This Week In College Viability (TWICV) for March 16, 2026

It is Monday, March 16th, 2026. Time yet again for another episode of This Week in College Viability News and Commentary. Hi everybody, Gary Stocker again, back in front of the Blue Yeti microphone and in front of the always-running riverside.fm podcast software that I use. And of course, this is the podcast, this is the show that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges, and we use data and details and perspectives offered nowhere else. This week, this week on This Week, lots of, again, lots of layoffs and cutbacks. And this is a pattern, folks, for those in denial or trying to cover up the financial challenges colleges face. This is a pattern. Swarthmore College wants to change accreditors. The reasons are interesting. And if you can't consistently generate positive cash from running a college, from operations, sell something. That's what Rider University in New Jersey wants to do. And how about a new no-confidence vote? Yes, they're back in vogue again, this one at Old Dominion University. Spoiler alert to those following the story at Old Dominion: their 4-year graduation rate in 2024 was only 50%. So maybe they need to have some no confidence in their ability to graduate students. And then finally, the HLC takes some poetic license with a social media post on recent enrollment increases. And these have been out in the news for a long, long time, and HLC is just getting around to it. That tells us a lot. They didn't tell the whole story, which they're entitled to do, but that's why I'm here. I'm here to fill in the details they left out in their social media post. And of course, we'll have much, much more. And as I always do at this point in the show, don't be a podcast hog. Make sure to share the link with families and friends and colleagues inside and outside higher education. Let them have a chance to look at and listen to a different perspective on this entire industry. To layoffs and cutbacks we go. I'd take a deep breath to get me through everything, but it's gonna take a lot longer than that. Rutgers. Rutgers says it may lay off 37 faculty members. The faculty union, however, says the university should make cuts from Rutgers athletics, which is running a $516— that's 516 million dollar deficit since the school joined the Big Ten. For those not comfortable with math, $516 million. Is effectively half a billion dollar deficit in athletics. Carly Baldwin at Patch staff had this on Friday, March 13th. I survived that day. I hope all, I hope all of you did as well. And as always, the links for all of these stories will be in the podcast show notes. The faculty union at Rutgers talks about them pouring money into its athletics programs, which I talked about at the top, and suggests or indicates or charges that the school looks to academics anytime it wants to save money. That's a pretty serious charge for college. The compensation they're talking about changing is for adjunct professors, adjunct faculty, and it accounts for less than 1% of the university's budget. But hey, go ahead, Rutgers, and find nickels and dimes and quarters in the college couch. The money saved by these cuts will be minimal, according to Rutgers adjunct Faculty Union, an example of many similar kinds of stories, similar types of stories throughout the country, throughout the podcast. And let's go to Massachusetts. With fewer students and higher costs, many Massachusetts districts— now we're not talking about colleges here, we're talking about high school, middle school, and grade school districts— weigh school closures and mergers James Vasnes had this story in the Boston Globe on March 13th. Now, the reason I bring this up, and I'll have the link in the show notes, is this is just an example story. I've talked about this occasionally on the podcast. K-12 cutbacks and layoffs throughout the United States are happening. They're there every week. I just choose not to post them, not to show them, because I don't have time in large part. But you gotta know that cutbacks and layoffs in K-12 at some point are going to impact higher education in the future, and they're probably impacting it right now. Let's go to Connecticut. New Haven University tells faculty that contract renewals— contract non-renewals, excuse me— contract non-renewals are coming, and some academic programs also may face the axe. Helen Bennett had this story. In the Hartford Courant on, again, Friday, March 13th. The note was from the university provost to staff. Um, it says multiple faculty have been informed of an intent not to renew their existing contract. That was the wording used by Nancy Ortin Savage, who's the provost at the University of New Haven, who noted specifically that non-tenure-track non-tenure-track practitioner and professional-in-residence and tenure-track faculty were informed of this intent. Savage noted in a document obtained by The Courant that the intent not to renew contracts comes as the West Haven— University in West Haven, Connecticut— works to address budget challenges from the decline in international graduate student enrollment there. Now, we've had that story many times on the podcast for different colleges. The provost, Ms. Avidge, also noted that enrollment changes or program closures are possible in some academic programs and departments. So I, as always, I went and looked at the data for the University of New Haven, and, and this appears to be where, where college is really trying to get ahead of future financial challenges. Their finances look fine today. I'm sure they would like different aspects of them to be better. And I'm betting— I talked about the international enrollment— I am betting, from my experience in doing this podcast for so long and the research that I do on a daily basis, I'm betting the international hit they took has scared them into action to stay financially healthy. Of course, nothing wrong with that. And of course, we're going to get pushback and protests from faculty for anything. And I've teased before, faculty are going to protest, protest when you change the font on the business cards at a college. New Jersey, we had to— and the list goes on and on— New Jersey City University and Kean University merger. It was announced late last year, I believe, will take place in July of this year. The New Jersey City University and Kean merger triggers 151 layoffs and buyouts. This is from the tapinto.net news staff on March 15th. New Jersey City University plans to lay off 151 employees before it merges with Kean University. So all the layoffs are coming from New Jersey City U. Layoff notices effective on June 30th were sent to 33 full-time professors, including 24 tenured and 9 non-tenured educators plus another 94 support staff. New Jersey City University, again just at NJCU, is also reportedly offering voluntary buyouts to other potentially impacted workers. The layoffs and buyouts result from a projected $25 million shortfall. I presume that's at New Jersey City U. Be ready. If they're not already out there, if they're not already out there, the protests will be in the news shortly. And, and give both colleges credit. I guess maybe a little bit more to New Jersey City University. They had serious financial challenges, first for merging— credit for merging— and for moving toward a balanced budget. Now, I don't know that a mom-and-pop merger— that's what I call them— a mom-and-pop merger of two colleges is enough At the end of the day, 2 colleges enough is enough to get to the scale needed for either academic offerings or non-academic support. I still believe, as I've shared many times on the show, that we're headed toward a higher education environment where something, something on the order of 10 or more colleges will come together in a merger, in a holding company type of format, holding company type of model. If you're interested in what that model looks like, I've done a lot of work on that, talked to a lot of people on that. Drop me a note and I'll send you some details. I'm Gary at College Viability, and I can also introduce you to folks who can do that large-scale merger for you. Haven't been to Montana yet today. What, we got 4 states down, 45 more to go? Not doing them all. The University of Providence in Great Falls, Montana declares financial exigency. Now this story and the next one just broke this morning. What do they call in the big news business? Breaking news! I've got breaking news. This is from Justin Robichaud at KRTV3 in Great Falls, Montana, posted on March 12th. I guess maybe it wasn't today. And it looks like they're pinning hopes at the University of Providence on lowering costs and increasing their endowment. Now, I note that because, again, I went to the data. The 2024 endowment at the University of Providence in Great Falls, Montana was a measly $20 million. That's not even college couch money. And to me, that has always suggested, and I've always reported, that such a low number this far into this college's, this university's existence suggests they don't have either the systems or processes in place historically to raise $50 million plus. Or something else to consider: they don't have the donor base. Their graduates, for whatever reason, the community, for whatever reason, is not willing to support the college with either restricted or unrestricted gifts. And is this the last story? I think so, on layoffs and cutbacks. The new school will reduce faculty and staff by 15% amid a financial reorganization. So now Cutler had this story on the, in the Chronicle of Higher Education on March 13th. She reports the new school has run steadily, a steadily increasing budget deficit since 2023, growing to an estimated $48 million, $48 million in 2025. The enrollment has dropped from about 10,400 students in 2019 to about 8,800 this past fall. Here's what I have. The trend, the trend continues. In December, the university offered a separation package or early retirement to roughly 40% of its faculty members. It also paused admissions to PhD programs temporarily reduced salaries, consolidated its 4 colleges into 2, and discontinued more than a dozen academic programs. This, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is just another sign of a college— many colleges have this— being unable to plan its finances, balancing its expenses with its revenue in a diminishing market. Finally, page 2, Swarthmore applies to switch its accreditation agency to the New England Commission. Daniel Perrin had this story on March 1st, on March 5th, in the Phoenix, which is the independent newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881. Now this is interesting because they rationalize why they're doing this, and they're certainly entitled. Um, I've not seen an existing college switch accreditors, at least in my research, and I get Google Alerts on this stuff. I haven't seen this yet. I may have missed some, but here's, here's what I anticipated. I anticipated finding a marginal 4-year graduation rate at Swarthmore. However, I was wrong. Swarthmore is exceptional with 90%+ graduation, undergraduate graduation in 4 years. And so they're rationalizing that it was tough to measure the outcomes that middle states wanted. All right, I can buy that, but they're, they're getting good outcomes at Swarthmore. So what is the real why? What's the real why behind this change? There's got to be more to the story. And of course, I will be watching for these changes, not just at Swarthmore but other colleges, in the coming weeks and months. It will be interesting if all of a sudden there is a rash of accreditor changes throughout the country. It's possible because now regional accreditors are able to compete across the entire country. And Rider University, a frequent flyer on the show, wants to sell part of its campus to the county that it exists in for about $10 million. Sarah Custer had this story on March 5th at Inside Higher Education. They could get as much as $10 million by selling part of its campus to the county. And this is Mercer County. Last week, Mercer County's Board of Commissioners approved resolutions to buy a 56-acre lot on campus, purchase the college's presidential house, and lease school facilities for county services. NJ.com reported this story. The county— get your notepad out— the county plans to use the campus lot as open space, fine, and a public access point for a future trail project. Administrator— I presume this is Mercer County— Mercy County Administrator Dan Benson told NJ.com the agreement to purchase the presidential house would include negotiating a lease for the university to continue using the property. The deal could also see county employees, Mercer County employees, get use of the university, the Mercer University gymnasium and pool. I guess still as a functioning university, they're gonna share it with county employees in some form or fashion. In my mind, that's just plain silly. And of course, the rest of the story, last October, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education placed Rider University on probation due to compliance concerns related to their financial standards. Not being met, and I've talked about that many times, many times. So points for creativity, Mercer County gets them, Rider University to a smaller extent. But Rider has shown a chronic, chronic inability to manage expenses in relationship to revenues. Best bet, temporary Band-Aid, temporary Band-Aid for Rider University. Page 3 Old Dominion. We haven't had a no-confidence vote since last year sometime. Megan Zanies had the story on March 11th in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Old Dominion University's Faculty Senate voted no confidence in the institution's president, provost, and vice president on Tuesday. This is the latest show of disdain for administrators' plans. Get this, This is why they got the no-confidence vote. Show of disdain for administrators' plans to convert online courses to 8-week models. That's it. If you're shaking your head at your end of the podcast, I am too. And of course, faculty podcast. And of course, faculty protests. This is a podcast. Of course, faculty protests. That's what they do. Faculty members have argued that truncating courses would violate their right to control how and what they teach. A January Faculty Senate survey found that more than 75% of those surveyed— this is faculty— 75% of those surveyed said they thought the change would worsen student learning. Now stay tuned because I've got more information. And more than 80% wanted to pause the transition to incorporate more faculty input. Well, we know what the faculty input is going to be— don't do it. But administrators showed data that demand is highest for this type of course offerings and that students earn better grades in a shorter format. All right, he said, she said kind of stuff going on. So let's go to the data. At Old Dominion University, retention is a modest 77%. That's First-year retention. Four-year graduation rates— anytime you hear me say that, you gotta know where I'm going. Four-year graduation rates are down 8 points since 2017, averaging over the last 8 reported years about 50%. So to the faculty at Old Dominion who have trouble with math, half of the students who start at OD don't graduate from OD in 4 years. Maybe, maybe the good folks in the faculty at Old Dominion should think about that as they plan their next no-confidence vote on a relatively minor change in how programs are offered. Their admissions yield is down 11 points, which tells us more students are selecting other college options, probably because they have 8-week online courses And then the most damning data point: the college has a heartbeat admissions approach. Have heartbeat, will admit, averaging more than 90% students admitted from 2017 to 2024. But let's not change anything. That earns a jeesh. And, and I will give a sidebar here. Remember Chuck Ambrose? And Mike McNeats have a book coming out on April 14th this year about no-confidence votes. It's entitled No Confidence: When Faculty Turn Against Their President. It's from Johns Hopkins Press. I had Chuck and Mike on a podcast earlier last year as they were writing the story. I'm going to repost that podcast show in early April sometime. Page 4, the Higher Learning Commission had a post on LinkedIn. This was late last week sometime, and here's what the— how the story read: student enrollment continues to rebound post-pandemic across HLC member institutions with an overall increase of 3% from 2023 to 2024. Well, first of all, that's a really small range to look at. It goes on to say, based on an analysis of the data reported HLC institutions enrolled 4.9 million students, up 3%, and they go on and on. The HLC By the Numbers report, which is what they're talking about, shares trends with this membership related to student enrollment, program completion, financial resources, and other factors. Okay, and, and while the actual report— this is just a LinkedIn summary, I guess, that I talked about— while the actual report covers these items I'm going to talk about below HLC was— I wonder why— it was quite selective in not putting them in their LinkedIn spin post. So let's go beyond the college brochure, beyond the accreditation brochure in this case. As has been reported elsewhere, much of that increase almost certainly comes from high school dual enrollment. That's what the news stories have reported for the last many weeks about that increase from 2023 to 2024. The report, and again, I give them credit for the report even though they didn't put it in the summary. The report from the HLC says, "In contrast to impressive results on access and enrollment," their words, not mine, "results on success and completion appear more mixed." They notched upwards only 0.76% from the fall of '23 to the fall of '24. And that's a very slight change after consecutive years of losses, down more than 1% from the fall of 2021. And once again, they go on to write, the size of the institutional workforce has increased, faculty has increased, part-time faculty has increased, staff has increased. And their numbers in that report, you can get it from the HLC post on LinkedIn. So, so in the face of higher industry, higher education industry contraction completions, according to the HLC, completions are modest at best. Most enrollment increases are from high school students not really in college yet. And in the face of intense cost pressures, colleges continue to hire more employees. I'm going to give you a sarcasm alert here. I did not see those summaries in the HLC LinkedIn post. So let's do a wrap. And then when you step back and look at all of these stories together, a pattern develops. The pattern becomes clear. Higher education is in a period where math, where the numbers, is starting to win arguments. Enrollment declines, revenue declines, 4-year graduation rates that are generally awful with few exceptions. And even now the higher education industry is trying to spend 6 years— spend 6 years as a standard for undergraduate graduation. That's an abomination. And costs continue to keep rising. Eventually those numbers force decisions. Institutions can respond with transparency and structural change. We talked about mergers earlier on, program consolidations, layoffs. Others, other colleges continue debating process and debating governance and debating whether to have 8-week online terms or not while the financial clock keeps ticking. And the reality is simple. Colleges can debate philosophy and governance and academic models all day long, but budgets and numbers are the final decision makers. There's no way around it. The institutions that confront these realities and are successful in balancing revenue with expenses earlier rather than later, they're the ones that will survive and have the chance to thrive Those that are delaying, not recognizing the obvious patterns that exist, will in many cases, too many cases, become the next headline about college cutbacks, layoffs, and/or closures. And that's, that's why I keep going to the data. It's the numbers that matter. So colleges can spin the story, and they do, and they will. There's no way around that. Colleges can spin the story, and narratives from these colleges can delay reality, but they can't and won't outrun the math. And that's why at College Viability, I always, always, always go to the data. Hey, for those of you making time to listen to the podcast, thank you. I am grateful. I'll have another podcast next week. Until next time. I'm Gary Stocker with College Viability. We'll talk soon.