Editor's Corner: Let Not Scholarship Become a Chimera

• Published date: 01 December 2016
• Author: Robert Sprague
• Date: 01 December 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ablj.12085

Editor’s Corner: Let Not Scholarship Become a

Chimera

My University, the University of Wyoming, recently declared a financial

crisis as a result of reduced state funding.

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Programs are being evaluat-

ed for elimination, course loads are being increased, research stipends

are disappearing, and there is talk at all levels of “looking for

efficiencies.” Almost all universities go through a budget crisis at one

time or another—or every few years—for a variety of reasons, such as

state revenue shortfalls, political machinations,

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or declining enrollment.

It seems lately, though, the crises are more frequent and severe. One

need only Google “Crisis in Higher Education” to pick from an abun-

dance of ruminations on the topic. I look forward to reading Austerity

Blues: Fighting for the Soul of Public Education, by Michael Fabricant and

Stephen Brier.

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1

See Memorandum from Laurie Nichols, President, University of Wyoming, to Members

of the University of Wyoming Community (June 16, 2016), http://www.uwyo.edu/presi-

dent/_files/doc s/2016bud getreduct ion/a_me ssage_fro m_the_pr esident_d eclarati on_of_a_

financial_crisis.pdf. Admittedly, the University of Wyoming is a bit unique—it is the

only public university in the state that grants baccalaureate and graduate degrees, and

is under a constitutional mandate that tuition be “as nearly free as possible.” WYO.

CONST. art. 7, § 16 (West 2012). The University receives nearly seventy percent of its

operating budget from legislative appropriation, and a significant majority of state rev-

enues are generated from oil, natural gas, and coal production. As go energy prices, so

go state revenues, and so goes the University’s budget.

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See, e.g., Editorial, Our View: Illinois’ Budget Crisis Hurting Colleges, Universities,NORTHWEST

HERALD (May 26, 2016, 6:30 AM), http://www.nwherald.com/2016/05/24/our-view-illinois-

budget-crisis-hurting-colleges-universities/axf1y0h/.

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Which should be in print by the time this “Editor’s Corner” is published. I hesitate to say

I “look forward” to reading their book, only because the topic may be quite depressing.

V

C2016 The Author

American Business Law Journal V

C2016 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

603

American Business Law Journal

Volume 53, Issue 4, 603–606, Winter 2016

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