Future of Division III

[TheProvider]

Surprisingly, CNU's admission rate is somewhere in the mid-80s (86% for the class that entered last year per CNU itself).  Of that 86%, only 18% actually enrolled.

FWIW, my daughter got an acceptance letter from CNU recently even though she hadn't applied for admission.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Surprisingly, CNU's admission rate is somewhere in the mid-80s (86% for the class that entered last year per CNU itself).  Of that 86%, only 18% actually enrolled.

FWIW, my daughter got an acceptance letter from CNU recently even though she hadn't applied for admission.

Do you live in Virginia?  That's a state school staple!

[Kuiper]

Roger Williams Mandates One Week Unpaid Furloughs for Most Employees

Roger Williams University is requiring most employees to take a one-week unpaid furlough in order to address a $3.5 million budget deficit, 12 News has learned.

In a letter to faculty and staff, RWU President Ioannis Miaoulis explained that the furloughs "will address up to half of the projected budget gap."

Miaoulis said impacted employees must take their weeklong furlough before June 30, which is the end of this fiscal year.

Miaoulis said the university has relied on its endowment to cover operational shortfalls in recent years. But continuing to do so, he said, would be an "unsustainable approach."

[MCScots2013]

Any attorneys lurking around the board? Potential liability posed by this kind of action (thinking breach of contract)?

[MCScots2013]

Averett (Danville, VA) has announced a reduction in tuition to under $25k. Release noted it was a reduction of $15k.

Makes Ferrum, E&H and Averett reducing tuition in recent history.

[Kuiper]

A new study of 44 New England colleges, most of which are D3 schools, that focuses more on liquidity and cash flow, rather than endowment value, to assess financial risks to a college.

A Looming Crisis:  New Analysis Shows Dozens of Well-Known Colleges are Near Financial Trouble

He decided to dive deeper by exploring in-depth the finances of 44 private, tuition-dependent New England colleges and universities that enroll between 1,000 and 8,000 students. What he found shocked him. A significant number of these mid-size colleges and universities that had strong brand names were on the precipice of significant liquidity crunches. In his words, "the kind of 'austerities' that would be needed to close the cash gap would be draconian." It was no exaggeration to say that, given the enrollment declines likely to impact many colleges and universities in the years ahead and given that higher education isn't known for being fleet of foot, many of these schools are staring at existential risks.

Shulman's analysis using audited fiscal year 2024 results indicates that 15 of the 44 schools he studied are already facing serious liquidity challenges at their current levels of enrollment—or will do so shortly. Specifically, assuming business as usual, these schools will only be able to cover their typical operating expenses and other normal uses of cash for a maximum of three years before they must spend beyond 5% to 7% of their unrestricted quasi-endowments to sustain operations—which risks undermining their long-term sustainability. Six have already stepped into that dangerous territory, as they are, on average, drawing down 12.7% of their endowment for operations—well in excess of the industry norm of roughly 5%.

Six more—a total of 21 of the 44—schools will find themselves in the same difficult position if their enrollments begin to decline by just 10% between 2025 and 2029—a decline in accordance with what has long been predicted for the industry over that period of time.

There's agreement that college enrollment is shrinking, and Shulman's analysis shows that the survival of a significant number of the schools is at-risk. Business as usual for many is not an option, as his study looks at the potential financial impact of enrollment declines on the 44 institutions that range from 0% to 20%. Indeed, first-time matriculations at 27 of the 44 schools dropped 8.8% on average between 2023 and 2024 according to IPEDS—which will have a cascading impact on their overall enrollment as larger classes graduate, regardless of any possible further declines in the size of their incoming classes.

The cause of these challenges isn't one single factor, but a set of pressures building from demographic changes, shifts in the public's perception of the value of a college education, increased operating costs, emerging alternatives to traditional colleges, and, of late, possible changes in federal policies and programs. The net effect is that many institutions are much closer to the brink of closure than they have been in the past.

[Ron Boerger]

I would like to point out that is Trinity(CT) - whose net assets have increased from $764M to $1.000B between 2018 and 2024, and been profitable four of those seven years and three of the last four.

And I'm disappointed that the author(s) lumped all these schools together and provided findings which are generalities rather than tied to any of them.   There's obviously a dataset - share the damned thing.