Best-laid plans

Fisk University

In the wake of the Great Recession a decade ago, the leaders of Cumberland University, a small private college in Lebanon, were forced to cut costs like so many businesses and households around the country. That meant no more retirement matching for faculty and staff, no pay raises and a workforce reduction.

Now, faced with the most abrupt economic interruption in generations, Cumberland management has deemed none of those measures necessary, at least for now.