Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[mahagonny]

Sorry, Wahoo.

[Wahoo Redux]

Sorry, Wahoo.

Thank you.

[spork]

Manhattanville College.

Probably Allegheny College also.

[spork]

Northwood University. Decline in undergraduate FTE enrollment of 19% from FY 2020 to FY 2021. ~ $10 million deficit on total operating expenses of $78 million in FY 2020. Net revenue of $6.5 million in FY 2021 because of $7.7 million in federal grants in FY 2021. Undergraduate FTE enrollment has decreased 40% since FY 2008.

[TreadingLife]

Manhattanville College.

Probably Allegheny College also.

Spork, I couldn't figure out where/who you were responding to with the schools above, aside from them being on thin ice for some reason or another.

I saw this recently https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/47422705/allegheny-college-offers-students-free-tuition
Is there another reason you name dropped Allegheny?

[spork]

Yes. FYs 2018-2020 it sold off $9-$14 million in assets each year. For FY 2020, this resulted in net revenue of only $678,000. In FY 2021, it pulled in $26 million in net tuition revenue while total expenditures were $71 million. The difference was made up by $20 million in investment income designated for operations, $7 million in private gifts, and $15 million in auxiliary enterprises (dorms, meal plan). It is not generating enough tuition revenue to be viable, because its FTE undergraduate enrollment dropped by 25% from FY 2008 to FY 2021.

[spork]

Central College. There was a puff piece about it in Inside Higher Ed today. President is crowing about increased yield in admissions because number of applications has plummeted. Central College has lost a third of its undergraduate FTE enrollment since 2009 (to 1,100 in FY 2021) and has run deficits annually from FY 2017. This includes negative net revenue of $1.5 million in FY 2021 despite receiving over $9 million in federal grants.

[TreadingLife]

Central College. There was a puff piece about it in Inside Higher Ed today. President is crowing about increased yield in admissions because number of applications has plummeted. Central College has lost a third of its undergraduate FTE enrollment since 2009 (to 1,100 in FY 2021) and has run deficits annually from FY 2017. This includes negative net revenue of $1.5 million in FY 2021 despite receiving over $9 million in federal grants.

The last paragraph of the article is pretty telling.

He added, "The only reason I can see for pursuing this strategy is that there is a very strong core market of applicants each year and it's expected to continue, it's comprised of a very diverse set of applicants and yield is so low that you feel you can effectively enroll a class that will meet all your goals. Or you just don't have the staff and/or budget to continue to reach out to prospects and so have no other choice than to try and rationalize your forced decision."

[spork]

As reporting in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Bethel University is eliminating nine niche academic programs because of low enrollment. In FY 2021, it had an $11 million deficit on $98 million in expenses. Its undergraduate FTE enrollment has decreased by almost 25% over the last decade. Minor trims around the edges of its curriculum are not going to make it financially viable for the long term.

[spork]

Cazenovia College defaulted on a bond. It's been in deficit FYs 2018-2020. Data on FY 2021 isn't published yet, but I don't expect anything different.

I predict Cazenovia closes within the next four years.

[apl68]

Cazenovia College defaulted on a bond. It's been in deficit FYs 2018-2020. Data on FY 2021 isn't published yet, but I don't expect anything different.

I predict Cazenovia closes within the next four years.

A school with under a thousand students that can't pay back $25 million dollars in debt?  I suspect you've just made a very safe prediction.

So many of these schools I've never heard of in my life, and I thought I'd heard of some pretty obscure ones.  A glance at their Wikipedia entry indicates that they've been around in one form or another for nearly two centuries.  Looks like they've stayed in business by periodically reinventing themselves.  Three years ago they tried establishing their first grad program.  They might have borrowed much of that money in hopes of being able to label themselves as "Cazenovia University."

I suppose if they close it will be no great loss for society as a whole.  But it's sad to see a nearly two-hundred-year-old institution reaching the end of the line like that.

[apl68]

As reporting in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Bethel University is eliminating nine niche academic programs because of low enrollment. In FY 2021, it had an $11 million deficit on $98 million in expenses. Its undergraduate FTE enrollment has decreased by almost 25% over the last decade. Minor trims around the edges of its curriculum are not going to make it financially viable for the long term.

Not a "super dinky" place like Cazenovia, but that declining enrollment and proportionately huge deficits does look alarming.  Looks like they're the only college affiliated with a Baptist denomination that I'm not familiar with.  Must be one of those denominations with serious long-term declining membership.  If they do eventually lose their college, it will be a real loss for that denomination.

Looks like those niche programs are mostly vocational/business in nature.  I guess they did what many SLACs have done in recent years and created a bunch of niche programs of this sort to stand out enough to continue attracting students.  Alma Mater has been doing something similar.  With more success so far.

[Hibush]

Cazenovia College defaulted on a bond. It's been in deficit FYs 2018-2020. Data on FY 2021 isn't published yet, but I don't expect anything different.

I predict Cazenovia closes within the next four years.

A school with under a thousand students that can't pay back $25 million dollars in debt?  I suspect you've just made a very safe prediction.

So many of these schools I've never heard of in my life, and I thought I'd heard of some pretty obscure ones.  A glance at their Wikipedia entry indicates that they've been around in one form or another for nearly two centuries.  Looks like they've stayed in business by periodically reinventing themselves.  Three years ago they tried establishing their first grad program.  They might have borrowed much of that money in hopes of being able to label themselves as "Cazenovia University."

I suppose if they close it will be no great loss for society as a whole.  But it's sad to see a nearly two-hundred-year-old institution reaching the end of the line like that.

That part of the country was ablaze with intellectual and religious fervor in the 19th century, so a lot of schools were founded. Not all have a reason to exist today when the fervor in the rural areas has died down. Cazenovia is in the middle of nowhere, with several public colleges and financially healthy SLACs nearby.

[glowdart]

I am amazed that Cazenovia has lasted this long. A number of people in my cohort had phone interviews or campus visits with Cazenovia and other schools that seemed on the verge of collapse, including many others in this thread — and that was decades ago. 

The people in our discipline who landed those jobs sometimes fled quickly, but I always had a "but for the grace of ..." feeling that we all landed elsewhere.

[apl68]

I am amazed that Cazenovia has lasted this long. A number of people in my cohort had phone interviews or campus visits with Cazenovia and other schools that seemed on the verge of collapse, including many others in this thread — and that was decades ago. 

The people in our discipline who landed those jobs sometimes fled quickly, but I always had a "but for the grace of ..." feeling that we all landed elsewhere.

Polly used to say of "Super Dinky" that it had flirted with closure for many years before it ran into a set of circumstances it just couldn't overcome.  There must be a number of little colleges in that boat.