In the last few years, small liberal arts colleges have been under financial siege.

The New York Times reports.

At Small Colleges, Harsh Lessons About Cash Flow

RINDGE, N.H. — Amber Jackson remembers the moment she learned that both her majors — dance and math — had been cut from the program at Franklin Pierce University. She immediately called her mother, whose reaction was: “They can do that?”

They could.

After years of financial crisis, Franklin Pierce, like dozens of other small colleges nationwide, is struggling to survive. It faces huge debt, a junk bond credit rating and an uncertain future. It has even resorted to creative image-buffing, like hanging a banner on a derelict building here saying, “Future Home of the Franklin Pierce Science Center,” though there is no money for a science center yet.