By Steven Mintz. The model that dominates non-profit higher education today is under severe stress, particularly at the less-selective institutions that serve the bulk of American students. Four forces – behavioral, demographic, financial, and political -- have combined to disrupt these institutions’  business practices. First, the student swirl. As fewer students earn their credits at a single institution, and take courses from multiple providers -- from early college high schools, at community colleges, and from various online purveyors – the system of cross-subsidies that institutions relied upon to pay for small upper-division classes erodes. Read more...