Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[TreadingLife]

Brandeis University was mentioned a few pages back (in the 130s) regarding Galloway's analysis of it being one of the doomed schools.  This article is quite interesting.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/17/brandeis-university-president-takes-bitter-contract-negotiations-public

Here are some interesting sentences.

Former president Frederick Lawrence stepped down in 2015 after fundraising revenues declined under his leadership, falling from an average of $90 million per year to $37 million. When Liebowitz became president in 2016, the university had a $35 million structural deficit.

Fundraising is particularly important to Brandeis, said Larry Ladd, a senior consultant at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. He has worked with the university in the past. Since the university was founded in 1948, fundraising revenue has made up a larger portion of its operating budget than many higher education institutions.

I had commented a few pages ago that Brandeis had a billion dollar endowment that solves many, but not all, problems. However, it sounds like they might be leaning heavily on their endowment to make up for declining enrollments and/or higher discount rates and/or an unwillingness to cut expenses via cutting programs and staff.

[Ruralguy]

Welcome to the club, Brandeis! They really should be doing much better with gifts. He'll, our best year sounds about as good as their worst year! That shouldn't be! They have a much, much bigger alum base that's probably making more money.

Anyway, they'll survive for a long time. They might not be able to be all they always wanted to be, but they'll survive.

[spork]

PASHE chancellor threatens dissolution of system if campuses don't consolidate:

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/03/leader-of-pa-state-universities-delivers-blunt-message-reorganize-or-dissolve-the-system.html.

[Mobius]

Don't necessarily need to consolidate institutions, but every campus can't offer the same programs within a region. There is resistance to that, of course, because it means positions will be cut. They will be cut in any case.

[apl68]

PASHE chancellor threatens dissolution of system if campuses don't consolidate:

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/03/leader-of-pa-state-universities-delivers-blunt-message-reorganize-or-dissolve-the-system.html.

Is he talking about actually potentially shutting down all of the state's colleges?  That sounds awfully drastic.

If enrollment has been going down every year for the past 10 years in a row, it's hard to see how they can get away without some major retrenchment.  I wonder how close together the schools that are supposed to be consolidated are?

Seems like I recall years ago on the old CHE Fora version of this thread that somebody who worked at one of the PASSHE schools commented on a remarkable disconnect between the relentless bad news about PASSHE's finances and faculty members who apparently refused to believe that it was really that bad.  Some of them were even trying to get personal raises that they felt entitled to.

[polly_mer]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/09/15/pennsylvania-state-system-plans-integrate-three-universities-departing-earlier was the story in September.

July 2020 saw a new law in PA that would allow for changes only in the next three years and not flat out closing a public institution: https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania-state-system-universities-consolidate-west-chester-indiana-20200701.html

2017 saw http://www.apscuf.org/read-the-full-nchems-report/

The article that Spork linked sounds a lot like the situation in Vermont last year when the chancellor explained how bad the situation  in the system was, proposed dramatic action, and was no longer chancellor within weeks.

[Hibush]

PASHE chancellor threatens dissolution of system if campuses don't consolidate:

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/03/leader-of-pa-state-universities-delivers-blunt-message-reorganize-or-dissolve-the-system.html.

A good effort to get the attention of a legislature that has been unwilling to pay the cost of the system in order to offer the educational, economic, and civil-society benefits of local higher ed.

Chancellor Greenstein had a tough job with these legislators. How do you get support from those who like the money coming to their districts but don't like that they are educating people? And at the same time, those who like the education, but don't want to pay for it?  Without those two factions on board, I don't see a helpful budget passing.

[spork]

Here is the list of PASSHE campuses (not even the complete list of public four-year institutions in the state) along with a handy map of their locations:

https://www.passhe.edu/university/Pages/Our-Universities.aspx.

Here is the dashboard with enrollment data for these campuses:

https://viz.passhe.edu/t/Public/views/Enrollment-PublicFinal/System?:isGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&:embed=y.

Only one, West Chester, has an FTE enrollment higher than 10K. Some have FTE enrollments under 2K. Cheyney's FTE enrollment is below 600.

Sorry for leaving out the second "S" in my earlier post.

[jimbogumbo]

West Chester has approximately 20% of the PASSHE enrollment. Cheyney is a HBU, really close to West Chester. The two paragraphs I lifted from Wikipedia show the promise (first paragraph) and also why it might not be so appealing to Cheyney students (second paragraph).

"Nineteen days before his death, Frederick Douglass gave his last public lecture at West Chester University. The lecture took place on February 1, 1895. Now, the university has the Frederick Douglass Institute on its campus as well as a statue of Douglass.[8][9] It has been named a national historic landmark by the U.S. National Park Service.[citation needed] The Underground Railroad Network to Freedom recognized the Frederick Douglass Institute for its great work in understanding the history of the underground railroad.[10][11]

In April each year, students celebrate Banana Day,[12] on which a gorilla, Rammy, and many others give out bananas across the entire campus. Banana Day was conceptualized by WCU senior, Rodolfo P. Tellez, in 1996. Students take part in games similar to a field day to win Banana Day T-shirts, from push-up competitions to banana eating contests".

[polly_mer]

I want to say we discussed Cheyney at one point with the conclusion that there are many good choices within 50 miles (College Scorecard lists more than 100) including other HBCUs like Delaware State.

Cheyney's stats just look terrible on College Scorecard.

Cheyney is under heightened cash monitoring by Dept Ed for federal financial aid.

21% graduation rate at $15k per year to make $34k after graduation with 95% of borrowers in the bad categories.  The percentage of borrowers making progress on their student loans is so low that it is not reported.

73% Pell and a federal loan rate of 80% looks a lot like ripping off students.

The top five majors by graduation are offered nearly everywhere.

This looks like an institution ripe to be closed and new places found for all the students at places that will serve the students better.

[spork]

Cabrini University:

https://www.inquirer.com/education/cabrini-university-cuts-staff-programs-pandemic-20210315.html.

Deficits every year since FY 2013. Undergraduate FTE is ~ 1,500 and its endowment is less than $40 million.

[jimbogumbo]

I want to say we discussed Cheyney at one point with the conclusion that there are many good choices within 50 miles (College Scorecard lists more than 100) including other HBCUs like Delaware State.

I think Cheyney has to close. Does anyone know if Delaware and PA have any in state tuition reciprocity arrangements?

[polly_mer]

I want to say we discussed Cheyney at one point with the conclusion that there are many good choices within 50 miles (College Scorecard lists more than 100) including other HBCUs like Delaware State.

I think Cheyney has to close. Does anyone know if Delaware and PA have any in state tuition reciprocity arrangements?

Even if they don't have reciprocity, it will be cheaper for the state to just pay tuition + fees + room + board for a couple hundred students than to keep the institution open.  200 students * $20k = $4M.  Even doubled is only $8M.

https://www.penncapital-star.com/education/cheyney-council-of-trustees-approves-budget-in-last-meeting-before-accreditation-decision/ indicates a budget of about $30M with expenditures around $40M.  In fall 2019, Cheyney owed the system $40M (ibid).

[jonadam]

Those stats are not good. Will there even be a Cheyney University in five years?

[polly_mer]

Those stats are not good. Will there even be a Cheyney University in five years?

Not if people engage in data-based decision making for good resource allocation to have a good higher ed landscape in PA.

However, since Cheyney really should have been closed years ago and few leaders have the spine to make necessary decisions in the face of unhappy stakeholders who say mean things, Cheyney could continue to siphon resources from the system until no system resources remain.

My bet is the final straw will be federal financial aid being cut off or the accreditor issuing a show cause action, not simply applying critical thinking skills.