As rich rivals cut back, small colleges sell stability

Rely on tuitions, not endowment

NO ENDOWMENT WOES Merrimack College relies primarily on tuition income for its budget, which President Ronald O. Champagne (left) calls a blessing in disguise.

The letters and e-mails have been arriving from small private colleges across New England for weeks, delivering assurances to high school seniors and their parents around the country.

The messages tout new dormitories, generous grants, new academic programs. Their goal: to project an air of stability during turbulent economic times and to show they are worth the tens of thousands of dollars they charge their students each year.

The colleges feel compelled to reach out to prospective and even current students and their families for fear of being lumped in with larger, wealthier universities, which have announced a range of highly publicized cuts to cope with plummeting endowments.

The lesser-known schools, which do not have the luxury of dipping into multibillion-dollar reserves, are scrambling to market themselves as affordable and sound investments. Their survival, after all, is directly tied to the number of students - and tuition dollars - they bring in.

In a letter from Mount Ida College urging students to apply, the Newton school's vice president for enrollment and marketing wrote of opening a new veterinary technology and science building in April. Clark University in Worcester publicized its accelerated degree program, in which students earn both a bachelor's and master's in five years, without paying tuition the fifth year.

Gordon College, a tiny Christian school in Wenham, is e-mailing profiles of its students - like the sophomore math major from North Easton who said: "During a time of economic crisis and financial hardship, I think it's important to examine what matters most in one's life. . . . Yes, I have loans but I would never be able to say it isn't worth it."

Merrimack College in North Andover recently mailed 15,000 postcards announcing what the school deemed some "economic good news" - that it would not raise tuition or room and board charges next school year. Tuition costs approximately $30,000 a year, with an additional $12,000 for room and board.

"In these hard economic times, institutions that relied heavily on their endowments, like Harvard, suffered the greatest losses in terms of impact on their operating budget," Ronald Champagne, president of Merrimack, said in an interview. "In a sense, we have a blessing in disguise."

Interest from an endowment that stood at $38 million before the recent market downturn makes up only 2 percent of Merrimack's operating costs. While endowments support a third to more than half of the budget at wealthier universities, Merrimack relies primarily on tuition income.

"We feel we have minimized the risk of not achieving our enrollment goals quite a bit by taking this position," Champagne said. "Parents will see us as being really concerned about their ability to come to Merrimack, and I think they appreciate it. Many have seen their savings accounts put aside for their youngsters' education disappear."

A recent survey by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities showed that maintaining enrollment is one of the top worries of college presidents at smaller private schools.

Tony Pals, spokesman for the association, said the smaller private schools are fearful that "families feeling the economic pinch will automatically rule out independent colleges because of price. . . . Much of how they're going to fare is dependent on enrollment numbers for the coming year."

So far, the letters seem to be working for some colleges.

Gordon College has seen a 25 percent boost in applications since this time last year, said Silvio Vazquez, vice president for enrollment. His letter to prospective students and their parents also highlights increased merit scholarships.

Although the college is still reading the applications, Vazquez has taken the unusual step of already accepting a dozen of the strongest students - three months ahead of the usual March decision - in hopes that an early acceptance will entice them to enroll.

"We're not waiting, in this economic climate," he said. "I'm not taking any chances this year."

The college, however, has not gone unscathed. While applications are up so far, the 1,600-student school is projecting an enrollment decline of about 100 students as it plans next year's budget. Gordon recently laid off a handful of new faculty members in fine arts and political studies, alerting them that they would not be reappointed next fall unless enrollment grows significantly, said R. Judson Carlberg, the college president.

"When college presidents get together these days, we're all struggling with the same uncertainty," Carlberg said. "It's fear rather than fact at this point. Higher education is in such a chaotic and uncertain state right now."

Some college officials are wary of the increasingly common practice of e-mailing prospective students in response to the uncertain economy. It's difficult to strike a balance between well-intentioned reassurance and stirring up unnecessary fear, they said. Some are also proceeding cautiously because they don't want the letters to come across as a desperate sales pitch.

Lasell College in Newton has opted to inject subtle messages of financial stability into its regular communications with high school seniors - slipping in during the application process that the school is completing the construction of two new dorms, continuing to hire faculty, and introducing new academic programs in environmental studies, law, and public affairs.

"What we're trying to say is, 'If you're worried about going someplace and having the rug pulled out from under you in terms of services, that's not going to happen here,' " said Michael Alexander, Lasell's president. "But we try not to beat them over the head with it. We don't want to add to the fright factor."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.