Dorm Economics

How Colleges Cut Back

Everything from dirty windows to "virtual" swim meets.

Those endowments might have looked pretty good a short few semesters ago, but with the stock market way off its peak and donors strapped for cash, colleges dug deep for creative ways to lower their operating costs this year. The New York Times rounded up some of the more interesting money saving measures. For example, the University of Washington did away with landlines for various faculty members, following the lead of their wireless students, and Whittier College hosted "Trayless Tuesdays" at the cafeteria and then declared a tray-free zone altogether. Dickinson College saved on bus fare by hosting a "virtual swim meet," in which the competing teams swam at their own pools but compared times online.