College faces difficult budget decisions - Erica R. Hendry, the Ithacan

As the country’s economic crisis deepens, American colleges and universities have been forced into a defining crossroad. “While giving deference to our proud history, our challenge today is radical reformation,” E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, told a crowd of educators Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education. “The choice, it seems to me, is this: reinvention or extinction.” Institutions of every size, both public and private, are facing losses in several critical areas of their operating budgets as a result of losses in endowments and investments. In addition, many private institutions like Ithaca College face the prospect of declining enrollments in coming years.