Some recent items from Ray Schroeder’s Recession Realities in Higher Education Blog highlight the financial pressures colleges and universities are now really beginning to feel:

Added on 4/1/10:

Lecturer layoffs could hit University of Michigan campus come fall – Juliana Keeping, AnnArbor.com

Layoffs could be on the way for the largest college at the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus. Departments in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts are considering scenarios that would include laying off members of the lecturers’ union to meet savings goals, officials confirmed. Individual departments’ savings plans could also include the consolidation of some classes and having tenure-track faculty teach more classes. If implemented, scenarios like these would result in fewer lecturers being needed, U-M spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said.