Faculty Incentives Undermine College Survival

Colleges facing financial distress often cannot undertake the deep operational changes businesses use because faculty incentives (career/status tied to research and citations) prioritize personal prestige over institutional viability. That misalignment favors defensive rhetoric and preserves costly programs, accelerating closures for cash‑strapped small colleges. — If governance and hiring rules entrench incentive misalignment, states and accreditors may need policy levers to protect students, taxpayers, and labor market pipelines from cascading campus failures.