Future of Division III

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Brandeis is a perfect example.  According to their 990s they have lost tens of millions of dollars every year since and including 2020 - anywhere from $20.5M to nearly $60M annually, including a $52M loss in 2025, yet their net assets have increased during that time from $1.23B to $1.52B.  The bulk of their assets are long-term investments (nearly $1.4B) and funds held by trustees or others ($146M), so despite the annual losses on paper they're probably not going anywhere, at least in the near term.  It's probably not one of the 15 he quantifies as at risk, but you don't know - and neither does anyone reading the article that mentions them prominently. 

Let me start by saying I'm no expert. It seems to me reading some of these reviews on  the financial health of a school they distinguish net assets between restricted and unrestricted. Unrestricted being more flexible to use. Earnings from restricted assets are considered restricted also. In Brandeis's case in their last 990 around $1.3 billion of their net assets are restricted. So if you're burning thru your unrestricted net assets what options do you have in leveraging restricted net assets?

My understanding is that this isn't cut and dry.  Often, donors and schools will enter into a legal arrangement, especially for large endowments or gifts - those restrictions are often unbreachable for the school.  We have seen, recently, courts allow schools to access restricted funds, especially in cases of institutional health and survival - no reason to close a school if there are reasonable means to avoid it.  Whether courts would allow this kind of thing just to bridge budget gaps from year to year seem less likely.

When I've worked for non-profits (much of my professional life), I've always pushed for official policies that provide some caveats to restricted funds - that the organization could deviate from the express purpose if the need no longer existed, for example - or if there was a broader similar need that could be met - always to put the overall health of the organization above a specific purpose.

Now that's not been tradition in higher education and I'm sure those sorts of things would go over less well in that area, but that's why good schools put a lot of emphasis on donor relations - to make sure the relationships are healthy for times when it's really needed.

[smedindy]

But we need to recall the state of the colleges in the article that sparked this conversation. These are institutions that are struggling financially, to the tune of being forced to break some of the ironclad rules of sustainability.

They, and the hundreds of other colleges facing closure/merger in the next decade don't have the luxury of slowly nurturing small relationships and waiting decades for the payoff.

It's not that the random $100 isn't appreciated, it's that it can't do what you need it to.

Many times grantors in private Foundations or Corporations also look at alumni giving percentage, and that can be immediate short term gains. I'm convinced a lot of the troubled colleges didn't kick their fundraising gears up until it was too late. That's especially true, it seems, of colleges associated with a church.

[CNU85]

I found this web site that lets one do a deep dive into the financial status of a university.

https://financialtracker.hechingerreport.org/

I had no idea that Trine was actually two universities.

One in Angola and another with industrial park campuses in Detroit and elsewhere that enroll over 10,000 international students.

and a few notable alums

Ralph Ketner – co-founder of Food Town, later to become Food Lion
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla – Colombia army general and 19th President of Colombia

and my favorite.....Joe Schroeder – Olympic rugby player -- Trine didn't have a Rugby team, so he was a cheerleader.

[Gray Fox]

Another side to the story.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2026/0811/small-college-closing-vermont-education?cmpid=kwcpc&kwp_0=2654066&kwp_4=7251283&kwp_1=3066821&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=fb&utm_id=52614016552347&utm_content=52614017588147&utm_term=52614017463147&utm_campaign=52614016552347&fbclid=IwY2xjawUVUV5wZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtATAAYWRpZAAAL9on2qLLc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHnHzpa20HNFKezNPnxXVZfz7VRM8faJBMhozNOILD3jGIVau0MRpuu4QqN-u_aem__3bCL-JUrA61K0NVJQKctg

[MCScots2013]

Changing things up tonight. Instead of "Future", let's talk about the Past. I knew we had some interesting facts like the first College in Tennessee to give a woman a baccalaureate degree or playing in the first Tangerine (Citrus) Bowl in 1947, but these are noteworthy:

1. We played Tennessee in 1906, scoring on the first play from scrimmage. After 2 hours of deliberation between teams and officials, the officials sided with MC and UT then refused to continue the game. It was known as the "Six Second Game."
2. Maryville had a Cadet Corps in the last 19th/early 20th centuries around the Spanish American War and WWI.
3.Upwards of 300 women worked in the College Maid Shop, making all sort of garments including US Army nurse uniforms in WWII. (Maid Shop closed in the early 60s.)
4. The College hosted the 42nd Army Air Force Training Corps in 1943
5. MC had a Victory class cargo shipped named after the College "Maryville Victory" helping evade U-boats and ferry GIs home after the War.
Side note: I'd like to see a 2026 "Maryville Victory" soon...
6. MC-adjacent: our founder, Rev. Isaac Anderson, started an academy prior to the seminary that would later become Maryville College. One of those first students: none other than Sam Houston (yes, THAT Sam Houston...)

These facts are not uncommon to many other institutions. It's sad to think so many memories are being lost with each closure.