This Week In College Viability (TWICV) for Oct 6, 2025

It is Monday, October 6th, 2025. Time for yet another episode of This Week in College Viability News and Commentary. Hi everybody, Gary Stonker back in front of the still blue Yeti microphone. I've changed the angle of the microphone a little bit today. We'll see what that does. And of course, this is the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data and with details and perspectives offered nowhere else. And as always, please consider forwarding the podcast link to your higher education friends and neighbors and family members. No sense in just you getting the latest news and commentary on this whole troubled industry. This week's show includes, of course, many layoff and cutback stories. You shouldn't be surprised at that. More tuition resets. That's not what they call them, but more tuition resets that focus on access enrollment but not success graduation rates. I'll have more on that. More colleges promise graduates employment or grad school placement. An interesting back and forth as I read through that story. I'll have more on that, of course. And America's distorted market for higher education. There's a writer that says We wouldn't like it if restaurants priced their meals like colleges price their tuition. And of course, much, much, much more on this week in college viability layoffs and cutbacks. Layoffs, spending cuts hit Washington University in St. Louis, and that's of course just down the street from me. Monica Obradovich from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had that story on September 29th. Interestingly, They announced 40 positions cut on September 29th and then 300 cuts total on October 1st. Somebody's calculator must not have been working. And Monica did reach out to me and I did have a quote she used in that story. I'll read the quote. This is on the WashU cutback story. Gary Stocker, a St. Louis-based higher education analyst and founder of College Viability, said elite universities across the country are using revenue from layoffs to subsidize research. He suggested some elite universities such as WashU may be using federal turmoil as a scapegoat to eliminate bloat. It rhymes. In my opinion, Stocker said— that's me— in my opinion, there's a likely scenario where many of those research funds come back. The question is, will those like WashU who laid people off bring them back, or are they using this as an opportunity to to cut expenses that they would otherwise not have done. Let's go to music. Berklee College of Music lays off 70 employees. Interestingly, no faculty. Molly Farrar had this story at boston.com on October 2nd. They laid off 3% of its employees across its campuses, affecting 70 staff members and no faculty positions. The spokesperson said, the, I'm guessing this is with a straight face, This person said the workforce reduction will not impact any programs or academic offerings. All right, so what were those 70 people doing beforehand? And don't you ever wonder, don't you ever wonder how that is possible? What were those 70 employees doing if they were not supporting programs, if they were not supporting academic offerings in some form or fashion? What were they— were they all mowing grass, painting the walls, patrolling for safety? Come on, guys, find people to write better announcements. They're too easy, too easy to make fun of. And let's go to all the way back out to the West Coast. At least 54 more employees let go at the University of Southern California, 692 total layoffs. As deficit reductions continue. And again, there are 10,000+ employees, I know what it is, at Southern Cal. State finally confirmed 55 more cuts, including union members. This is a story from Luis Hernandez, Elizabeth Solozano, and Riley Sager, and Kelly Tang on October 3rd from Southern Cal's Annenberg Media, I think it's a website. And the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, always love those short titles, Andrew Guzman said at an Academic Senate meeting in September that USC had established a plan to save $400 million by the end of the fiscal year. I guess he's telling that somebody, or somebody's telling that to somebody. And the report said there was a release from President Kim's letter at Southern Cal that announced those layoffs as well.

All right, just more jumping in.

DePaul, let's keep the theme going.

DePaul University to cut Spending after a 30% drop in international students, and we have more on international students here in a minute.

This is Kate Armanini from the Chicago Tribune on October 3rd.

And DePaul University, of course, in the Chicago area, overall there, they announced overall there are 755 fewer international students enrolled compared to last fall. The drop was even steeper for first-year international graduate students, which declined nearly 62%. Other factors squeezing Nepal's budget: student financial aid has increased significantly.

I don't know if that's funded or unfunded, it doesn't say.

I'm just guessing discounts, but I don't know that for a fact. And now is expected to cost the university roughly $7 million above budgeted levels.

Again, I have to ask the question, $7 million above budgeted levels— are these real dollars coming from funded scholarships Are these roughly $7 million in discounts?

Still $7 million, I understand, but they're unfunded.

It's not like somebody's taking $7 million out of the bank. Granted, they're foregoing that revenue.

It's just the colleges, they're not upfront. They're not upfront with this stuff. They also mentioned higher healthcare costs are adding. Overall benefits have grown by $23 million over the past 5 years.

And additionally, non-international undergrads, so domestic, I guess, domestic undergrad enrollment has dropped roughly 300 students. If we saw stories from other industries with all these kind of cutbacks, we'd be concerned.

And there is concern for sure in higher education.

You know, I have these stories week after week after week.

I don't think there's been a week since I've been doing this podcast for what, 4 years now, that there hasn't been layoffs and cutbacks.

It's a troubled industry and we're going to continue that theme. And I'm not, I'm taking other stories I'm not making this stuff up. College drivel this week.

All right, I'm starting to name names.

It's silly enough that I'm going to start naming names. I think all the time. College drivel, D-R-I-V-E-L, silliness. North Park University's rise in multiple rankings tells the story of our sacred mission in action.

And this is from North Park University's president, Mary Kay Surich.

We affirm and support our students, open doors of opportunities, and change life trajectories for generations to come. Through excellence in education and faithful service, we are poised and prepared to elevate and advance our mission even further. End quote. This said the president of a college. Said the president of a college who cannot even graduate 4 in 10, 40 out of 100, 40% of its students in 4 years. Draw your own conclusions. Colleges say this all the time, that they have these big grandiose statements and they're not graduating even half their students. These folks are about 40% on average over the last 8 reported years. Page 2, tuition resets. Nobody calls them that, but we've got folks doing it. Emory Henry University lowers Cut tuition by 50% for upcoming year. This will be 2026. This is posted September 30th by Rachel Fogg.

Excuse me, by Rachel Fogg. This is an internal document at Emory Henry University.

And let's lead with the 4-year average graduation rate. This time it's less than 40% from 2016 to 2023, the last reported years. The 2024 data should be coming out in the next couple months. And how do they lead their story, this internal story? They're welcome to do whatever they want with internal stories. That's why I'm here. Your quality, your higher education quality control kind of guy. How do they lead their story? Change underscores the university's commitment to accessibility amidst the evolving world of higher education. I'd reach for my Kleenex over here, but I'm not actually generating any tears.

University—

excuse me, Emory Henry University. Emory Henry University today announced a 50% reduction in its annual undergraduate tuition price, underscoring the institution's ongoing commitment to accessibility. I might change that word, ongoing commitment to enrollment, because they're certainly not graduating very many folks. To the data, to the data we go. So often, 2016 to 2023, enrollment's up.

About 300 students from 1,100 to 1,400.

The net tuition revenue per student was $12,300. That's low. That was back in 2016.

It was up to $2,000—

excuse me, to $12,500 and change in 2023. So up $200 over 8 years.

And those are nominal numbers. Those don't include account— those don't account for inflation.

And so that actual amount with inflation considered is going to be less than $12,500.

So I did some math. The 2024 tuition discount rate— this is from their audited financial statement, is how I calculated this— was 46%. So the list price is $39,975. At the discount of 46% is $21,000 and change. Henry and Henry University is proposing $19,900, plus they say additional scholarships are available. All right, again, they're welcome to do that. Clearly their focus is on enrollment, and again, not so much on graduation. And they're even— their end-of-year endowment, the growth of that was at the 25th percentile, which means that 75% of all private colleges are doing better. This is a college in my mind desperate to get students in the door, like so many. And you can see that they're running—

and you can see in their finances, and you can see it in the graduation rates. So they had a quote.

I'm going to add a Gary Stocker analysis and interpretation, and I'll tell you when I do my part. From a statement from Emory Henry University: A quality education can take a student— all right, make that read about 40% of our students—

anywhere.

And we want more students to know that 4 out of every 10 that start with us deserve to be here and that they can be here. Without the benefit of actually graduating. Again, that's me saying that. Regardless of where they come from or where they are headed, said Dr. Michael Puglisi, the provost at Emory Henry University, this change reflects our commitment to serve the— my words— 40% of students and communities of Southwest Virginia and beyond, pairing 40% of graduates— again, my words— who will use their education to make an impact here or wherever their paths take them, so concludes Dr.

Puglisi.

So as, as, as the talented Jeff Salengo says so often, this is a buyer— buyer— buyer college. They are buying students on price.

It's clearly not on quality.

They can't graduate even half their students in 4 years. It's not on quality. They're trying to get students in the door In part to say we're getting students in the door, and in part, in my mind, the vain hope that that will lead to better financial results, and it's not going to.

Bluffton.

Bluffton University.

Similar theme, different words.

Bluffton University announces new affordability initiatives for incoming students. This is from Stacy Myers Cook, September 29th. Hometownstations.com was the webpage. ABC Fox was listed in the header. I don't know what ABC Fox is. And I don't know how many times I continue to have to do, will continue to have to do stories like this. A college engaging in management by PR, management by public relations, trying to sell a college based on price and not, again, not acknowledging pathetic 4-year undergraduate graduation rates. Than averaging less than 50% from 2016 to 2023. Bluffton University President Alex Seider says Bluffton University has consistently ranked as a top performer for social mobility. Lord knows where these rankings are coming from. They're certainly not taking into account outcomes. Less than 50% graduate in 4 years, and they talk about high graduation rates for Pell Grant students. Any chance— they don't share the numbers— any chance Bluffton University drop me a note and actually share those high graduation rates. Here's the quote from the president, Alex Seider: Bluffton University has consistently ranked as a top performer for social mobility in Midwest regional colleges and shown high graduation rates in Pell Grant eligible students. Send me the information. I had somebody from, from Bethel University kind enough to actually do the follow-up here recently. Send me the information. I'll say next week what that number is. If you choose not to share it, I can guess that there's some poetic license in the way you define high graduation rates. Let's change the themes, get away from tuition resets or whatever people call them these days, focus on enrollment. A local university— this is from Morgan Munguilo on WKRC on September 30th— local university launches new program offering minimum of $30,000. Here's What to know. All right, I think I want to add a delusional college story for today's podcast. This is Xavier University.

This is a delusional, a delusional story. This new program provides $30,000 in discounts for GPAs of 3.5 or greater for any Ohio student. It's also happening right as the freshman class has 17, 17, 17% fewer students this fall than last. Here is the delusional part. The delusional part. Scott Clyde, excuse me, Scott Clyde, who is the vice president for strategic enrollment at Xavier University. What's strategic enrollment? I would just be happy to have somebody enrolling students and that are graduating. Scott Clyde, VP for strategic enrollment at Xavier University, hopes to increase enrollment from 800 freshman students.

This is from the story.

800 freshman students this fall. Unlikely. And, and, and are they prepared to give away the store in terms of tuition discounts? Discounts in excess of, I don't know, 55, 60% just to get students in the door? And then Mr. Clyde goes on to say, Mr. Clyde goes on to say, I think we'll get ourselves over 1,000 next year, said Clyde. That's Scott Clyde, Vice President for Strategic Enrollment. Xavier. Xavier also plans to introduce— get this— Xavier plans to introduce almost 40— 40, that's 4-0, 10 times 4— new undergraduate majors, minors, and certificates in the coming years. No date reference, with many focusing on such things as AI, cybersecurity, and health science. So a 20% increase is what they're hoping for, planning for in 2026, in a shrinking market. In the shrinking higher education market, in a state with way too many colleges, adding 40 new programs in the coming years, whatever that means. 40 new programs, really?

Really?

In a shrinking market where the only guarantee when adding new programs is startup costs?

You're not guaranteed—

no college is guaranteed materially significant new net revenue when they add stuff. They're only guaranteed startup costs. And, and even in the unlikely event, even in the unlikely event that Xavier University gets a winner or two or three out of these 40 programs, even if they do, it's going to be copied by others. And nothing wrong with that, just say it happens. That's going to put pressure on tuition discounts, that's going to put pressure on that tuition revenue. Page 3: More colleges promise graduates employment or grad school placement. Now this is from Bethel University. And this is just by coincidence. They were on the podcast a couple weeks ago with some comments that I had, and they're the ones that responded. Hammer, I believe it was. Bethel University in Minnesota, although the story doesn't say that, I think this is the Minnesota version. Bethel University guarantees undergraduates a job on campus or a spot in one of its graduate programs if they haven't found something better 6 months after graduation. This is a story from Ashley Mulreider, September 16th in Inside Higher Education. So I spent some time pondering this story, and as regular listeners know, I have a genetically jaundiced outlook on college media stories. Too much management by PR. And I guess what this story does suggest, even though it's on a really small scale, what it does suggest is an attempt and attempt to address the outcome issues in higher education. And of course, I've talked about that many times already just today, in addition to week after week, to address the outcome issues. And certainly graduation rates are an outcome, but really, and this is kind of the new part, so is that first post-college job search.

One of my—

I'll digress for a second— one of my pay-it-forward efforts involves working with some college student athletes to prepare them for that first post-college job or professional degrees. Some of them are looking at medicine. And, and trust me, these are fine students. They are fine human beings, sharp young men, young women that need— that still needs substantial and substantive guidance. I enjoy doing— I love doing it. I'm going to continue doing it. But for a college to undertake a systemic program like is being proposed here and a couple other places in this story, for a college to undertake a systemic program to work with graduates who have not found a job after like 6 months, in my mind, this falls into the category kind of a day late and a dollar short. That preparatory work for these students needs to be done while they're on campus, like I'm doing, not at the end, not as the end of the college career gets closer now. Is, is this more management by PR? Well, on the surface it's easy to say yes. Certainly there's a chronic history of that in higher education. Yet, all right, be prepared to fall out of your chairs, yet in this case I want to award the College Viability A, the grade of A, for initiative. At the very least, at the very least, these types of stories reinforce What I have shared many, many times, colleges focus on enrollments, not on outcomes, graduation rates, and job placements. Now, now maybe, maybe, I'm not sold yet by far, maybe there is starting to be some movement toward the recognition that too many colleges, almost all colleges, too many colleges leave outcomes off the table period, and in many cases too late, do they try and work on those outcomes. And understand, these colleges have some tight conditions. They have some, some challenging specs that they make these students, or want these students to go through. And at Bethel University, the students must complete these phases of career preparation prior— can't be prior, but that's what it says— prior to graduation. I think it has to be after graduation. Create a Handshake profile— that's a placement website. Meet with a career development coach— I presume that's an employee at the university. Participate in an internship— I presume— it doesn't say that the college helps them find it, no word on that. And students must meet with a career coach monthly. Again, I presume— I'm assuming— I know the danger in that— assuming that that is a college-provided resource. And the last one apply for at least 20 jobs per month to complete the final phase, to get that guarantee, that guarantee that the college offered either 6 months after graduation or, or a graduate program for the college. I don't see an amount here. I thought I had an amount, but I don't see an amount reference for income. My apologies on that. So 20 jobs per month is essentially 1 per business day. You're applying at least one per business day. Not impossible for sure. Many, many do more than that, I'm guessing. But those are, those are, they're not unreasonable requirements, as I pause to ponder, but they are certainly challenging for 22-year-olds, 23-year-olds to manage while just getting out of college and probably with some anxiety associated with finding that, finding that first job. And none of the institutions referenced, Bethel and others referenced in the story, and again, I'll have the link to the story in the show notes. None of these institutions differentiates among the types of job a student may secure, making no distinction— no distinction between a part-time role or one that doesn't require a bachelor's degree, leaving some questions. Interesting here, again, this is from the story, this is not me. Leaving some questions about the underemployment of college graduates. CNBC News, published by Jessica Dickler on September 30th. A perfect storm: more colleges at risk as enrollment falls and financial pressures mount. All right, all right, I think I posted this one to LinkedIn, and I think I teased this— football season, and one of the penalties in football is piling on, jumping on top of a tackle runner, also known as a late hit. And I'm guilty, I'm guilty of piling on here. There's no, there's no new news here. But it is yet another reminder, yet another reminder that this industry, this higher education industry, is in decline. There may be in my mind, and what others have read and posted, excuse me, when others have posted somewhere in the vicinity of 200 colleges, 200 colleges immune to acute and chronic financial distress. However, there are hundreds and hundreds of other colleges at significant, with significant financial risk of either closure or significant program cuts and employees and employee layoffs. And my biggest fear is that students and families, the ones, the customers in higher education, students and families are not getting this at-risk, this college at-risk information. And these students and their families will continue to choose colleges in significant financial distress And again, I've got the relatively new site mycollegeviability.com. mycollegeviability.com. You can get a free report on a college, private college that you're looking at, or the public college version later, to see if they're graduating students, what the enrollment trends are, and some other aspects as well. Page 4, this is the restaurant story that I, that I led off with on the show. Beth Akers and The Dispatch. This is a theme from the American Enterprise Institute on September 23rd: America's Distorted Market for Higher Education. I'm going to read what Miss Akers shared in large part. Another barrier, Beth Akers writes in American Enterprise Institute, another barrier to functioning markets in higher education is the way that colleges set the cost of enrollment. All right, we've talked about this before. Imagine if restaurants, Miss Akers says, Imagine if restaurants didn't list prices on their menus. You would find out the cost only after you ordered, and it would depend on your income, on how much the restaurant charged you and how much the restaurant wanted you there. She goes on, that is essentially how college pricing works. Schools advertise a sticker price that very students— very few students pay. And instead, students receive individualized financial aid packages that vary by family income, academic merit, and the institution's own priorities. This, Beth Akers writes, makes it nearly impossible for students and families to comparison shop. Applying to college, of course, is costly— a little bit less so, but costly— and time-consuming for sure. So most students consider only a handful of schools. All right, there's reasons suggesting maybe considering more, but all right. The lack of transparency dulls the competitive pressure that in other markets would push institutions to minimize costs and maximize value. Ms. Akers continues, to add to that challenge, students often don't have clear information on college outcomes. Welcome to the club, Ms. Akers. Data on graduation rates and subsequent earnings have improved in recent years thanks to federal reporting efforts and independent research. That's me. But much remains murky. That makes it even harder to hold institutions accountable to consumer choice because they, they're not sharing. I had, how about, 3 stories, 4 stories today at least where colleges aren't sharing abysmal graduation rates. They're hiding that fact. At least restaurants have review sources. I can't remember the name of them off the top. And accreditation, she goes on, accreditation further restricts the market Students are now showing more interest in short-term training such as boot camps, certificate programs, and on, on. But many of these options don't qualify for federal aid because they don't fit the traditional accredited mold. This means innovative programs, Beth Akers writes, which might better serve today's students and employers struggle to get off the ground. Accreditation was designed to protect taxpayers by keeping low by keeping low-quality providers out of higher education. I'm not going to go there, but in practice it often stifles innovation, keeping new models from having a chance to integrate and jump into the market. Further, accreditors have historically failed to weed out programs of schools that have failed students, either through poor employment outcomes after graduation or even instances of colleges unexpectedly closing their doors And I'll add to that, financial health is not even considered in almost all cases. The accreditor is just not doing a good job of serving consumers and warning them of those colleges in financial distress. Regular listeners know, you've heard my chronic screeches about how ineffective and out of touch accrediting agencies have become. And this is yet another story Yet another story that builds on that Gary Stocker indictment. The part that Beth Akers discusses where she discusses the tuition pricing model is right in the wheelhouse of my friend Mark Salisbury at tuitionfit.org. If you want to price compare, Mark has a fabulous site at tuitionfit, one word, tuitionfit.org. Check it out, there's a free version as well. And then a wrap this week is a story from Reuters. Reuters had a story, "Few Foreign Students, Fewer Dollars: U.S. Colleges Feel the Pinch." And this story is all over. The folks at Reuters, Kelly Kang, Jamie Dowdle, Helen Koster, had this story on October 3rd. And Reuters spoke to administrators or spokespeople at 10 schools with consistently high foreign enrollment, and all of those reported declines ranging from 1% dip at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign to a 19% drop at the University of Buffalo. Some 35 colleges have announced budget cuts. It's an interesting count on that. Some 35 colleges have announced budget cuts in response to Trump administration policies. Johns Hopkins University slashed more than 2,000 jobs. We had the story about WashU earlier on. This is— there's many stories like this out there, and Reuters did a good job of summarizing this. Again, I'll have the story link in the show And, and as I wrap up, and I've talked about this before, as I wrap up this week's show, let's remember, let's remember that these brand name colleges have already started dipping into their admission waitlist. They're dipping into that admission waitlist to increase their enrollment. More than welcome to do that. Excuse me. These brand name colleges may have, and they do have, some financial cuts, but at the end of the day, they, they are brand names. They are recognized names. There are places that we talk about regularly. They can more easily bring in students, these maybe 200 colleges. But the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of non-national brand name colleges don't have that luxury. They are at the sharp end of the sword with little leverage other than tuition discount pricing to increase their enrollment. And of course, that's good for the students, not necessarily so good for the colleges. And those 50 to 60% tuition discounts are increasingly draining revenue needed to provide a quality education. And even I would argue getting more students to that 4-year graduation rate. And let's wrap up with an ugly higher education story. I had someone share a story with me recently about a college professor. I think it was an online version, I'm not sure, who did not know how to use his college's, his or her college's learning management system. Didn't know how to use it. As a result, this professor was not posting grades well into whatever current term was going on. Students were screaming to see their scores and grades, and the professor was unable, unskilled enough to do so. What does that— what does that say about a quality education? What does that say about a quality education or the needed systems and processes to weed out unskilled or underskilled faculty. This is a troubled, troubled, troubled industry. And this is an ending podcast. Hey, as always, thanks for making time to listen to the podcast. Make sure to share the podcast link with friends, family, neighbors, and other higher education professionals. And I'll be back next Monday with another podcast episode of This Week in College Viability.