How Will Plummeting Birthrates Impact Enrollment Declines and Adjunct Faculty?

by John Marcus Only bird songs penetrate the silence on the neatly tended but deserted grounds of Becker College. A sign on the registrar’s office gives a web address for students who need their transcripts; another, on the locked door of the bookstore, advertises half-off keychains, drinkware, apparel and anything else with the Becker logo. “All must go,” it says. The college, which traces its origins to 1784, held its last-ever commencement this spring after a steady erosion of enrollment. The number of full-time undergraduates fell by 21 percent in the last five years, to 1,250 this year. Even attracting that […]