Enrollment declines increase pressure on ‘woke’ higher ed

Higher education is confronting a problem: Its customer base is shrinking. High birth rates in the 1990s and early 2000s created large incoming classes. After reaching a peak in 2007, birth rates have steadily dropped. Births rose to 4.3 million in 2007, while this past year saw 3.7 million. Children born during the dropoff will soon be eligible for enrollment. Nathan Grawe,

David Waugh

The author is with the American Institute for Economic Research an economist who maintains a forecast known as the Higher Education Demand Index, projects enrollment declines in some states of over 15%. Elite institutions might weather the crisis due to large endowments and relatively inelastic demand for their offerings, but regional colleges will encounter increasing hardship. The median endowment for private colleges is $37.1 million, much of which is restricted from supporting annual budgets.

All communities should incorporate T o all unincorporated areas in Santa Barbara County: Incorporate!

Don’t let what is happening to the residents of Los Alamos happen to you.

A development in Los Alamos is under way that will increase the population of our tiny town by 10-20% with no concessions for improving the infrastructure of Los Alamos! Can you imagine what would happen if one developer planned on increasing the population of Montecito by 800 to 1,600 people? Probably not, but that is what is happening in Los Alamos. Being unincorporated has left us at the mercy of Legacy Home LLC and the Santa Barbara

County Board of Supervisors, making decisions based on a 17-year-old Environmental Impact Report. The EIR states, “The project site is not located near...steep slopes subject to mudflows, therefore these geological phenomena would not occur.”

The determination in the report contradicts the findings of Santa Barbara County’s own Flood Control & Water Conservation District and Water Agency.

A copy of the report was included in the EIR and stated, “Both the Solomon and Purisima Hills soil profile consists of relatively shallow, heavy texture soils with generally low permeability. The low soil permeability and steep (45-50%) slopes combine to promote very rapid flash flooding conditions within the canyons and at the

Henry Schulte The author lives in Solvang