In 2011, the National Geographic Channel struck the ratings jackpot with their new hit show, Doomsday Preppers. Now in its third season, Doomsday Preppers depicts seemingly ordinary people who are secretly going to great lengths stockpiling food, water, guns, ammunition, and other supplies in preparation for what they believe is an inevitable catastrophic disaster. This reality shows examines the extent of their “preps” and even gives the person or family a score on how likely they would survive if such a disaster did actually occur. In response to the show’s popularity, an entire subculture of people across the country are now preparing for the end-of-the-world by building underground bunkers, stocking up on supplies, and learning the skills necessary to survive is a post-apocalyptic world.

As farfetched as it may seem, the idea of a world-as-we-know-it ending disaster has been around for a long time. Prophecies of floods, meteor strikes, tidal waves, and incurable diseases can be found in legends and folklore dating back to ancient times. Even modern science fiction has entertained us with thousands of stories of alien landings, zombie invasions, and city-sized Stay-Puff marshmallow men, all ready to turn the Earth into a barren wasteland. But what can U.S. colleges and universities learn from the stars of Doomsday Preppers? Is it possible that higher education is only a few steps away from a catastrophic event that could change the landscapes of campuses forever? Unfortunately, if certain changes are not made and our campuses continue with business as usual, the apocalypse in our colleges and universities may be right around the corner.

It has been well-documented that state and federal support of higher education in America is dissolving rapidly. Many institutions have transformed their business models to meet these challenges by increasing enrollment, raising tuition, and placing a larger emphasis on fundraising from alumni. Although these tactics have helped replace the missing tax revenue, the reliance on them for bridging the financial gap may be the very thing that leads to an eventual apocalyptic scenario. The dependence on fundraising is especially troubling and could possibly be the one single factor that separates the campuses that survive and those that fall victim to an inevitable day of reckoning that may be closer than we think.

Institutions across the country have become addicted to the almost endless growth in charitable donations that are received every year. According to the Council for Aid to Education, over $33.8 billion was contributed to U.S. colleges and universities last year breaking the pre-recession record set back in 2009. Over $9 billion of this overall total was contributed by alumni. A more interesting finding in this report is that the actual number of alumni donors decreased by 1.7 percent; a trend that has been recorded annually since 2006. Although individual alumni donors gave more than the previous year, the loss of donors could signify a shift in mentality on a graduate’s willingness to support their alma mater. What remains is a potentially haunting question for institutions near and far: What if in the future, the alumni stop giving?

A wide range of explanations have been introduced to explain why some alumni choose to support their institution after they graduate. A sense of gratitude for their education, institutional pride, tax benefits, and even how well a school’s sports teams compete on a national level have all been provided as reasons for alumni making donations. Even though these criteria have helped development offices in fine tuning their solicitation approach, they cannot fully explain why the vast majority of college graduates never provide any financial support at all. At the average public university, only about 10 percent of alumni make donations during any given year. In private schools, the percentage jumps to around 20 percent; still an unimpressive representation of the entire alumni body. With fewer donors giving more money every year, it is inevitable that rising dollar amount will eventually plateau and the institutions will be faced with the challenge of how to make up another decline in financial support. It’s scenarios like this one that should have every college and university in the land taking the necessary steps to meet these future challenges and start prepping for a “doomsday” that may be in the foreseeable future.

Much like the preppers seen on television, there are many things institutions can do now to avoid falling victim to the oncoming apocalypse. First, would be for development offices to start focusing their efforts on raising more money for endowments. The idea of large pools of money being hoarded into an institution’s endowment has raised many questions over the last several years. Schools like Harvard and Yale, whose endowments have reached over $30 billion each, have been scrutinized by the public and members of congress for the perceived lack of spending from these funds. Cash-strapped state institutions that are having a hard enough time making ends meet are also weary of directing money towards their endowment because they lose the instant income generated from charitable contributions. However, when the time comes that state and federal support of higher education eventually hits zero and all the alumni who graduated with thousands of dollars in debt decide they have given enough, most campuses will regret not investing more into their endowments and will be forced to scavenge and forage for the remaining scraps of depleted funds.

Increasing endowments is only one step in the survival process. Campuses also need to be thinking about what all they are providing to current students that will make them understand the value of their investment years after graduation. Career services is one area where immediate improvements can be made to help students who wish to be employed after graduation. According to a report by the Associated Press, over half of 2012 graduates were either unemployed or working in jobs that do not require a degree. This doesn’t sit well with the thousands of students who are leaving these campuses with lackluster employment opportunities. Although the blame cannot solely be placed on the institutions, when deciding on whether or not to give back alumni are more likely to remember their struggles in the job market more than the good times they had on campus.

A last prep that colleges and universities need to implement immediately would be to stop the endless “nickel and diming” of their students. When student loans became the preferred method of paying for a college education, many institutions took advantage of the automatic borrowing and began implementing fees on everything such as using the campus athletic facility and parking. Parking alone has skyrocketed over the last few decades where students at some institutions pay over $500 per year just to have a car on campus. Add in fees for campus technology, healthcare, and even student activities and some alumni end up owing thousands more than they expected after graduation. After shelling out student loan payments for 10 or 20 years, many graduates may end up financially exhausted and left not willing to contribute any more to an institution that got enough of their money the first time around.

Although it may seem farfetched that an apocalyptic scenario could ever possibly come true, the people portrayed on Doomsday Preppers are not taking any chances and are priming themselves for the long road of suffering and desperation that could happen if society came crashing down. Colleges and universities could take a lesson or two from these preppers and prepare themselves better in the event of their own disaster. Much like the justification used in the infamous recession era bailouts, the fate of higher education is just “too big to fail” and all necessary arrangements need to be made in order to prevent any type of catastrophe. If not, our institution’s survival skills may be put to the test leaving the future generations of students and faculty to face an Armageddon that could have been avoided.