According to a report in Inside Higher Ed, leaders at Ohio’s Oberlin College are struggling to close a multi-million dollar budget deficit following a dip in enrollment this year.
The liberal college’s newspaper, The Oberlin Review, published a letter written by two faculty members criticizing a salary freeze. The letter, published Friday, said faculty found it depressing that neither the college board nor administrators could come up with a better way to address the revenue shortfall other than by eliminated raises.
The salary freeze is the latest in a string of moves by Oberlin to close the structural budget gap. The school relies too much on gifts, and not enough on tuition, room and board, according to a letter posted by Chris Canavan, the chair of the Oberlin Board of Trustees.
In the K-12 world, Madison spends far more than most, now nearly $20,000 per student.