This Week In College Viability (TWICV) for January 5, 2026

Somebody turn over the calendar, please. It is, of course, 2026. Hi everybody, Gary Stocker with the first 2026 episode of This Week in College Viability News and Commentary. I am sitting in front of my traditional blue Yeti microphone and the smooth-running riverside.fm podcast software. And as your college financial quality control advocate— that's a long one— This is a podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data and details and perspectives offered nowhere else. I talk about delusional colleges, regurgitation reporting, and much, much, much more in the podcast. And College Viability has kind of become higher education's NORAD. Of course, NORAD is the North American Radar Defense site in, I believe it's in Denver somewhere, in Colorado somewhere. Our radar, our data radar tells you which incoming colleges are risky and which will safely deliver an education package. I do have a promo. Beyond the College Brochure is a new podcast I'm starting every Wednesday, and the first one coming out this Wednesday is Colleges Make 4 Equal 6. I'll have more on my 2026 focus on content and apps with a focus for students and parents later in the show. Today, Martin University, Indiana, terminates staff without pay and encourages students to transfer. Rider University— we've had them on the College Financial Health Show— Rider University in New Jersey placed on probation by their accreditor. Long time in coming. A potential college president foot in mouth story in New York. Another college, yet another college, tries to spin bad news into a comeback kid story. That's dangerous because you know I'm going to look at the data. And from Dow Jones MarketWatch and Morningstar, here's the headline: They're in their 60s and still paying off student loans. College debt in America now lasts a lifetime. I've got a short blurb on that. And as always, don't hog the podcast. Forward the podcast link to your higher education friends, your family, your neighbors, those looking at colleges, those employed in higher education. Let them have the advantage of listening to the perspective, a different perspective for sure, that I offer here on the podcast. Layoffs and cutbacks. Martin University terminates staff, encourages students to transfer. I believe they call it a pause. I had this story in December. The interim president The interim president told staff the university does not have money to pay them. This was from Claire Rafford on the December 16th issue of Mirror Indy. And this is what happens. This is what happens when colleges are left alone and not held accountable to financial issues and financial challenges. And it's why I'm here. It's why I'm here. Use my apps. Use my content. And the apps especially is kind of a reverse FAFSA. You know, you give— parents and families give their financial data to colleges on the FAFSA. My apps, my tools, my data kind of— then kind of— they do give students, families, and others financial information on colleges. It's only fair that it goes both ways. North Point Bible College in Massachusetts is at risk of losing its accreditation. This is a really small college, I think 128 undergraduate and graduate students. They've had issues before. The story is from Juliet Schulman Hall in MassLive on the day after Christmas, December 26th, and the Haverhill College North Point Bible College has to prove viability by a February 26th meeting date. Interestingly here, this referenced the list, and you'll recall that when, with the sudden closure of Mount Ida back in 2017, I believe, A couple years later, Minnesota came up with a system and process to identify private colleges at financial risk. Northpoint Bible College is on that list. I'd never seen a college actually referenced before, and apparently there are 3 or 4 other colleges on that list as well. I think they were referenced in the story. I have to go back and check because I didn't think the state was going to actually reference the colleges in trouble, because that, that is an indication that they're not going to make it. Rider University all sorts, all sorts of financial challenges, placed on probation. The story is in centralnewjersey.com on December 17th, Leah Kahn. And like I shared in the lead, Rider's been on the College Financial Health Show at least once or twice. Matt and I looked at it very closely and it was not good. But let's go to the story, and here's a quote: but Rider University officials are determined to battle back through the adoption of President John Loyack's March to Sustainability plan. Its implementation was formally approved on November 30th by the university's Board of Trustees. I guess that's right before the probation announcement came out. With this decision, the story goes on, the administration has immediately, immediately begun moving forward with the difficult but necessary steps to return Rider to financial stability and to begin building a reimagined Rider, the president said. And as I've shared before with other colleges with this kind of story, why now? Why are they making the changes now? If the leadership at Rider was aware of financial challenges, why did they wait until the last minute? Why did they wait until the last minute post-probation, or really they knew probation was coming, to do anything. In addition, and don't throw anything at your earpiece or computer screen here, why does this college think it needs to exist? There are too many colleges, especially in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, New York, and other places. There are other financially stronger colleges in New Jersey marginally so in many cases, and elsewhere, who could readily take students from Rider and provide them with a high-quality education without the potential closure drama. And I'm aware, I'm aware that college closures cost jobs. It ain't no fun. I've been through it twice in my 40-plus-year post-college career. And I'm aware that college closures create significant challenges for students and communities, but they've already happened in increasingly large numbers and will continue to happen in 2026 and beyond. Students and parents and higher education professionals choose— look at my data, look at the data, any data if you want, but my data is easiest— choose financially stronger colleges. And for those of you listening to the show for the first time, maybe, or regular listeners, our college viability focus in 2026 is going to be on products and content and services for students and parents. I'll have more on that in a couple minutes. We already have a product available, and it will have more advanced student and family college decision tools as the year progresses. Page 2, Siena University ended up with millions of dollars in debt on a debt-free science building, so wrote the headline from Kathleen Moore on the Times Union in New York on December 28th. The subheading reads, University is also not bringing in enough money to cover the cost of running the school. Now, before I get into my content, I noticed over the weekend that the president at Siena University, Mr. Seifert, maybe Dr. Seifert, had done an extensive rebuttal to the Times Union story on, on the college's financial challenges. And Matt Hendricks and I will have Siena College on this Tuesday, the January 6th College Financial Health Show, with Matt Hendricks and Gary Stocker. And I looked at some of their finances, and, and the only thing that caught my attention— this is a quick look— was their endowment value. This is very strange. Their endowment value went from $175 million in 2022 to $7 million. That's right, $175 to $7 in 2023, and then back up to $189 million in 2024. And, and as I looked at it, those massive changes didn't appear in the college's endowment rate. That just doesn't look right. I'm eager to hear what Matt has to say on that. And as, as I've watched this, and I referenced this in the lead today, as I have watched this story unfold My guess is that this is probably about a college president. Maybe he didn't pay attention to Finance 101 class and tried to get too cute with his descriptions and maybe inserted his presidential foot or his financial foot into his presidential mouth. And again, we'll see what Matt has to say on tomorrow's show. Page 3. All right, colleges continue to do this, and when I see them I go to my dad at LaSalle, LaSalle University, Pennsylvania. Newest title, The Comeback College. This is an internal story referenced based on a story from Eric Hoover, uh, I think it was in the Chronicle. But this is what I'm going to reference is the internal story, and it talks, uh, University President Daniel Allen and VP for Enrollment Management and Marketing Greg Naylor are quoted in the story, and, and Dr. Allen, Dr. Nair, to the good folks at LaSalle University, feel free to spin anything you want. Feel free to spin. You have to know. You have to know if you're going to try and pitch these comeback stories that I'm going to dig deep into the data. So to the data we go, 2016 to 2024. I don't think the 2025 data is posted yet. It's audited financial statement and data from the IRS 990s at LaSalle University. Endowment end of the year endowment value is down 20% over those 9 years. And here's why: because the endowment draw, the money they take out to effectively keep the lights on, has been above 6% in 8 of the past 9 years. And if you heard Matt Hendricks talk about this, it should be in the 4 to 5% range. That's a lot of big draws. And in 2023 and 2024, when those draws should have been 4%-ish, they were 13%, 1-3%, and 18%, 1-8%. Not good. So the endowment piggy bank at LaSalle University has been broken open, broken open to keep the lights on. Student revenues are down 48%. Per student average tuition fees were $19,000 and change in 2016. Adjusted for inflation over those last— over these last 9 years, it's down to $12,700 adjusted for inflation. Not adjusted, it's down to $17,000 over those same— over that same period. They're graduating a little over 50% of their students in 4 years, better than most, not exceptional, but indeed better than most. And their investment in capital infrastructure, the CapEx to depreciation ratio, has been below the minimum— been below the minimum of 1.0 since the year 2017. But nobody, nobody is talking at LaSalle about potential safety issues, potential safety issues associated with diminished infrastructure investment. From 2020 through 2024, expenses were higher than revenues. I didn't go back any farther than that, which begs the question— and it's not a new question— which begs the question, what does it take What does it take for college leaders at LaSalle University in Pennsylvania to recognize they have a problem? They were spending more than they were taking in for many years. And I guess the second question, if the accreditors had not— belatedly in my mind— if the accreditors had not stepped in, would LaSalle have done anything different to get their financial house in order? Total net assets are down, unrestricted net assets are down. How is this a recovery? And here's from the internal story of LaSalle. Again, feel free to spin anything you want. I bet my content gets more distribution and views than your content. From the internal LaSalle story, looking at athletics and community, they talk about the introduction of rugby and triathlon and acrobatics and tumbling and the introduction of baseball and team sports. As well as these team sports are adding dance and cheerleader squads that are being expanded, I guess, and a pep band started. Okay, all right, add whatever you want. Abundant research, abundant experience, and abundant reporting suggests athletics with its increased cost profile is not a cure-all for college in trouble. It just, it doesn't work. And yet college after college continues to try it. They only look at the revenue side is my guess. I have yet to find a college either with direct conversations with me or in the media say they've set up the accounting which has each sport as a cost center to see if they're actually netting positive net revenue. I bet they're not. And then it goes on to say, when it comes at La Salle University, when it comes to enrollment and outreach, processes have been streamlined and modernized, communications with prospective students have been personalized Campus visits have been changed. And Mr.— Dr. Nayer says when it comes to growing and sustaining enrollment, Dr. Nayer said in the article, doing a whole bunch of little things well makes a difference. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, many if not most other colleges are doing these same things, probably already doing them. And these are all future promises, just like the creditors. They want to see you're going to do something. They don't actually see proof that you've done it. These are all future promises, not demonstrated results. And so here comes my first jeesh. And after debate, I'm going to make it a single jeesh. My first jeesh of 2026. And here's my assessment. This college is not, is not a consideration-worthy college right now. There are many other options, especially in Pennsylvania. Make sure to look at the College Viability app on the colleges you're considering, or even those you're employed at. We're being doged— D-O-G— Department of Government Efficiency. This is a headline from Lee Gardner on the December 12th, in the December 12th issue of the Chronicle: Sweeping buyout plan rattles the new school's faculty. This is in New York. All right, well, doged— tried to make a verb out of that. I, I give them points for being creative, but but maybe it should have been DoCE, D-O-C-E, Department of College Efficiency, not government efficiency, College Efficiency Department. Maybe they've been doced, not doged. And so here's the story about 40%. 40% of the full-time professors at the new school received letters in early December offering them separation packages or early retirement as part of the leader's attempts to address a budget deficit. We've seen this before. If they do not accept the offers by mid-month— I'm assuming that's mid-January because the story was on December 12th— the paperwork stated they could face involuntary reduction in the new year on less favorable terms. Maybe it was mid-December. Jeremy Varone, or Varon, who's a professor of history, says faculty are afraid, confused, outraged, hurt. We feel horribly abused. To the data we briefly go. The unfunded institutional grants, you and I know that as merit aid, most scholarships, it increased $47 million from 2016 to 2024. It was $101 million in unfunded aid in 2016, $148 million in 2024. They are giving away the store at the new school to get students in the door, and it's a function of the market. I, you know, in some, some regards, that's— they're forced to do that. Net cash from operations is down, as you might expect. It's below the 25th percentile. That's not good. The average expenses from 2020 through 2024— and these numbers come from audited financial statements, IRS 990s, and the specific app I use is Matt Hendricks, um, Financial Compass data. That's the tool that we use on our show. Uh, the endowment grew at about the median for private colleges, so good there. The endowment draw was managed well. I haven't talked about that for a long time, so credit the folks at NewSchool on that. And I could go on, I could go on, but I, I've got listeners who've heard already a lot of numbers today. But this is a classic, a classic higher education institution's inability to to manage expenses in relationship to revenues. And I don't know what role faculty played in that imbalance, but it is simply a local symptom of a national higher education financial disease. And this college is not— doesn't appear to be in danger of closing, but like hundreds of others, their ability to manage their operating finances leaves much to be desired. There was another story. The Wall Street Journal had a follow-up story. I'll make sure to include the link in the show notes. Sharon Otterman had that story on December 19th. Page 4, and this is from Dow Jones MarketWatch and Morningstar, and the headline reads, they're in their 60s and still paying off student loans. College debt in America now lasts Now Lasts a Lifetime. Jillian Berman had the story, and I don't need to read you the details of the story. The headline tells you what's in it. It's got personal examples supplemented with data about college students, former, past, long time past college students still paying off their college debt into their 60s. And maybe some of you have that same challenge. And it's, it's, I, I do this regularly. This is yet another example, yet another example of financially negative and traumatic impact for higher education students. This is past students. We know it applies to current and future students as well. And it goes to continue, goes on to continue to build the case that college is not for everyone. Access does not equal success. I've said that before, and I got to think in 2026 I'll say that a lot. Hey, let's do a wrap, the first wrap of 2026. And as I mentioned earlier in the show, my 2026 main focus will be on products and content for students and parents. The same products and contents will of course be useful for faculty and counselors and college alumni. And here's why I'm doing that. Here's why I've chosen that focus. Clearly, based on the now 7 years I've been doing this, college leaders are mostly able to hide financial challenges from their employees, faculty, staff, and their customers—students and communities. And I have regularly pointed out the issues for college leaders, the challenges, the spin, like I did earlier today, that college leaders put out there and will continue to do so for sure. I'm not abandoning that. However, there is reason to invest more time in communicating with students and parents and families. Colleges won't move until their market moves. Giving higher education consumers more easy-to-read and understand and compare information about college financial health and outcomes—graduation rates—is going to be my focus. I work to share the critical factors like enrollment trends, 4-year graduation rates, and endowments as leading indicators—not complete—but leading indicators of a college's financial health. You have heard me say before that our apps are kind of like the reverse FAFSA. Families fill out the FAFSA to let colleges know about their financial health. The tools I've created kind of reverse that. They let students, families, parents, and others know about the finances of college. It's only fair. Colleges know your finances, you should know and act on theirs. And I've also drawn the analogy, it's kind of like the Kelley Blue Book. Kelley kicks the tires on cars Here at College Viability, we kick finances, we kick finances on colleges. So this is the first podcast, first podcast of 2026 is in the bag. Thank you again for all those who listened in the previous years and for your continued support in 2026 and beyond. I'll be back next Monday with more. Watch my social media feeds this Wednesday for the first Beyond the College brochure podcast of the year. The title reads, When Colleges Make 4 Equals 6. Gary Stocker for College Viability. Thanks again.