University Business - September 2012 - (Page 83)

CAmpus FINANCE Airport Service Turns SUNY-Purchase Parking Lot into Revenue Generator Officials at Purchase College, State University of New York, as elsewhere, have sought innovative ways to keep tuition low and cut costs. One such effort is Purchase Park2Fly (PP2F), now in existence for a year. The program allows passengers at neighboring Westchester County Airport to park on the campus’ vacant parking lot, at a cheaper rate than they could get on airport grounds and with a shuttle that picks up and drops off passengers to the airport. Bill Guerrero, executive director of the Purchase College Association, the college’s auxiliary services arm, explains that his own experiences with parking at the airport led to the program, which he heads up. Joe Tripodi, director of the association’s sustainability office, was brought on board to serve as vice president. They researched the airport parking problem and developed a plan to utilize a vacant campus parking lot for airline travelers seeking an alternative, discounted place to park. Guerrero’s entrepreneurship class helped create a business plan. Unlike most colleges, Purchase does not have a parking Ready to go with Park2Fly shortage, so finding space for the program wasn’t an issue. And with the peak season for the institution occurring during different times of the year than peak travel, there have not been any problems with students and travelers needing use of the lot at the same time, according to Guerrero. The lot is open throughout the year, 24/7, and costs $10 per day, compared to $27 at the airport. Revenue from the program so far has been nearly $1 million, and it’s being used for scholarships and campus improvements and maintenance, including road work. —Jordan Mills Where the Jobs Are A Third of Colleges on You might not know it when you “Unsustainable Path” recall all the faculty and staff layoffs of recent years, but according to a new report, the number of jobs in higher education continues to grow faster than overall U.S. employment. An analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by HigherEdJobs. com finds that the number of jobs in higher education grew 2.1 percent during Q2 2012, compared to growth of 1.4 percent for all U.S. jobs. A year earlier in Q2 2011, the number of higher education jobs grew 2.2 percent, compared to overall job growth of 1.0 percent. The report also indicates that colleges and universities are beginning to focus more on hiring full-time faculty over part-time faculty. Job ads for full-time faculty jumped 18.3 percent during Q2 2012, while posts for part-time faculty were relatively flat, increasing only 1.3 percent. A third of all colleges and universities in the United States are in a weaker financial state today than before 2005, according to a new study. Colleges have more liabilities, higher debt service, and increasing expenses without the revenue or cash reserves to back them up, as well as limited ability to pass costs onto families, according to Boston-based Bain & Co. Proving that few higher ed institutions are immune from the effects of the economy, schools such as Yale and MIT are included on Bain’s list, which can be examined at http://goo.gl/mpcsM. The study also notes that endowments are unlikely to recover to the annual growth trends they enjoyed leading up to the recession. What determines whether a school is at risk? Bain says indicators include: • tuition hikes consistently near the top end of the range; • lowered admission standards; • reduced financial aid; • faculty layoffs; • debt outpacing instruction expenses; • tuition as an increasingly greater percentage of revenue; • down bond ratings. The study says many institutions have operated on the assumption that the more they build, spend, diversify, and expand, the more they will prosper. Instead, institutions have become overleveraged, with long-term debt increasing at an average rate of 12 percent annually; and their average annual interest expense is increasing at almost twice the rate of their expenses for providing instruction. universitybusiness.com September 2012 | 83 http://www.goo.gl/mpcsM http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - September 2012

University Business - September 2012
Contents
Editor’s Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Independent Outlook
Financial Aid
Virtual Viewbooks: Ready? Or Not?
Technology Changes Everything
Connecting Learners, On Campus and Off
The Changing Face of the CIO
Efficiency Greats
The Administrator's Bookshelf
Oceans of Data
Education Innovators
Internet Technology
End Note

University Business - September 2012