The coronavirus crisis has hurt colleges everywhere. But for non-flagship public universities in Ohio and across the Midwest that were already struggling, it has hastened a reckoning: Who should be educated here? Ohio University, in rural Athens, has served the region’s students and helped the region’s economy for over 200 years, but now faces a dire combination of financial stresses.
Colleges in Crisis
Hundreds of colleges and universities had financial warning signs long before the coronavirus threatened to make everything worse. Our Hechinger Report/NBCNews.com collaboration analyzed higher education’s poor financial health, explored how it got that way and looked at the ultimate consequences for students.