Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[Hibush]

And another article about the College of St. Rose in Albany.
https://www.timesunion.com/education/article/college-saint-rose-asks-state-albany-officials-18520279.php

Sounds about as dire as it gets. They're basically begging for money from New York State.

The Board of Trustees pulled the plug on St. Rose this afternoon.
https://wnyt.com/top-stories/sources-the-college-of-saint-rose-to-shut-down-in-spring-2024/

https://www.timesunion.com/education/article/college-saint-rose-announces-close-school-year-s-18522277.php

Last day is May 11.

[Mobius]

My guess is it's was denied because status as a Tribal College because it's a private institution that is chartered by several tribes, but I haven't read why it was denied.

Bacone College in Oklahoma. This one hasn't hit the national media, yet, but I have a friend who works nearby. Apparently, a judge has ordered the campus to go up for auction to settle a lawsuit over unpaid debts. The current president claims they found out about the auction in the newspaper and that the debt was incurred under the previous administration that left no records.   
It's a predominantly indigenous serving institution, so it's sad.

It sounds as if Bacone was about to expire a few years ago, but some area tribes bought in on the bet that they could become a Tribal College and use the subsidies those colleges get to make the finances work. That was not successful, so there was no path to financial sustainability.

[Trogdor]

The Board of Trustees pulled the plug on St. Rose this afternoon.
https://wnyt.com/top-stories/sources-the-college-of-saint-rose-to-shut-down-in-spring-2024/

https://www.timesunion.com/education/article/college-saint-rose-announces-close-school-year-s-18522277.php

Last day is May 11.

Damn. That was quick. or slow. depending on how you look at it.

[selecter]

Quick, I think. But the writing on the wall started 15 years ago. It's so nice to see Poly.

[apl68]

And another article about the College of St. Rose in Albany.
https://www.timesunion.com/education/article/college-saint-rose-asks-state-albany-officials-18520279.php

Sounds about as dire as it gets. They're basically begging for money from New York State.

The Board of Trustees pulled the plug on St. Rose this afternoon.
https://wnyt.com/top-stories/sources-the-college-of-saint-rose-to-shut-down-in-spring-2024/

https://www.timesunion.com/education/article/college-saint-rose-announces-close-school-year-s-18522277.php

Last day is May 11.

It's going to be a great loss to the city of Albany.  Though not as devastating as if this had occurred in a small college town.

[AmLitHist]

Fontbonne University, here in St. Louis.  The story is probably paywalled, but in part:

Fontbonne University will drop 21 academic programs and eliminate 19 faculty positions among other budget cuts totaling more than $2 million by 2025, officials announced Thursday.

The "final retrenchment plan" comes as the private Catholic institution experienced a 60% loss in enrollment and more than $14 million decline in revenue over the past decade.

The cuts total less than half of the university's $5.2 million deficit and include the elimination of the art, religious studies and health care management programs. The college also is pausing new enrollment in its renowned deaf education program.

Fontbonne President Nancy Blattner said in a statement that the college had to make "difficult decisions to ensure its long-term sustainability."
. . .
Earlier this week, Fontbonne announced that Quinton Clay, vice president for enrollment management and marketing, resigned from his position. An email to media Thursday said that administrators would not grant any interviews.
. . .
Just 874 students, including 650 undergraduates, are enrolled at Fontbonne this fall, down from roughly 2,000 students a decade ago.

The campus was quiet Thursday afternoon in a drizzling rain. Two freshmen said they were stunned by the news and planned to transfer to other universities. One of the students, who requested anonymity out of concern for her on-campus job, said she realized her major was being cut after none of the required classes showed up in the spring course catalog.

"When I came to tour last year, they weren't very forthcoming about the reality of being a student here," she said. "I wish I had done more research before I came here because I had no idea."

My original goal was to finish the dissertation and get hired there; as it worked out, I settled for my current place and going ABD (due to family obligations) and have been here 20 years.  At least I still have a job, for now. . . until a shoe drops at my place, which will not surprise me at all.

[apl68]

Fontbonne University, here in St. Louis.  The story is probably paywalled, but in part:

Fontbonne University will drop 21 academic programs and eliminate 19 faculty positions among other budget cuts totaling more than $2 million by 2025, officials announced Thursday.

The "final retrenchment plan" comes as the private Catholic institution experienced a 60% loss in enrollment and more than $14 million decline in revenue over the past decade.

The cuts total less than half of the university's $5.2 million deficit and include the elimination of the art, religious studies and health care management programs. The college also is pausing new enrollment in its renowned deaf education program.

Fontbonne President Nancy Blattner said in a statement that the college had to make "difficult decisions to ensure its long-term sustainability."
. . .
Earlier this week, Fontbonne announced that Quinton Clay, vice president for enrollment management and marketing, resigned from his position. An email to media Thursday said that administrators would not grant any interviews.
. . .
Just 874 students, including 650 undergraduates, are enrolled at Fontbonne this fall, down from roughly 2,000 students a decade ago.

The campus was quiet Thursday afternoon in a drizzling rain. Two freshmen said they were stunned by the news and planned to transfer to other universities. One of the students, who requested anonymity out of concern for her on-campus job, said she realized her major was being cut after none of the required classes showed up in the spring course catalog.

"When I came to tour last year, they weren't very forthcoming about the reality of being a student here," she said. "I wish I had done more research before I came here because I had no idea."

My original goal was to finish the dissertation and get hired there; as it worked out, I settled for my current place and going ABD (due to family obligations) and have been here 20 years.  At least I still have a job, for now. . . until a shoe drops at my place, which will not surprise me at all.

If they had not already been so before, they are surely now at the point where they simply need to admit that they can't make it (Enrollment down by well over half???), and get down to figuring out the most orderly closure and bankruptcy they can still manage.

[Hibush]

In an effort to get a sense of a normal rate of expiration of small schools, I found some numbers that may be helpful as a benchmark for distinguishing the natural turnover from a trend.

According to the Small Business Administration, NAICS Code 611310 Colleges, Universities and Professional Schools, qualify as a small business for Federal contracting if their annual revenue is less than $34.5 million. A school that depends on net tuition + room for all its revenue could have a little more than 1000 students to qualify. That's a size one often finds among those in dire financial straits.

If one looks at the annual failure rate of small businesses,

	All small businesses	Education
20 to 500 employees	2.8%	2.2%
Over 500 employees	5.3	4.7%

There are 800 private colleges with enrollment under 1000. The business-natural rate of attrition would have 20 to 40 of those close each year.

In other industries, we recognize that those that fail are replaced by new businesses or expanded businesses. That happens in higher ed as well. Does it help at all to think about these schools as small businesses similar to businesses of comparable size in their community and region?

[Hegemony]

Has someone already noted that the College of St. Rose, in Albany, NY, is closing at the end of the academic year?

"Founded in 1920, The College of Saint Rose is a private independent college in the state capital of Albany, New York. The College is home to nearly 2,600 undergraduate and graduate students across 77 bachelor's, master's, certificate, dual and accelerated programs...

"White said the Board has been laser-focused on sustaining the institution. In recent years, she said, the Board eliminated high-cost academic programs, instituted administrator, staff and faculty layoffs, reduced pension contributions, cut administrator salaries, re-financed the College's debt, requested donors to unrestrict endowed funds, sold non-essential buildings, raised scholarship funds, and implemented a variety of new recruitment initiatives and strategies. The Board also engaged national consultants and, with the President, worked with a number of institutions to identify a strategic long-term partnership.

"Those efforts were unable to offset the ongoing deficit, White told the community. The projected operating cash deficit for this year is $11.3 million she said."

https://www.strose.edu/2023/12/01/the-college-of-saint-rose-announces-it-will-close/

[marshwiggle]

In an effort to get a sense of a normal rate of expiration of small schools, I found some numbers that may be helpful as a benchmark for distinguishing the natural turnover from a trend.

According to the Small Business Administration, NAICS Code 611310 Colleges, Universities and Professional Schools, qualify as a small business for Federal contracting if their annual revenue is less than $34.5 million. A school that depends on net tuition + room for all its revenue could have a little more than 1000 students to qualify. That's a size one often finds among those in dire financial straits.

If one looks at the annual failure rate of small businesses,

	All small businesses	Education
20 to 500 employees	2.8%	2.2%
Over 500 employees	5.3	4.7%

There are 800 private colleges with enrollment under 1000. The business-natural rate of attrition would have 20 to 40 of those close each year.

In other industries, we recognize that those that fail are replaced by new businesses or expanded businesses. That happens in higher ed as well. Does it help at all to think about these schools as small businesses similar to businesses of comparable size in their community and region?

In that vein, they are in a sector where there is a huge economy of scale. In business terms, there are lots of independent restaurants, since the costs mostly scale with size, but few independent grocery stores, where costs like transportation benefit greatly by scale. For post-secondary educational institutions, the costs of offering different programs is very dependent on scale, even without considering costs like administration which can be disproportionately high at smaller places.

[Wahoo Redux]

More anecdotal than anything else, but anyone seen Blue Beetle?  It's a little better than the promotional material would indicate.  The main characters are a Mexican-American family.  In the exposition they have this dialogue:

We have a lot to be grateful for. Mira...

We're celebrating the first Reyes to graduate from college!

[in English] Yeah. And the last!

Yes, because you didn't apply.

[Milagro] What, so I can get into debt for the rest of my life? No thanks.

[Milagro sighs]

What? 25%?

Mi amor, these people make nothing.

We are broke.

[Alberto] Let's worry about money tomorrow.

Two scenes later, Jamie and his smartass sister have jobs scraping gum off the rich white characters' beach house and doing other humiliating service jobs.

Pop culture is a unsubtle lens into the culture's brain. 

[Diogenes]

Bacone College, a private college that serves predominately Native students in Oklahoma is closing and getting auctioned off because they couldn't pay back an HVAC company in Utah. https://www.fox13now.com/news/fox-13-investigates/why-is-utah-hvac-company-set-to-buy-an-entire-oklahoma-college

[apl68]

Bacone College, a private college that serves predominately Native students in Oklahoma is closing and getting auctioned off because they couldn't pay back an HVAC company in Utah. https://www.fox13now.com/news/fox-13-investigates/why-is-utah-hvac-company-set-to-buy-an-entire-oklahoma-college

That's a truly bizarre finish for a school.  I wonder what the HVAC people think they can do with that property?

I've learned in my own work never to underestimate the potential of long-term HVAC maintenance and repair to eat an institution's lunch.  By far the biggest single source of our library's operating deficit this year has been replacement of aged-out components on our hi-tech HVAC system. 

We're not about to go bankrupt and sold off to pay the HVAC repair bill, but I would feel better about our long-term financial viability if those responsible for building our facility around the turn of the century had not gone in for such an over-engineered system.  I've said before that if the architect who sold my predecessors on that system was still alive, I could almost strangle him.

[lightning]

High-tech state-of-the-art, but unmaintainable/unsustainable (without large repair/replacement costs) HVAC systems are everywhere now, including my house.

[Hibush]

Bacone College, a private college that serves predominately Native students in Oklahoma is closing and getting auctioned off because they couldn't pay back an HVAC company in Utah. https://www.fox13now.com/news/fox-13-investigates/why-is-utah-hvac-company-set-to-buy-an-entire-oklahoma-college

That's a truly bizarre finish for a school.  I wonder what the HVAC people think they can do with that property?

In one article, the HVAC company owner was contemplating renting it out...to Bacone College.