Test Financial Strategies for a Crisis and Beyond

This report provides guidance on making critical budget decisions during and after Covid-19 in a strategic way and offers a roadmap for the future. Colleges are facing their most significant fiscal crisis in recent memory due to Covid-19. Between lingering impacts to budgets, imminent nose dives in state support due to state tax losses, and the long-term effects of the pandemic on the economy overall, many colleges could suffer fiscally for years to come. The tumult and uncertainty of the pandemic— and, perhaps, of 2020 in general — has made it harder for college leaders to think strategically as they make critical decisions. This Chronicle report offers advice on how to prepare for the conversations and decisions to come. It examines how colleges can reduce their expenses, and how they must also reinvest in order to thrive on the other side of the pandemic. It discusses opportunities for strategic partnerships that can make a critical difference for institutions. And it explores how c