So I\u2019m seeing this passed around as the feedback mechanism that\u2019ll stop Savonarola/Red Guardism on college campuses, and it even sounds plausible: following an outbreak at Evergreen State, enrollment drops slightly.
However, just like at fellow state school Mizzou before it, this is an existential threat because the drop is concentrated among out-of-state students, whose higher tuitions provide a margin to subsidize in-state students as shrinking legislative appropriations once did. (Without which they\u2019re forced into layoffs and hiring freezes, further undermining the path to tenure, etc.)\n
\nStill I\u2019m not sure exactly how this \u201cPC backlash\u201d tangles with the distinct but proximate issues of declining state funding and a possible \u201cend of the college bubble\u201d.\n
\nLike, are \u201cPC culture\u201d and \u201clow funding\u201d independent variables? Do the cultures that produce such things alienate legislatures, leading to low funding (like Freddie deBoer was warning)? In the other direction, does underfunding by, uh, The Man alienate students? (Recall, that iconic cop pepper spraying student protesters in 2011 was from a protest against tuition increases in the UC system)\n
\nAnd I\u2019d really like to see comparable local/nonlocal student numbers from other state schools and equivalently selective private colleges, with just Evergreen and Mizzou\u2019s numbers I could also tell the stories
\nThere was actually a US crash in the 80s, when the long GI Bill-Baby Boom buildout left too much capacity once the Boomers aged past college (and, uh, the draft ended). A bunch of undistinguished liberal arts or denominationally-affiliated colleges closed and the survivors had to hustle, I remember the animated \u201cWhat about Gwynned-Mercy?\u201d commercials on Philly daytime TV, others with all sorts of 90s-ass #aesthetic CGI, made by students to save budget and show off how they could prepare you for the exciting and lucrative new world of multimedia
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