This Week In College Viability (TWICV) for July 13, 2026

Gary Stocker (00:01.172)
It is Monday, July 13th, 2026. Time for yet another podcast episode of this week in College Viability News and Commentary. Hi everybody, Gary Stalker in front of the blue yeti microphone. Yet again, I have a referral for you. If you ever want to live in a place where the humidity is negligent, the temperature is mild, and the air cools almost every evening without humidity.

Colorado Springs, where we moved just less than three months ago, is the place to be. Each evening, almost every evening, there's the rare exception so far. We go on walks around the area, and it's so pleasant. So pleasant so many times. And and and by the way, Pikes Peak, 14,000 feet up, is visible from almost everywhere in the Colorado Springs area. So the good folks who promote Colorado Springs, you owe me nothing for that.

Social service promotion that I did for the community. It's been a great place for my wife and I since we moved here in mid-April. And of course, this podcast 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 I want to leak something to you. Don't tell anybody else about it.

But we are getting really close to the release of a new product called My College Decision Lens. No details yet. But if you are a college family and getting ready for the 2026-2027 college search and selection process, trust me, you will like the legwork we have done for you for all private public colleges in this country. And of course, more details coming on that in the coming weeks. This week, of course.

Budget woes bring more university buyouts and layoffs and hiring freezes. I'll share the Forbes, the belated Forbes list. There's a new education department rule that makes accreditors prove specialty degrees are worth the cost, and I'll go into that in some detail. Albright College, a frequent flyer on the show, won by accreditors over financial instability and budgeting issues. And the University of Vermont is struggling financially.

Gary Stocker (02:26.998)
So why is it spending $175 million on athletics? I'll have details on that. And as always, don't be a podcast hog. Don't listen to this and let it go. Share the link. Share the MP3, share the website link with those others, either in higher education, as leaders, faculty, staff, community leaders, or with with friends and families who are either starting the college search process or will be starting the college search process soon.

Layoffs and cutbacks, we start with it every week. Mike Nitzel had the story in Forbes on July 10th. Louisiana State recently terminated 25 employees, including high-ranking officials to save 3.7 million. UCLA laid off 27 digital and technical staff amid a $220 million deficit. Rutgers University implemented a university-wide hiring freeze as a prudent measure in quotes to manage its six point two.

billion operating budget, not not a cut, operating budget. And meanwhile meanwhile, the University of Texas at Tyler, not Austin, despite enrollment growth, is offering buyouts to twenty five percent. Interesting, offering buyouts to twenty five percent of its workforce to address a twelve million dollar deficit.

Gary Stocker (03:46.12)
These these institutions join others like Temple and Johns Hopkins and others I've talked about, Syracuse. It's almost too soft to call it a trend. It's happening almost everywhere because as you listen to this show, every week we lead off with this, and there's something to talk about every week. For example, Temple laid off 40 employees. Ben Hunglesby had the story on July 10th in higher education dive. The budget at Temple is raising tuition.

An average of 3.4% for both in-state and out-of-state students, cutting 60 million in expenses. This is according to the university. And Temple, of course, plans to lay off 40 employees less than 1% of its workforce, said Temple President John Fry last week. D3, NCAA Division III, Albertus Magnus College pauses.

In my notes, I've got the word pauses highlighted. D3 Albert Albertus Magnus College pauses swimming and diving programs indefinitely. Taryn Fredima had the story on July 9th at Swim Swam. That's right. Swimswam.com. I think I had a story from them earlier this year. And they are pausing its swimming and diving programs indefinitely, sliding citing low participation numbers.

And noting that it is increasingly difficult, increasingly difficult to offer a competitive environment and a student athlete experience. So here's here's my take. And as I said, the article said they just had a handful or so of students in these sports. Okay. In my mind, that sounds either like a facilities issue, poor pool, poor locker room, something like that, or a performance issue. Why weren't these coaches recruiting?

students to be on the swim team. And why a pause? Huh. There was a college late last year, I think it was up in Indiana. No, it's not a closure but a pause. And a few days, a few weeks later they finished off the closure part. Does anybody really believe that in this environment that Albertus Magnus will really try and resurrect this sports? This sport? Now before I go any further, let me let me ask for some guidance.

Gary Stocker (06:08.71)
As regular listeners know, I start each week with the layoffs and cutbacks. It's become so routine. Every week there are colleges laying off, cutting back, eliminating, that I'm thinking about not doing that section. I'm thinking about not doing layoffs and cutbacks soon. So but I want your input. So send me a note, yes or yay or nay.

To Gary at college viability. That's Gary at college viability dot com. Let me know. Do you is is it good for you to hear brief updates of these layoffs and cutbacks? Are you at the stage now where you realize they're happening everywhere? And unless there's some special item with that, that you're tired of listening to me talk about the routine layoffs and cutbacks. Page two.

I had a listener, it was from a podcast listener, who mentioned about Albright College, who we had in the headlines here, was sanctioned by the Middle States Commission on Middle States Commission for financial noncompliance. And the person asked, I was wondering how to interpret what this means. How severe is this? What does a sanction from an accreditor indicate about viability? And asked if I could talk about this on either this show.

Or or the this week in college viability or on the college financial health show with Matt Hendrix. In this case, the financial noncompliance is a lower level of compliance, a lower level of accreditation citation. But let's keep in mind something I've said many, many, many times before. Accreditors are a day late and a dollar short. So even though this financial noncompliance at Albright College was noted, it's much more serious than that when you look at the financial data and how long it's been going on.

So when you get those accreditation warnings, it sure as heck ain't good news. And even if the colleges they almost always do say, hey, we're working our way through it, we're still accredited, and they are, it's still not good news. And folks, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of colleges not facing accreditation citations. Look at them first. If a college has faced accreditation actions,

Gary Stocker (08:26.68)
Delayed though they may be, be careful. Be careful about choosing that college period. And does it say they're going to close? Absolutely not. Does it say they're at higher risk than others? It certainly does do that each and every time. So just think about the logic of it. Especially, especially if a college is signed cited for financial resource issues. And in my experience, that's what most of them are.

Because keep in mind, so many times I've teased and taunted that your creditors are not much more than I-dotters and T-crossers. Show us a plan. Don't show us results. That seems to be the motto of college of creditors across the country, the regional college of creditors that now, of course, can be can be national. Ohio colleges face increasing maintenance maintenance challenges as campuses age.

Now, this was in Ohio. Amy Morona had the story on June 18th. I missed that one a little bit earlier. At Signal, Ohio. And this is an Ohio story for sure, but it's a national crisis. Colleges, because they don't have the funds, in many cases, in most cases, to keep up with maintenance, to keep up with hardware and software upgrades, they're falling behind. Now I've I've on occasion suggested this is also a safety issue.

That there is some crisis, some calamity waiting to happen out there because a college did not take care of its routine maintenance because it couldn't afford to. And let's go inside baseball for a minute. And Matt Hendrix on his college financial compass shows the last 10 years of something called the CapEx to depreciation ratio. It's capital expenses. How much money did a college spend on capital expenses to its depreciation, which shows up in its auto-red financial statements? And the target.

The generally accepted target is that ratio should be one, should be close to 1.0. And either when Matt and I do the college financial health show or I'm looking at colleges for any other purpose, most colleges across most years aren't even close to that ratio. And all that does is reinforce what Amy Morona had going on in Ohio. Colleges, it's a hidden bomb. It's a hidden maintenance bomb. It's something that's going to show up.

Gary Stocker (10:54.422)
I hope not tragically, but that's a risk when colleges don't have the resources to take care of their buildings and their roads and their roofs and much, much, much more.

Gary Stocker (11:10.188)
The University of Vermont is generally recognized to be struggling financially. So the headline reads, Why is it spending a hundred and seventy five million dollars on athletics? And Dee Dee Coley had the story in the Boston Globe on June twenty second.

Gary Stocker (11:30.754)
Here's some items from DD Story. In May, the president of the University of Vermont, Marlene Trump, asked state lawmakers for $12 million for the school's athletics and recreational narrations. The money, the president pleaded, was much about much more than sports. She went on to say aging locker rooms, uncomfortable arena seats, okay, and a dearth of treadmills are impacting.

Alright, I'll quit laughing. And a dearth of treadmills are impacting students' willingness to come to the University of Vermont. Trump said, that's the president. We need those students for the future of this state. So I guess going forward that we will call Vermont Treadmill University. Because they need treadmills for students to show up. Now again, my tongue is firmly embedded in my cheek as I do this, but this is the kind of silliness.

This is the kind of silliness that college leaders resort to when they don't have the resources that the earned resources to do what they need to.

And all this is, is to my knowledge, there's no market research that's showing add treadmills will bring more students to the University of Vermont. This is a build-it and hope they will come, a build-it and hope they will come strategy. I gets a jeeh, it gets a single jeeish from me. Anaka, excuse me, Anna Saki Smith had a story at Forbes on July 9th.

Nearly two-thirds of colleges expect international enrollment to fall. Ms. Saki Smith writes: a new survey reveals nearly two-thirds of U.S. colleges anticipate a decline in international student enrollment for the 2026-2027 year academic year. And she cites some reasons. Despite this, 82% of institutions are prioritizing international recruitment. The interesting part on this is

Gary Stocker (13:37.088)
She notes and again Anna Asaki Smith, July ninth, Forbes. However, she writes other countries are actively recruiting, posing significant competition to American schools, to American colleges. On the other hand, the outlook for US students studying abroad is positive.

More American students are looking to study abroad, and that participation is expected to either remain stable or increase. Now, this is a read-between the line story. Higher education is clearly becoming increasingly global, not on a big scale yet. I don't, I don't, we're not talking millions, we're talking hundreds, maybe, maybe thousands. Not on a big scale, but it's it's it's not hard to imagine that changing, and maybe I'll talk about that another day.

Before I go to page three, two of the cod two of the podcast that I want to be aware of, Kitchen Table College Chat is another higher education podcast I do with Mark Debor, who's got lots of experience in the industry. And the podcast, that podcast, the Kitchen Table College Chat, was created to provide a new and different perspective for parents and their families. Mark and I challenge the conventional messaging from colleges and give listeners some new questions to ask.

By the way, those new questions to ask will be part of the My College decision lens that I talked about earlier. And Beyond the College brochure does just that. It takes information beyond what colleges post on their websites or in their college brochures and gives enhanced perspective, additional perspectives, new perspectives that students, faculty, students and parents, and even faculty and staff might find value in. And both podcasts.

Kitchen table college chat and beyond the college brochure are consistent with our themes of increased transparency from colleges for their students and families. And I'll leave the podcast links to both of those shows in the show notes and LinkedIn post. Defiance College in Ohio. somebody sent me this on LinkedIn. The headline reads more than eight million awarded colon, one mission equal student success.

Gary Stocker (15:54.286)
Definance College in Ohio, more than 8 million awarded. They're talking scholarships and grants. One mission equals student success. I don't where they come up with this stuff escapes me. So you know me to the data we go. At Defiance College in Ohio, the student revenues are flat over the last 10 years. The four-year undergraduate graduation rate hovering around 40%. And I can't tell you how much pushback I get on the graduation rates that I'm talking about.

The end of year endowment is not much more. The end of year endowment is not much more than college couch money at about $20 million for the last five years or so. The endowment draw is taken from that endowment piggy bank, the savings account, if you will, were above 12% in two of the past three years. They're emptying the piggy bank just to keep the rights on. Total net assets are down, unrestricted net assets assets are down, and the value of the college, in reference to something called the UNAP.

UNAEP has turned negative, did turn negative in 2025. So sarcasm alert. I'm getting better at this. Defiance College promotes more discounting. And again, fine for the students. Excellent for the students and families.

Gary Stocker (17:14.082)
But you get what you pay for.

And if this college, like so many others, is relying on enrollment, heavily discounted enrollment, to pay the bills, it is not a long term successful strategy. I'm throwing out another jeech on that. Now, and a more detailed story on page three. There is a new Department of Education rule that makes accreditors proved degrees are worth the cost. Robert Farrington had the story at MSN.com on july eighth. Now

This is a big deal, especially in in healthcare professions. Here's some of the story from Robert Farrington. Private accrediting agencies, and I'll give you a definition of that in a second. Private accrediting agencies, not Congress, not your state legislature, have quietly raised the degree requirement, and this is over many, many years. Have pri quietly raised the degree requirement to enter fields like pharmacy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. Adding years of tuition and debt.

without clear evidence, workers or the public benefit. Again, that's from the story that Robert Robert Ferrinks wrote. There's a new federal rule that would bar these specialized accrediting agencies from raising credential requirements unless they prove, unless they prove to the Department of Education, the federal version, with clear and convincing evidence, that the public benefit, physical therapy, pharmacy, occupational therapy, maybe some others,

That the public benefit outweighs the cost. Now, we all know about the new graduate loans that took effect a couple weeks ago on July 1st. what's happening is is is the job for physical therapists and pharmacists and occupational therapists and others hasn't changed over the last many decades. It's changed a little bit, don't don't take that as an absolute. But the degree required to get it has.

Gary Stocker (19:13.73)
The job hasn't changed much, let's put it that way. But the degree requirement has added in most cases fifty percent another two years.

Gary Stocker (19:24.206)
Yeah, the fact that I have a bachelor's degree became a master's, became a doctorate.

Gary Stocker (19:30.242)
These new requirements are adding years of tuition and borrowing for queries that roughly pay what they did before the new requirements were added. Now he doesn't cite a source on that, so I have to be a little bit careful. And he makes a good point, the labor market simply doesn't pay more, always, because you got more education, especially in these kind of disciplines. Economists call it degree inflation.

And and the most surprising part isn't the cost, it's who decides what's required. In many licensed fields like the ones I mentioned, the degree you must buy through college isn't set by Congress or your state legislature. It's set by private organizations, private physical therapy organizations, pharmacy organizations, occupational therapy organizations, and others. And their agencies, for the most part, Americans have never heard of. Now, let let me give you an example, because I is one.

Low these many, many decades ago, my bachelor's degree was in something called medical laboratory science. It was called medical technology back then. And I got my bachelor's degree at a public college in Illinois. Four years. It was a three-year program at the university and a 12-month internship learning how to do all the lab tests. The American Society of Clinical Pathologists set the accreditation experience expectation. The American Society of Clinical Pathologists said four years.

Gary Stocker (20:59.16)
The pharmacy organization, the physical therapy organization, OT organization, over the years have said six years or five years. And you can't get the certification, you can't get the compensation that goes with the certification. And you can't, in some cases, even get the job without the certification. So what the Department of Education is saying, hey, set whatever respects you want, but if it's something above a bead the four years of a bachelor's degree, you better be able to prove.

That those extra year or two benefits the public and not just the college or the accrediting organization. Page four.

Albright College such a frequent flyer on the show. Albright College won by accreditors over financial instability and budgeting issues. Amanda Fries at Spotlight PA had the story on july ninth.

And I'm not going to go over the Albright data again. I've done it on previous shows. I'm not going to bore you with that. I wanted to point out, the president at Albright, Deborah Townsley, says, and this is a quote from Miss from Amanda Freeze article. As you know, we have implemented a turnaround. As you know, the president at Albright College says, we have implemented a turnaround.

Is that like turning on the lights? Is that like turning off the lights? You've implemented it so it's a done deal.

Gary Stocker (22:27.542)
In a tight, tight market in a declining industry where tuition pressure is ridiculously intense to lower and lower the amount received to increase the net tuition revenue, to increase the net tuition discount free students. What does that mean? Have have they have they hit a button that says turn on, turn around, just like you do a light switch? And you've heard me say before these I dotters and T crossers, perfect example of them in action.

They say, just show me the plan. And that's what Albright's gonna do. I know it is. They're gonna show a plan. Results not needed. Sadly, results not needed. Just throw something on a piece of paper that suggests a plan and the creditors say, Good enough.

As I wrap this part of the show up, I have increasingly become a LinkedIn focused business. It's the platform where I have created significant personal name and college viability, brand name recognition, been very successful in that. And one of the points I consistently make on LinkedIn and elsewhere is the pathetically low four-year graduation rates at more than 50% of American public and private colleges.

I've increasingly shared that colleges are recruiting too many students who are academically unprepared and financially unable to successfully complete a college education. In conjunction with that, I have started suggesting, I have started suggesting that colleges recruit these same students who may be academically unprepared and financially unable. Colleges are recruiting them.

simply to try and meet the college's revenue needs.

Gary Stocker (24:23.064)
That's a pretty strong statement. And I stand by it. And while the pushback has been, I'll characterize it as modest so far, those few who contend, and they do it properly, you know, nobody's profane or anything, those few who contend that I'm wrong, in my mind, don't make a very strong case to that effect. And so if you think I'm wrong, drop me a note, go to my LinkedIn account.

And suggest why I think I'm wrong. I'll I'll be happy to engage in a constructive discussion. And and why am I wrapping up with this topic this week?

The financial weakness of hundreds and hundreds of public and private colleges is compounded by the fact that they also don't graduate students in a timely manner. This country does not need colleges. This country does not need colleges that graduate something like thirty to forty percent of their students in four years.

There's enough college seating capacity. I I've shared this story before in a in a study I was part of or last year, I think it was. There's some thirteen million extra seats in colleges. This college this country does not need colleges that graduate thirty to forty percent of their students. There's enough seating capacity in colleges, current colleges.

That successfully graduate students, large percentage of students, much greater than fifty percent of students, in at least four years, to accommodate the colleges that can't and the colleges that don't and won't survive.

Gary Stocker (26:07.032)
The industry is changing. I say started this every week. It's a declining industry. Push back if you if you need to, that's fine. I'll be happy to engage in the discussion. The industry is changing, higher education is declining, and I'm going to continue to be here to chronicle it. And soon I have a new product out in addition to the through the decision lens. I have a new product coming out in later this month called the College Outlook Letter. We're going to move from reporting the news.

To using the news as a future indicator, future predictor of what all sorts of college stakeholders, from students and families to faculty to staff, to community leaders, to many others, what they might start thinking about in terms of what will happen in the future in higher education. Of course, I'll have more details soon. Until then, I'll be back next Monday. As always, I am grateful for those who make time to listen to the show. And we'll be back next Monday with another episode of This Week in College Viability. I'm Gary Stocker.