The long tradition of students attending small, residential liberal arts colleges around the country was already shaky before the pandemic. Students are choosing less expensive options and more practical degrees.

At the same time, people who study higher education finance have been warning for years that a shakeout is coming for small colleges and universities. Now, because of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic recession, that prediction may be sooner rather than later. 

A longtime higher-education buzzword is gathering new buzz: consolidation.

It’s not hard to see the appeal, in the current moment, of combining institutions. Faltering enrollment, shrinking numbers of high-school graduates in the forecast, and feeble state support have compelled public systems—many of them overbuilt for their states’ populations—to explore more, and more ambitious, consolidations. COVID-19 is likely to make those forces even stronger.

As colleges unveil their reopening plans for the fall, concerns about the safety of faculty teaching in classrooms populated with young adults have taken center stage. But largely left out of the conversation have been the people actually getting campuses up and running: the staff.