What percentage of parents are actually "forking over" this tuition vs. relying on student loans? I think very much of the student body is relying on loans and thus the parents don't really have the ability to cut off the cash.
If the student loan system is working the same way it was when my children were going through college in the early 2000s, students without significant scholarships do not have sufficient credit records to personally borrow enough money to fully fund four years of college tuition, books, fees, room, board, and other expenses. Parents must co-sign their student’s loan applications and when the amount they (the student) can directly borrow falls short, they (the parents) will have to take out supplemental loans as well. So parents and their willingness to borrow money on behalf of their student is still a factor. And at these amounts and loan payoff time frames, both parent and student are increasingly reluctant to pay for education that has no future prospect of gainful employment.
It would be interesting to do some research on where the 1000 missing MizzU freshmen...freshpersons?...maybe just “freshes”...are going to school and what their majors are. It might also be interesting to Profile the 5000 that did chose to attend to see what their majors are.
My personal feeling is that the interest in majors in science, engineering, technology, and “hard skills” liberal arts degrees (accounting, business, mathematics, etc.) - degrees that create real, marketable skills, even music - will remain popular.
The rest of the liberal arts is like the wreck of a once great ship hogged up on the shore line and burning furiously. Spectacular but now essentially useless. It is the best thing that could happen to it. Before these institutions can be rebuilt, everything about them must fail and be discredited so thoroughly that none of it will be permitted to pollute the new institutions that will rise to replace them. This process will take a long time. So we probably need to get use to the political theater raging on campus.
In the meantime, there is a business opportunity for those colleges and universities that have quality, non-political liberal arts programs. There is a continuing need for well trained, certified SJW-free entry level graduates and somebody has got to create a reliable training pipeline to fill it.