I just read this article on NJ.com about how Rutgers' enrollment is going to top 53,000 this year. This just reminded me of at least five other articles I've read in the past two weeks or so which describe the flood of students entering public colleges and universities. Here's but one example from the NY Times, Well Regarded Public Colleges Get a Surge of Bargain Hunters.

I work with lots of large public universities and I love `em as much as anyone; heck, I went to a couple. But I do think it's curious that we are seeing so many articles about how students are choosing public institutions in record numbers while at the same time, we are also seeing many articles about how those institutions have frozen budgets, cut merit aid, cut services, etc. Shoot, according to this article in USA Today, Florida State is even cutting off professors' phones to save money.

So, the publics are going to be serving a lot more with a lot less. Honestly, it seems to me that is only going to bode well for all the smaller private institutions out there. The publics are going to be overflowing, which will serve to reinforce the important role that private institutions play in the high-ed landscape; giving students more direct access to professors. There could even be a backlash and maybe someday I'll be blogging about the flood of students entering private institutions.

-Elizabeth Scarborough