Reported by Education Dive, the Consumer Price Index for college tuition and fees declined 0.7% from July to August due to some institutions reducing fall tuition prices in order to stay competitive and attractive during a pandemic to students and families skeptical of the same value from distance learning as a fully on-campus experience.

Reported by Education Dive, some colleges have already begun to announce their spring plans, including the University of Connecticut and Pennsylvania State University, which are leaning heavily toward online and hybrid instruction. But with many institutions having much rougher fall enrollments and revenue, how can we expect that not to influence their desire to plan for spring in the most optimistic sense possible?

Reported by EdSurge, “weird” is the most common refrain from both faculty and students describing their early course experiences this fall. For both students navigating socially distant plexiglass classrooms in person, as well as those experiencing classroom debates from behind their screens, the intentional separation we are putting up during a pandemic seems to be unfortunately creating less student-to-student engagement as well.

Reported by EdSurge, while many have written about the potential revenue effects of campus sports cancellations and the enrollment risk of the athletes themselves, did we perhaps underestimate how important the campus sports culture is for our other students who choose to attend?

Reported by Education Dive, The John Dee Bright College will begin offering associate degrees in the fall of 2021 with an annual tuition of $18,500, less than half the tuition price at Drake University itself.

Reported by Education Dive, strikes and “sickouts” at University of Michigan and University of Iowa highlight the exacerbation of existing faculty-admin tensions on our campuses, with many administrations pushing for on-campus in-person instruction, and many faculty fighting for more flexibility due to the higher health risk rates of so many of our faculty.

Reported by Education Dive, while The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had been hailed for its aggressive testing strategy to prevent the spread of coronavirus, in its first week back, the campus saw 700 new cases.

Reported by Education Dive, it’s the institutions most revenue-dependent on auxiliary income outside tuition that are the most at risk this fall. For instance, Wheaton College in Massachusetts depends on auxiliary income such as housing, dining, and athletics for 30% of its operating income, compared to neighboring Tufts University, where that income reflects only 6% of its total operating budget.

Reported by The Washington Post, students at many institutions, including American University, are petitioning their universities to cancel classes to ensure students’ have the time to fulfill their civic responsibility, by both voting and/or volunteering to work at the polls themselves since they are at a statistically lower health risk to do so.

Reported by Inside Higher Ed, these methodology changes include a reduction in the weighting of SAT and ACT scores (from 10% to 7%), a reduction in the weighting of alumni giving (from 5% to 3%), and an increase in outcomes scores, which includes student debt loads, (from 35% to 40%).