top students within a cohort. In addition to concerns about faculty bandwidth, there are questions surrounding how the University's limited space could accommodate a growing student body. In recent years, the Morningside campus has been beset by classroom space shortages, decrepit labs, and inadequate student spaces, forcing it to expand its boundaries into West Harlem and lease spaces from Riverside Church, the Union Theological Seminary, and International House. A 2011 study recommended a "substantial investment" into the University's buildings and labs, stating that Columbia was "well behind many of its peers" and would remain so without extensive renovation. "Have you ever had any classes in Hamilton Hall? Or tried to go to the ladies room? It's impossible," Cathy Popkins, the recently retired Jesse and George Siegel professor in the department of Slavic Languages, said. "I think it might even be health regulations if somebody investigated that. ... I mean the facilities cannot handle this many people. It's just not built for this." As Columbia Business School moves this fall from Uris Hall to the Manhattanville campus—taking with it 4,000 to 6,000 affiliates—Uris Hall will be emptied and prepared to be used as a space for the Arts and Sciences by 2024 or 2025. It is yet to be determined how the 200,000-square-foot space will be allocated, but in recent years several departments and students have vied for office space, classrooms, undergraduate space, and other resources within the building. In addition to Uris Hall, expansion working groups are exploring various options to address space that would be needed for housing and dining if the undergraduate student body grew. Options include continuing to lease from International House and Teachers College and converting free graduate beds to undergraduate beds, as well as potentially building a new dormitory on a parking lot owned by the University. Additionally, two current dorms are expected to go offline at different times in the next five to six years for extensive renovation. Ongoing discussions are working to understand the most cost-effective route. In the 1990s, the number of students in Columbia College was expanded by about 10 percent, in a largely faculty-driven effort—although that effort also garnered criticism for a commensurate lack of faculty expansion. Back then, faculty and administrators investigated the implications of expansion for 18 months. However, this time around, the administration's original deadline—the working groups were initially told to make their recommendations to Boyce by November—would have limited research on expansion to just one summer and part of the fall. The likely extension to next spring will lengthen the process to more than a year. But Rosenthal, who was an onlooker to the expansions of the 1990s and 2009, said the establishment of a steering committee and working groups suggest expansion might be inevitable. "The notion that you're going to have study groups and faculty commissions and everybody else, and decide not to expand the college is, I think, preposterous," Rosenthal said. Ultimately, faculty concerns about expansion have been driven by long-standing resource concerns and a sense of commitment to maintaining the quality of a Columbia education for current students before expanding the student population. "The question is, are we giving students the experience that we believe they should have and that they are led to expect? My concern is that that should've been at the forefront and should've been a higher priority than the logistical evaluations for what's involved in expanding the student body," Hunt said. News Editor Dia Gill can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @_diagill. Senior staff writer Zach Schermele can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ZachSchermele. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.