Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[apl68]

Now the CHE is reporting that a company that tried to publish a list of colleges in financial trouble--complete with projected likely dates of closure--has been threatened with lawsuits by some of those on the list:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Doomsday-List-of-Possible/247592?cid=wsinglestory_6_1a


On the one hand, this could be a useful service to help keep potential students and faculty hires from boarding a sinking ship unawares. 

On the other, it could easily turn into something of a self-fulfilling prophecy in some cases.  There's a lot of complaining about the influence that U.S. News & World Report's rankings have on higher education.  Imagine the mischief that could follow if prospective students started treating a "dying college" watchlist as gospel.  Any school that got on the list would be in danger of instantly seeing its enrollments and revenues tank.  Colleges with reason to fear that they might be put on the list would be frantically scrambling to improve whatever metrics the list uses, with possible distortions and perverse incentives.  And anyway, are the data really that good?  Might they not inadvertently--or perhaps even intentionally--be skewed against certain kinds of institutions?

Colleges trying to suppress the list doesn't look good from the point of view of transparency.  But it's hard to blame them for being alarmed at proposals to publish such a list.

[kaysixteen]

Yes but they don't ask me whether I'm taking any herbal supplements or buying any other prescriptions at CVS.  All they do is take out the bottles of my meds and say, take one three times a day, etc, which even if I hadn't been taking this med for 5 years, assumes illiteracy on my part, infantilizing me.  But I am a regular repeat customer, the pharmacist knows this, and so does the computer.  And all the time it takes her to do this is taking time away from her doing serious professional tasks.. And pissing me off.

[picard]

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh announces restructuring plans:

https://advancetitan.com/news/2019/11/13/uwo-considers-restructuring-colleges

The University is considering plans to restructure its current four-college system, which could change the names of colleges and schools, and move departments and programs to colleges that are closer aligned to each other. 

Under one of the proposals, degrees and programs currently located in the College of Letters and Science would be moved to a new college with a different name and with degrees and programs that are closer aligned to each other. 

[polly_mer]

Now the CHE is reporting that a company that tried to publish a list of colleges in financial trouble--complete with projected likely dates of closure--has been threatened with lawsuits by some of those on the list:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Doomsday-List-of-Possible/247592?cid=wsinglestory_6_1a

This is the CHE version of the IHE story that irhack posted upthread:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/19/private-colleges-convinced-company-scuttle-release-list-projected-college-closures

The authors of the scuttled story and database wrote a different article: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/11/19/college-closures-and-their-costs-consumers-opinion

A comment on one of the related articles that sticks with me is if you are trying to keep it secret for years while you're sorting it out, then you're probably doing it wrong and likely won't sort it out.

Another article on the big-picture aspect is https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/01/publishing-colleges-financial-information-has-long-history-and-raises-larger-set

[polly_mer]

For those who like data:
http://collegemeltdown.blogspot.com/2019/01/college-meltdown-shows-few-signs-of.html has several links and related stories to financial straits and closures.

[picard]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/11/23/struggling-hampshire-college-gets-big-reprieve/czvQFvdKscxl7zPvAyHqXP/story.html

Hampshire College, the iconoclastic Western Massachusetts school, has pulled itself from the brink of closure after a chaotic year and kept its all-important accreditation.

The regional accreditation board Saturday announced that Hampshire had earned a reprieve and noted that the small private college is on the right track as it tries to strengthen its leadership and shore up its finances.

The New England Commission of Higher Education announced that at a hearing Friday, Hampshire showed it had made "substantial progress" since May.

The college avoided what would have probably been its death knell — having its accreditation pulled or being placed on probation — the accreditor announced.

[spork]

Cheyney University has its accreditation reaffirmed: https://www.inquirer.com/education/cheyney-university-accreditation-middle-states-finances-20191125.html.

Basically it's too politically inconvenient to pull the plug.

[secundem_artem]

Cheyney University has its accreditation reaffirmed: https://www.inquirer.com/education/cheyney-university-accreditation-middle-states-finances-20191125.html.

Basically it's too politically inconvenient to pull the plug.

According to Wikipedia, PA has 14 unis in the PA State System of Higher Education and 4 more in the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.  Of the latter 4, Penn State has 24 campuses, Pitt has 5, Temple has 5, and Lincoln has 2.  Can PA afford to bail them all out if they run into trouble?

[Wahoo Redux]

Cheyney University has its accreditation reaffirmed: https://www.inquirer.com/education/cheyney-university-accreditation-middle-states-finances-20191125.html.

Basically it's too politically inconvenient to pull the plug.

According to Wikipedia, PA has 14 unis in the PA State System of Higher Education and 4 more in the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.  Of the latter 4, Penn State has 24 campuses, Pitt has 5, Temple has 5, and Lincoln has 2.  Can PA afford to bail them all out if they run into trouble?

Perhaps it is spendthrift and indeed political, but shouldn't we celebrate this as good news?

I would like to see higher ed weather the storm personally.

[spork]

[. . .]

According to Wikipedia, PA has 14 unis in the PA State System of Higher Education and 4 more in the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.  Of the latter 4, Penn State has 24 campuses, Pitt has 5, Temple has 5, and Lincoln has 2.  Can PA afford to bail them all out if they run into trouble?

PA taxpayers are not going to appreciate being told they have to pay off the debt that was generated trying to keep all these campuses afloat. The state's population simply doesn't need this many campuses. Many have shiny new, bond-financed buildings: http://activelearningps.com/2014/06/05/when-your-college-is-a-poor-indebted-country-and-theres-no-imf-bailout/.

[. . . ]

Perhaps it is spendthrift and indeed political, but shouldn't we celebrate this as good news?

I would like to see higher ed weather the storm personally.

Cheyney's statistics for retention, graduation rate, etc., are terrible. A small private college with this kind of track record and debt would be toast, and rightly so. Paying $40 million to keep this place open is not, in my opinion, good news.

[Hibush]

[. . .]

According to Wikipedia, PA has 14 unis in the PA State System of Higher Education and 4 more in the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.  Of the latter 4, Penn State has 24 campuses, Pitt has 5, Temple has 5, and Lincoln has 2.  Can PA afford to bail them all out if they run into trouble?

PA taxpayers are not going to appreciate being told they have to pay off the debt that was generated trying to keep all these campuses afloat. The state's population simply doesn't need this many campuses. Many have shiny new, bond-financed buildings: http://activelearningps.com/2014/06/05/when-your-college-is-a-poor-indebted-country-and-theres-no-imf-bailout/.

[. . . ]

Perhaps it is spendthrift and indeed political, but shouldn't we celebrate this as good news?

I would like to see higher ed weather the storm personally.

Cheyney's statistics for retention, graduation rate, etc., are terrible. A small private college with this kind of track record and debt would be toast, and rightly so. Paying $40 million to keep this place open is not, in my opinion, good news.

The political end of this is that Cheyney takes a lot of students who are at high risk of dropping out, but some of them succeed. The successes are especially prized, and probably overcome the crummy stats. It's significant place in Pennsylvania and African-American history also plays a role. The school is seen as an avenue for black Philadelphians to better enter the educated middle class, to a greater extent than other public universities in Pennsylvania. Whether that remains true will depend on how they manage academics and now that they have been relieved of the $40 million debt.

[Wahoo Redux]

The political end of this is that Cheyney takes a lot of students who are at high risk of dropping out, but some of them succeed. The successes are especially prized, and probably overcome the crummy stats. It's significant place in Pennsylvania and African-American history also plays a role. The school is seen as an avenue for black Philadelphians to better enter the educated middle class, to a greater extent than other public universities in Pennsylvania. Whether that remains true will depend on how they manage academics and now that they have been relieved of the $40 million debt.

Still sounds like good news to me.

[mamselle]

According to Wikipedia, PA has 14 unis in the PA State System of Higher Education and 4 more in the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.  Of the latter 4, Penn State has 24 campuses, Pitt has 5, Temple has 5, and Lincoln has 2.  Can PA afford to bail them all out if they run into trouble?

PA taxpayers are not going to appreciate being told they have to pay off the debt that was generated trying to keep all these campuses afloat. The state's population simply doesn't need this many campuses. Many have shiny new, bond-financed buildings: http://activelearningps.com/2014/06/05/when-your-college-is-a-poor-indebted-country-and-theres-no-imf-bailout/.

Are any of these expenses tied to the legal defense and payout costs required to settle the Sandusky scandal?

They'll probably be even more pleased about that...

M.

[spork]

Post-closure profile of College of St. Joseph: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/12/02/college-leaders-grapple-best-way-reopen-closed-campus.

[polly_mer]

The political end of this is that Cheyney takes a lot of students who are at high risk of dropping out, but some of them succeed. The successes are especially prized, and probably overcome the crummy stats. It's significant place in Pennsylvania and African-American history also plays a role. The school is seen as an avenue for black Philadelphians to better enter the educated middle class, to a greater extent than other public universities in Pennsylvania. Whether that remains true will depend on how they manage academics and now that they have been relieved of the $40 million debt.

Still sounds like good news to me.

No, it's not good news because the opportunity cost in keeping this particular school open means money isn't going into fixing the K-12 situation that results in students needing a place like Cheyney.  Opportunity cost means that money doesn't go into some other institution in the Pennsylvania system that is just having a minor blip now and could be saved if it can get over the blip. 

That money to prop up Cheyney means the money isn't going into social services that would help support those same students at some other institution closer to home.  That money to prop up Cheyney means less money and resources for a different type of education that might help people with complicated lives get a good start on adulthood now so they can afford in time and energy to go to an academic institution in their mid-thirties/forties.

Cheyney is 30 miles from Philadelphia, according to Google maps, in an unincorporated region.  West Chester University, a place that has much better stats than Cheyney, is only six miles away.  College Scorecard indicates 100+ institutions within 30 miles of Cheyney.  Thus, Cheyney is not serving an isolated place that will become an education desert without even good online options if this one institution goes under, which would be one possible reason to prop up a failing institution.

About five years ago, IHE wrote an article regarding Cheyney indicating severe mismanagement to the point of not reviewing applications for new admissions.  That article contains the standard struggling institution statements of deferred maintenance, mismanagement of financial aid, academic programs with minimal student interest, and yet still costing the same in tuition as West Chester and the rest of the PASSHE system.

"The bottom line is that it's about the value proposition," says Ivan Turnipseed, who is chair of Cheyney's Hospitality and Recreation Management Department and has served in the leadership of its Faculty Senate and faculty union. "The reason Cheyney doesn't get the amount of students that we could handle is because it costs the same as West Chester and all the other schools, and the value proposition isn't the same."
Turnipseed added: "The overall experience leaves a lot of people wanting."

The result is that some students don't stick around long. Fully 45 percent leave Cheyney after their first year.

Reference: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/15/problems-mount-cheyney-university-oldest-hbcu


The current College Scorecard information for Cheyney indicates that enrollment is about the same at 700 students as when the 2015 article was written with a 25% graduation rate and $24k annual salary 10 years after graduation.  That $24k is not surprising considering the popular majors at Cheyney (and it may be worth mentioning that the college majors listed in the 2015 article are not among the top ten currently on College Scorecard), but that's problematic for a 79% borrowing rate with an average loan amount of $33k.  All that information appears under a red banner indicating being monitored by the US Department of Education for financial reasons (still, five years later).

Just this week, I read about helping African American men succeed in college where University of Maryland- Baltimore County has some excellent programs..  For years, Cheyney has received about triple the per-student allocation as other PASSHE institutions as well as tens of millions of dollars for capital improvements and it's still not enough because of how small Cheyney is. 

Lincoln University in PA is also a HBCU that is 30 miles away from Cheyney that has much better statistics including finances.  Closing Cheyney to help Lincoln survive would be a win.  Closing Cheyney to support some of the community colleges in the area would be a win.  Propping up Cheyney for now because no one wants to be the grown-up stating that Cheyney's day has passed and the students need better is a lose all around.