This Week In College Viability (TWICV) for June 15, 2026

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It is Monday, June 15th, 2026. Hi, everybody, Gary Stalker back in front of the Blue Yeti Microphone with this week in College Viability News and Commentary. And of course, this is the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability and much more of public and private colleges with data and with details and with perspectives offered nowhere else. And of course, sitting in front of that blue yeti microphone and the always running.

Riverside.fm podcast site. Where are we headed this week? The University of Denver, just up the street here from Colorado Springs, plans to close some departments and merge schools as part of an academic restructuring. And we hear those stories on a regular basis. And this is a good story. Not everybody agrees with that, but this is a good story, and I'll tell you why. A regional college laid off all of its librarians back in 2024. Now it has to hire them back because an arbitrator says so.

And a couple of show a couple of colleges in today's show are whining about their Forbes grades. Of course, Forbes produces their annual grade of private colleges, and a couple that got bad grades, Ds, as a matter of fact. one even sent out two trustees to respond and refute the Forbes argument. I'll talk about those. And Massachusetts passed a law back in 2018-19, something like that, to stop abrupt college closures.

It's not working, and I'll tell you what will work. And so let's go as always to layoffs and cutbacks. And as I said at the top, the University of Denver to close departments, merge schools as part of academic restructuring. they're closing religious studies departments and the electrical and computer engineering department. And and Elizabeth Hernandez had this story in the Denver Post that was last week, the June 9th. And and I looked at UD's finances, I looked at the University of Denver's finances.

And and this is one of the infrequent cases I see that a college is simply, simply getting ahead of financial challenges. They're doing the right things. This is not even close to being an at risk college. It's a financially strong heck college. Yet yet already and I've got one later in the show, I've already seen follow up news stories where faculty are complaining, and I'm guessing there will be a no confidence vote sometime soon.

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Maybe even some student protests when they get back in August. It's always happened and always will happen. And the University of Syracuse University. they had an announcement school won't meet its enrollment target for next fiscal year. the Spectrum News staff had this on June twelfth. And the the Chancellor, President J. Michael Haney, said it carries real financial consequences. Okay.

He says this is a moment for urgency and purpose, not panic. And Haney said he will do he will do everything to get the college on the right track. And he also mentioned that he has spoken with other university officials, other colleges, who say enrollment volatility is widespread. Okay, duh. Yeah, I don't doubt that. And and so this is interesting because it was all over the news. I just grabbed the stories that that most succinctly share the information.

But you may recall a year ago that Syracuse, I think was the first that went on a post-May 1st, the college decision deadline, went on a post-May 1st marketing binge to try and reel in students who had already committed to other colleges. They did this with what I'm gonna call increased tuition discounting. I think they had some fancy scholarship name for it. And others have followed, and it's always been my perception.

And I think across the industry that that you know, even though students commit on May 1st, there's what's called summer melt where they choose not to go to college or even choose to go to other colleges as well after that commitment date. So it's not a fun time for college enrollment folks who would like to be able to get focused on the next class. And throughout the summer, many, if not most, if not all, are trying to keep their current class in place for this August and September. Adrian Liu had the story in the Chronicle for higher education.

Of higher education. A regional college laid off all its librarians in 2024. Now it has to hire them back. Western Illinois University, it's a frequent flyer on the show. And and I think I shared this before. I doubt that it will ever close because it's public. But if there is a prototypical public college that could that could close, it in my mind would be Western Illinois University.

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And so they faced declining enrollment. They laid off over 100 people a couple years ago. And now they have to hire the librarians back. An arbitrator ruled in late May that Western Illinois improperly laid off all of its faculty librarians and two additional faculty members and ordered the university to rescind the layoffs, provide back pay, and reinstate those who wish to return.

You know, Western Illinois goes through administrators as fast as you and I go through a dozen eggs. and so I

Just just not just just not a good situation. Let's move on. Iowa. Iowa colleges say Forbes report misses the story. This is one of two stories like this. ABC Nine in Cedar Rapids had the story. Keegan Turnbow did the reporting on June 8th. Coe College in Iowa told TV9 in a statement, I guess not brave enough to actually talk to him. This is a college that received a D. And keep in mind that Forbes does not do Fs.

Lowest grade is D, and I think 27% of all private colleges, some 900 plus, that Forbes reviewed, got a D, not good. So Co. said we are aware, we are aware of the Forbes article and recognize the challenges and headwinds that colleges and universities are facing nationwide. And Co. is not immune to the colleges. Every college does that. They go on to say this is what caught my attention the scope of the methodology behind the Forbes grading scale is narrow.

No explanation, they just say it's narrow. And they go on to pat themselves on the back. Having the willingness and capability to realign approach is essential for colleges and universities as the rate of change across industries accelerates. At Co. they say we have successfully embraced that evolution. And here are the examples they gave. Listen to this generalizations after generalization. Co. is experiencing great momentum. Great momentum.

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And student interest through the addition of an aviation studies and flight operations program. No numbers, just momentum and interest. Goes on to say we're seeing similar momentum. my. With the addition of engineering physics and engineering physics program, as well as other areas of study. And they go on to add, of course, having added, having expanded to include women's wrestling. You heard me talk many times about adding sports.

And the college has benefited from a number, no number given, just a number, of large gifts from a nationwide donor base to support current operations and the growth of new programs. I might add new programs in a declining market. Good luck with that. Just pay attention to the undocumented generalizations that I just kind of teased about here. True transparency from Co-College would actually include some numbers.

Actually include how much momentum? Are we talking five students, five hundred students, fifty students? How many in the wrestling program? Large number of gifts. How many gifts are we talking about? What's the total amount? And and I'm I I'm not gonna go over Co.'s finances, the the Forbes grade is good enough for me. If if you want a screenshot of the key measures from uh the Prospective Data Science College Financial Compass, drop me a note.

To Gary Stocker at College Viability. Say, hey, Gary, send me the codata, and I'll send you that fif that screenshot of 15 key majors. You can make you make your own decisions. And callings for methodology narrow is is gutsy, I guess. But it's typical. It's typical of colleges not interested in financial health transparency, just really trying to manage by public relations. And again, look at our college inspection report at mycollege viability.com.

And let's not just not just co but when we look at these grades, it's not just the D grade. Look at the comparisons. Look at the colleges that's got A's and Bs, and even those with Cs. And and the A, B, C versus D is it's

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It's comparison that matters. It's the comparison that matters. Don't get sucked up by just the absolutes. Yeah, the absolute grade is an issue. And I think I talk about later on in the show, there are many colleges I've noticed since the Forbes grades come out that scored A's, B's, and even some C's that are patting themselves on the back. So, how can the colleges that did well say the survey is the method is good, and the colleges that didn't too good say the method is bad? Okay.

Go for it. West Bastier University, B-A-S-T-Y-R out in Oregon, I believe. Dr. Joe Pizzorno outlines what's next for Bastier University. And I have the link to this story as always. And Mr. Dr. Pizzorno offers some comments, and Randy Frisch is also in there. And what we have is a college and and with serious financial issues. And I think I've talked about them before. there are others reporting on the issues for Bastier and other colleges in the Northwest.

While they are finally acknowledging their financial situation and they manage to stabilize, I guess, thanks to some contributions, they've they as far as I can tell, they have no actual plan for the effects of the upcoming loan caps for borrowing to go to these programs, to take these programs, and the earnings test that goes with it. And I I doubt they'll talk about summer and fall and all because it doesn't look good. And outside of a relatively relatively small total of

Total gifts. These both articles from Mr. Frisch and from Dr. Pizzorno are full of generalizations. And I I checked the results at my college viability. I checked the college viability inspection report. And Bastier only reported on four of the nine measures we track. Only four of the nine. And three of those four were in the red. And of course, red means not good.

All right, I'm gonna do a sarcasm alert.

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Sarcasm alert, I wish I had sounds to go with that. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges is embracing a new name and logo.

It's gonna be called now the Commission on Colleges and Universities. They take an away the geographic identifier of Southern Association. And and remember, this is a sarcasm alert, so be ready. I guess these accreditors that can't tell us whether a college is graduating 70% or 40% of its students, nor tell us if a college is financially viable, wants to become more national, which they can, and less regional. Huh.

The name change. Again, I I I understand the logic behind this, but in general, or maybe across the board, these accreditors are not serving any semblance of consumer awareness reporting. They're just not. It's going to be private companies like College Liability and Matt Hendrix at Perspective Data Science that will that are and will become the market go-to for students and families. And I'll talk about this later on.

Accreditors, you know, the the new commission on colleges and universities, and I don't see a start date on that. they've not they've not come close to earning the right to give students a consumer friendly heads up on troubled or problematic colleges, but change your name, that's fine. But give us a heads up. And if you want, drop me a note, I'll give you the data. Matt Hendrix will give you the data. Charge you for it. We're gonna give you the data that you clearly don't have access to.

And before I go to page three, there are two other podcasts that I record and produce here at College of Viability. Kitchen Table College Chat is with another higher education professional, Mark Dabore. This podcast was created to provide a new and different perspective for parents and their families. Mark and I on the podcast challenge the conventional messaging from colleges and give listeners some new and in many cases aggressive questions to ask.

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And the other one, Beyond the College Brochure, does just that. It's another podcast project that takes the college discussion way beyond what college what colleges market with brochures and websites. It includes Paul Harvey-like stories about colleges and started with actually started with a college student interviewing me about the college decision process. And it will soon include new stories about higher education that will help students and families will focus on helping students and families become

More informed about the industry. Both podcasts, even this, even the podcast I'm doing right now, this week, all these podcasts are consistent with our themes of increased transparency from colleges for students and families, and in many cases, faculty and communities. And of course, I will leave the podcast links in the show notes and in the LinkedIn post. Page three. Going back up to that University of Denver story, the headline from

Again, the Denver Post on June 11th, Elizabeth Hernandez has this story as well. Faculty group lashes out at University of Denver's major restructuring. The co-head of the American Association of University Professors chapter. Take a deep breath, says faculty feel unheard and misrepresented. Now, this, and again the link will be in the show notes. This is a higher education dog bites man story. It's routine.

It happens regularly. And remember what I have teased many times before. A college can change the font on its business card or something else equally small. Change a font on its business card, and faculty will protest. And I as I said at the top of the show, I look to the numbers. University of Denver is simply trying to get ahead of the game. And you don't hear me say that often. But

Strange, strange industry. So like I said earlier also at the top, get ready for students to maybe get ready for students to occupy the president's office when they return in August, because that's of course one of the many forms of protest we have seen across the country. Next, Columbia College, the Missouri version. Columbia College's finances raise red flags for higher education experts. And I'm included in one of those experts. This was by the Missouri News Network. Sophie Rensler had the story on June eleventh.

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And she writes, Miss Fent Rensler writes, years of tax filings raised several red flags. Rapid endowment spending, declining revenue, and shrinking annual contributions and grants are indicators to experts of the college's financial challenges. Columbia College officials disagree, they're entitled, saying some of the spending has been an investment in the school's future. I'll talk about that in a second. They also know it as Duwall Colleges that it's tough times for higher education.

The quote from Columbia College that caught my attention was recent endowment funds were used for developments like the creation of 27 new programs, the development of additional online classes, and campus renovations. All right. This is from Sandra Hamar or Hammer, who is Columbia College provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. Hammer said, or Hamar said, the endowment draws are a conscious decision for the college. Now

I'm not gonna go into the data deeply, but tell let me tell you, those endowment draws are really high, double digit high. That's not necessarily a good decision. Well, Columbia College says well it's it's cause we're growing. We're adding stuff.

Really? Adding twenty seven new programs in a declining higher education market? The the I've shared this before, the only thing they are guaranteed at Columbia College is startup costs.

There will be cost to start up twenty seven new programs.

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It's it's highly unlikely, highly unlikely, that they will generate any new net materially significant revenue, period. This is yet another case of management by public relations. And like I said at the top, I I I was one of the many sources used in the story. Columbia College has been on the Cana the College Financial Health Show with Matt Hendrix and Gary Stalker to a very concerning review about its financial health.

and viability page four some more whining.

Properly done, of course.

This is a editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune on June 12th from trustees at Westminster University in Utah. Preston Charo and Amy Wadsworth were the trustees that wrote this piece. And they say, voices, we're the trustees of Westminster University. Here's the real story of the school's financial health. And they go on to quote in a subheading: Webster, excuse me, Westminster. Westminster University is not on the brink. We are here, we are stable.

And we are open for the next generation of Griffins, which is, of course, their nickname. All right. Fair defense. Trustees can write whatever they want. They didn't say anything that was incorrect. Didn't say they didn't include everything either. And and when I first read this, and I thought about not even using this in the show, but but I there's too much in here that I can that I can use. And my first reaction was this is protesting too much. Thou protesteth too much.

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And so I looked at the data, you know, I do that. I looked at the data for Westminster University again. And the prospective data science, Matt Hendrix Financial Compass, uses 1515 key financial measures. And now they're out from 2021 through 2025, the most recently available. And Westminster University, the Utah version, has a negative trend or negative percent change in 10 of the 15.

All right. This is real data.

Not generalizations. From the audited financial statement from the IRS 990s, and in some cases from iPad's data, this is real data that Westminster University, the Utah version, submitted. A couple quotes I want to go over from the trustees. One quote is they have low debt thresholds. Westminster's debt levels are far below institutions facing true financial struggles and have not triggered concerns by trustees. That's awfully soft. So.

That's awfully soft. So let's look at the trends from again Westminster University's own audit financial data. Since twenty sixteen, they have been slightly below or at their peer group and national median for private colleges.

And when we look at it as a ratio of per 1 million, for every $1 million in total operating revenue, their debt trended lower than peers and national medians. Until, so they're the trustees are right so far, until 2024 and 2025, when they now have gone, their debt has now gone higher than both of those comparison groups. Draw your own conclusions.

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They chose to engage in generalizations. I'm actually looking at the data. You decide which way you want to go. The second quote again from from from the two trustees at Westminster University. No institutional alarms. No concerns about Westminster's viability have been raised by our independent auditors, accreditors, or lending banks. The entities they go on to say, the entities that examine the university's full current financials on a regular basis. Okay, no questions.

No doubt this is true.

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Let's look at the data. Let's go back to the trends and comparisons. At Westminster University, net student revenues have decreased about 60%, decreased about 60% from 2016 to 2025. The peer group, statistically determined peer group in the financial compass that I use, is down 3%, so down a little bit, not down 60%. And the national median is up eight points.

It's the comparisons and it's the trends that matter. Don't look at this out of isolation. And that's what they're doing. In my mind, that's what they're doing here at Westminster University. They're only looking at their own data. And if they're looking at other data, they're not using it for legitimate numerical statistical comparisons. And just an interesting note that as of course to data guy, data nerd on my forehead.

One of the interesting measures is kind of an inside baseball number. It's called CapEx or Capital Expenses to Depreciation. And in theory and in general practice, the target for that is one, 1.0. So for every dollar in depreciation, you should have about a dollar in capital expenses. And across the board, colleges don't even come close. Most colleges don't ever touch that 1.0 ratio, in large part because they don't have the resources to do it.

Westminster University in Utah has been above that one point above that 1.0 annual target in three of the past five years. Now I I didn't take the time to go and try and figure out what it was. Typically, that means they built something, they fixed something, they made something better, they inv they they bought new computers, they invested in new software, something. So that's fine. That's that's their decision. They can make that decision, of course.

But that I thought that was interesting. It's kind of a build it and hope they will come model. We'll see if that's what happens. And and maybe the maybe that maybe that's the business plan. But build it and hope they come in a declining market. Gotta gotta gotta gotta be careful.

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And finally, Juliet Schulman Schulman Hall had a story in Mass Live last week. And the title read Massachusetts Passed a Law to Stop Abrupt College Closures. So why are two schools, two colleges shutting down? This is on June twelfth. And then just today, the Boston Business Journal had a similar story. Their headline read, it was an a tor editorial, college closure information again is too little, too late. Massachusetts colleges are struggling, closing faster.

Than regulators can track. Now, this is a consumer issue for students and families, and maybe even communities, maybe even faculty, as much, if not more, than it is a higher education issue. Nobody is giving, no, no public entity is giving college consumers, students and families, faculty, heads-ups on colleges in trouble. These things don't happen overnight.

I have said that many, many others have said that. The trend is there at Hampshire College, which is the focus of the story, and Anna Marie College. And so in my mind, clearly the state of Massachusetts is protecting the colleges much more than it is protecting the college students in that state. The negative financial trends for the colleges that have closed, and others that haven't closed, but may.

The negative financial trends and comparisons of Massachusetts colleges and really colleges across the country clearly show high risk colleges, decreasing enrollment, endowment spends getting too high, endowments dropping, spending more than they're taking in. Constant concerns across the country. But but I guess because of the because of the political protection needed, the only reasonable solution to warning

College students about risky colleges can't be accreditors, it can't be states. It's gotta be private data providers. Private companies, for example, private companies like Kelly Blue Books, who evaluate cars, evaluates and compares cars, and consumer reports that evaluates and compare hundreds, if not thousands, of products, private data products in higher education, like the college viability inspection report that I've talked about many times, and prospective data sciences.

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Private college, financial compass, do the same for colleges. We are independent. We have we get nothing from colleges. We get nothing from the government. Yes, when you buy our products, you pay us a fee. All right, fee for service. Guilty. But we have the only incentive we have is to provide the data and analyze the data in a fair and consistent manner. And and here's my guidance. Nobody's gonna listen to it, but here's my guidance. State education departments and even

Even college creditors should farm out, contract out college financial health monitor monitoring to private colleges. Excuse me, should farm out private health monitoring to private entities, to private companies like PDS, like college viability, and maybe there are a few others out there.

So let's do the wrap. And the earlier story about Westminster U in Utah complaining about their score on the Forbes grades, co in this in this, in this show, and Loras, I think on previous one, did also. Is it's another indication of why the private sector will be and should be at the forefront of monitoring the financial health of colleges. I I I think I pointed out earlier that quite a few colleges scored well.

On the Forbes grades and have shouted that success from the media mountaintops. Great for them. And and you see the dichotomy here. Colleges with bad grades complain about the process, and with generalizations, and colleges with good grades celebrate that. Talk about poor losers. And and Mass Live and the Boston's Business Journal.

Both reported on Massachusetts' inability to give anything close to timely warnings to students and faculty and communities, despite a law passed about five, six, seven, eight years ago. Despite a law to share that when a college has dire finances. And again, like I just shared, it's not like we wake up one day and see bad finances at these colleges. Almost every week, Matt Hens Matt Hendricks and I do the College Financial Health Show. We see

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Five to ten years trends of colleges moving deeper into the financial abyss. We report on that, we note concerns. We never say a college will close. We do the same with the college viability inspection report. We serve, and I've said this before, we serve as the equivalent of the Kelly Blue Book and Consumer Reports for Higher Education. So homework. I don't do this very often. I have homework, homework assignment for listeners.

Get out to the college viability inspection report. It's at My College Viability, one long word. MycollegeViability.com. Look up a few colleges, no cost. Share the link with those in your world who will soon be college consumers, putting together a college list and ultimately choosing a college. As a matter of fact, if you look up a college, I'll use my name, Gary College, you can actually copy and paste that link, that URL, and send it to your friends, family, and neighbors. They'll actually get to see the same thing you saw.

Don't don't be a party, and this is what I worry about for for myself. Don't be a party to those who could choose a college, who could choose a college that clearly exhibits poor financial health, and there are hundreds

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There will be more college closures. I'm not the first or only person to say that. There will be many more college closures. And the data is out there to help anyone identify higher risk colleges. But at the same time, there are hundreds and hundreds of colleges that exhibit the financial health, the financial strength to provide a solid four-year education for their students. Find them, put them on at least on the top of your list for consideration.

Because that will be one less thing, as Forrest Cump said. One less thing to worry about. I'm coming back next Monday for another episode of This Week in College Viability. As always, I'm grateful for your listening. The numbers continue to shoot upwards for those downloading the podcast. Thank you so much. Send me your feedback, send me your comments, send me your concerns, send me your pushbacks to Gary at college viability. I'll be happy to put them on the show. For now, thanks as always for listening. I'll be back next Monday.