金融风暴如雨点般袭来全国高校在...中冠状病毒大流行将严重挑战许多人，甚至迫使一些人停业。
数字惊人。密歇根大学预计其三个校区今年将亏损4亿至10亿美元。仅在3月份，加州的大学系统就遭受了5.58亿美元的意外成本。科罗拉多大学博尔德校区整个夏天将损失至少6700万美元。
规模较小的学校的数据可能没有那么令人瞠目结舌，但是许多情况下的影响更伟大。伊利诺伊州有174年历史的麦克默里学院宣布将关闭，部分原因是大流行使其筹集所需资金的努力变得复杂。危机过后，佛蒙特州可能关闭三所州立大学校园。
宾夕法尼亚大学教授罗伯特·泽姆斯基是新书《大学压力测试》的合著者，该书估计全国10%的大学——保留率低的小学校——已经面临关闭的风险。现在，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，“我们认为还有10%的人因为病毒而处于危险之中。”
这美国教育委员会对于最近接受调查的大多数大学校长来说，他们认为学校的“长期财务可行性”是“最紧迫的问题”。
迄今为止，未使用的住房和餐饮计划的退款占了损失的大部分。例如，在给加文·纽瑟姆州长的信中，加州大学校长珍妮特·纳波利塔诺写道，“加州大学已经因学生选择离开校园而损失了数亿美元的住房和餐饮收入，预计到春季学期结束时会损失更多收入。”
全国男子篮球锦标赛等体育赛事收入的突然中断，疯狂三月，也是意义重大。它的取消导致全国大学生体育协会分配给学校的资金损失3.75亿美元。
全国各地其他学校的取消也增加了伤害。科罗拉多大学博尔德分校将不会举办一年一度的莎士比亚节，这将意味着400人的临时就业，根据发言人卡黛丝·史密斯的说法，“我们不得不取消《死亡与公司》的音乐会。他们把足球场租出去在夏天举行两场演出。这是我们收入的损失。”
虽然大学和学院正在累积当前的损失，但他们预计未来会有更多难以估计的损失。例如，入学率的下降和随之而来的学费损失是一个巨大的问号。由于学校不确定秋季是否会提供校园学习或在线学习，许多潜在的学生正在考虑推迟上大学。A艺术和科学小组的调查发现17%的高三学生可能会选择间隔年。
这个数字可能会更大，对学费收入有重大影响。与几所大学合作的咨询公司马奎尔联合公司的迈克·基恩指出，“我不认为我们中的任何人有意识到这将是20%还是50%。”这些延期将降低学费收入，因此可能会迫使学校削减学费。基恩说:“预计来自家庭的学生会有很大的压力，要求他们以更低的净成本提供在线教学。
但是降低学费并不容易。基恩说:“绝大多数机构的利润率非常低，有很多固定成本，如果它们不能带来他们希望的收入，就不一定容易扩大或缩小规模。
拥有大量国际学生的学校通常会全额支付学费，如果他们不去或不能来美国，他们会特别紧张。根据布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)最近的一项研究，在一些州，国际注册人数高达15%，该研究还补充说，“在全国范围内，国际学生的学费加上所需费用的总额超过25亿美元。”
研究发现，如果没有外国学生，加州面临损失高达4亿美元的风险，纽约超过3亿美元，马萨诸塞州超过2亿美元。以一所学校为例，康涅狄格大学估计，如果失去国际招生，明年将损失7000万美元。
根据《高等教育纪事报》的一份报告，由于全国许多学校取消了暑期项目，通常占年度预算的10%，整个夏天都会感受到资金流失。
另外两个重要因素也让美国高校的财务状况变得暗淡:国家预算(许多高校的很大一部分资金都依赖于国家预算)也受到了大流行意外成本的沉重打击，随着经济下滑，它们的捐赠价值急剧下降。
学校如何应对当前和预期的金融冲击波?许多人实施了休假、冻结招聘、工资上限和削减开支，并停止了建筑计划。在圣路易斯，华盛顿大学今年将遭受1.75亿美元的挫折;它是已经休假了1300名员工。它的高管们，从财政大臣开始，都在减薪，科罗拉多大学、密歇根大学和其他几所大学的高管也是如此。
此外，2万亿美元的联邦救助计划包括140亿美元用于高等教育，这个数字听起来很大，但仅占预算的2%7000亿美元的收入美国的学院和大学都在经营。
所有这些措施是否足以弥补冠状病毒大流行造成的资金缺口?这似乎不太可能。美国教育委员会副主席兼总顾问彼得·麦克多诺告诉美国广播公司新闻，国会分配的资金“严重不足”。
他指出，高校是全国重要的经济引擎。“在这个国家的任何地方，你都不能不碰到学院或大学。他们深深扎根于社区。”为了让他们度过这场危机，“我们需要更多接近500亿美元的资金。”
Coronavirus pandemic brings staggering losses to colleges and universities
Financial blows raining down on thenation’s colleges and universitiesamidst thecoronaviruspandemic will severely challenge many and even force some out of business.
The numbers are staggering. The University of Michigan anticipates losses of $400 million to $1 billion this year across its three campuses. California’s university system suffered $558 million in unanticipated costs in March alone. By itself, the Boulder campus of the University of Colorado will lose at least $67 million through the summer.
Numbers for smaller schools may not be as eye-popping but theimpact in many casesis greater. MacMurray College, a 174-year-old institution in Illinois, has announced it will close, in part because the pandemic complicated its effort to raise needed funds. Vermont may shutter three of its state college campuses in the wake of the crisis.
Robert Zemsky, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is the co-author of a new book, "The College Stress Test," which estimates that 10 percent of the nation’s colleges – smaller schools with poor retention rates – were already at risk of closing. Now, he tells ABC News, “we think another 10 percent is at risk because of the virus.”
TheAmerican Council on Educationidentified the “long term financial viability” of their schools as “the most pressing issue” for a majority of college and university presidents it recently surveyed.
Refunds for unused housing and dining plans account for the bulk of losses so far. For example,in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, University of California President Janet Napolitano wrote, “UC has already lost hundreds of millions in housing and dining revenue from students choosing to leave campuses, and anticipates losing more revenue by the end of the spring term.”
The sudden cutoff of income from athletic events such as the national mens’ basketball tournament,March Madness, is also significant. Its cancellation prompted a $375 million loss of funds distributed to schools by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Other cancellations at schools around the country add to the hurt. The University of Colorado Boulder will not hold its annual Shakespeare festival, which would have meant temporary employment for 400 people and, according to spokesperson Candace Smith, “We had to cancel the Dead and Company concerts. They rented out the football stadium for [two shows in] the summer. That is a loss of revenue for us.”
While colleges and universities are adding up current losses, they are anticipating more in the future that are hard to estimate. Declines in enrollment and accompanying loss of tuition money, for instance, is a huge question mark. With schools uncertain about whether they will offer on-campus or online learning in the fall, many prospective students are considering putting off college. Asurvey by the Art and Science Groupfound that 17% of high school seniors may take a gap year.
The number could be far greater, with significant impacts on tuition revenue. Mike Keane of Maguire Associates, a consulting firm that works with several colleges, points out, “I don’t think any of us have a sense of whether it’s going to be 20 percent or 50 percent.” Those deferrals will drop tuition income and so might force cuts in what schools can charge for tuition. “There is anticipation that there will be significant pressure from students of families to offer online instruction at a lower net cost," says Keane.
But reducing tuition will not be easy. “The vast majority of institutions operate on very thin margins and have a lot of fixed costs such that it’s not necessarily easy to scale up or scale down if they are not able to bring in the revenue that they hoped for,” says Keane.
Schools with a significant number of international students, who often pay full tuition, will be particularly stressed if they don’t or cannot come to the U.S. In some states, international enrollment is as high as 15%, according to a recent Brookings Institution study, which adds that “nationwide, the amount of tuition plus required fees from international students tops $2.5 billion.”
Without foreign students, the study found that California is at risk of losing as much as $400 million, New York over $300 million and Massachusetts over $200 million. Taking one school as an example, the University of Connecticut estimates a loss of $70 million next year if it loses international enrollment.
The financial drain will be felt through the summer too since summer programs, cancelled at many schools throughout the country, normally account for as much as 10% of annual budgets, according to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Two other important factors have darkened the financial landscape for the nation’s colleges and universities: State budgets on which many rely for a significant portion of their funding have also been hit hard by the unanticipated costs of the pandemic, and the value of their endowments has nose-dived with the downturn in the economy.
How are schools confronting these current and anticipated financial shockwaves? Many have imposed furloughs, hiring freezes, salary caps and spending reductions, and halted construction plans. In St. Louis, Washington University will suffer a $175 million setback this year; it'salready furloughed1,300 employees. Its executives, from the chancellor on down, are taking pay reductions, as are those at the University of Colorado, the University of Michigan and several other institutions.
In addition, the federal $2 trillion rescue package includes $14 billion for higher education, a number that sounds large but amounts to only 2% of the$700 billion in revenuethat U.S. colleges and universities operate on.
Will all of these measures be enough to close the financial gap created by the coronavirus pandemic? It seems unlikely. Peter McDonough, vice president and general counsel of the American Council on Education, tells ABC News the money allocated by Congress is “woefully inadequate”.
He points out that colleges and universities are important economic engines throughout the country. “You can’t go anywhere in this country without bumping into a college or university. They are so embedded in the community.” To get them though this crisis, “we need something closer to $50 billion more.”
