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Welcome to the podcast. We call it TWICV. It is our effort to provide a fast-paced, entertaining, and alternative voice to the propaganda and hype flowing out of colleges in America today.
This week in College Viability is a proud affilate of The EdUP Experience podcast network.
Gary D Stocker (00:01.198)
Welcome back. is Monday, May 11th, 2026. Hi everybody, Gary Stocker in front of the Blue Yeti Microphone with this week in college viability news and commentary, as always, lots going on. 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 perspectives offered nowhere else. Last week, I opened up
the show with a story about the college experience. Two Division One women's softball teams made a honeybee event. were lots of bees into a memorable college experience and it's in the show. You can look at honeybee event women's softball on YouTube and see the story. This week, my ex feed or Twitter feed had a video from the men's baseball team at Dallas Baptist University.
and I'll put a link to the feed in the show notes. The team's baseball field is adjacent to the Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery. At 7 p.m., each Dallas Baptist University game stops as taps is played over the loudspeaker on the adjacent National Cemetery. Tears will flow. Watch the five minute video clip.
for more details and to see the reporting done by a local TV affiliate. And I share this to reinforce yet again that college is good in so many ways. College is good. And I don't doubt for a second that colleges that have closed and will close have had and will have similar fabulous experiences for many, many, many students.
change the fact, doesn't change the economic reality that there are too many colleges and they can't and won't all survive. I also had an editorial from a Mr. Daniel Martin and he wrote this editorial for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. And here is Mr. Martin's distressed opening about his son. He writes, my son is a freshman student athlete at Anna Maria College.
Gary D Stocker (02:24.95)
On April 23rd, he received an email that the school would be closing at the end of the semester and would not reopen in the fall.
Gary D Stocker (02:35.79)
That's three weeks notice for the closure of an 80 year old institution. And I used the editorial in a social media post, I believe it was Sunday night, to announce the release of the college viability inspection report. I think I've hinted at it in weeks gone by. And if you don't follow me on LinkedIn, should. There is now a product even easier than the transparency tool released a few months ago.
for students and faculty and parents and other stakeholders to use to compare the financial health and viability of public and private colleges. Whether you're at that college now or considering colleges for the start of the 2027 college year, look at the data. Right now it's out there. There's no fee attached now. That'll change soon. But get out there and I'll have the link in the show notes. And then I want to post, I want to note that next Monday, the 18th,
will be the 200th show, the 200th This Week in College Viability podcast show. And if you read the data, most podcasts don't go more than five or 10 shows, and then they just quit. And then hundreds, hundreds of folks download the podcast each and every week across multiple channels that I have listed. Countless, many of you have dropped me notes of appreciation and encouragement. So I started to look at what I could do for the next 200
podcast shows. And I know I've talked a lot about poking the higher education barrel. I've talked about it a lot, maybe too much. And I've also read about and listened to many other higher education podcasts.
And you know what? They're all the same. They are almost all higher education insiders creating content for other higher education insiders. They are almost all interview based podcasts. And I don't know that I've heard any substantive disagreement from any of them. I'm sure there has been some that I just missed, but none consistently look
Gary D Stocker (04:50.316)
at a college's financial health.
Gary D Stocker (04:57.432)
And of course I do that, Matt Hendricks does that and others, small number of others do that as well. And even the podcast for parents and students, and there many of those, they're all process driven, how to get admitted, how to write the essay, how to do the tour. And here is how college viability has differentiated itself. We offer different perspective. We give you things to think about that I believe hardly anybody, if anybody else,
does. You make the decisions. We offer the perspective. We offer the stories. I offer the guidance. I offer my perspective, right or wrong, agree or disagree. That's what we do on this week in college viability. And again, don't be a podcast hog. Make sure to share the podcast link with your higher education friends, those looking at colleges and any other stakeholders in that higher education industry. And of course, we start each week off with layoffs and cutbacks.
The University of Texas at Arlington to cut, merge some academic programs to maintain fiscal responsibility. Same story at different college. Mila Sardati had the story in the Dallas Morning News on May 8. University officials at UTA are doing this to strengthen the academic offerings and ensure responsible stewardship of resources. OK, same old story all over over again. And again, here's where.
associated with majors. All right. I've talked about this before. I'll talk about it again later on in the podcast. The 2026 College Majors Completion App, 199 bucks for faculty and staff. There's a cheaper version for students and families. You can see where colleges don't have many majors. You can see where colleges may choose to cut programs because they don't have many majors completed. And I haven't released it yet, but I now have a product with every single major across associate, bachelor's and master's degree for every
public and private, four-year and two-year public colleges and private, four-year private colleges that I'll be releasing sometime in the future. And to Maryland we go, Bowie State University to eliminate 79 positions amid an $18 million, $1.8 million budget deficit. This was on May 8th at citybusiness.co.co. University President Aminta Brough announced that the workforce reductions were in a campus email message saying the cuts will come through layoffs.
Gary D Stocker (07:24.846)
reorganizations and vacant position eliminations. The staffing reductions represent approximately 6 % of Bowie State's workforce from last year. And that's about not quite 1,200 workers. And so you know what I'm going to do next. I'm going to the data. Bowie State, four-year graduation rates, 2020 through 2024 averages less than 20%.
Retention hovers really low. And in 2024 alone, they spent $479 million to graduate less than two of every 10 students who started there. And I understand, I haven't mentioned this in a while, some students go on and graduate elsewhere, I understand, but two in 10 is a pathetic, pathetic number, pathetic number. Page two.
Ryan Hofer had a Substack post in his Debt by Natural Causes on May 8th, and he talked about the Department of Education had recently released a fact sheet on college affordability. And essentially, Ryan posted some examples of colleges, how much the Department of Education showed students earning debt, and what the average earnings was. So let me just share a couple of those with you.
Columbia University offers a master's degree in theater where students take on an average of 132,000 in debt and on average earn just $58,000 four years after graduation. Europa University out here in Colorado.
Gary D Stocker (09:06.51)
offers a master's degree in psychology where students who take on federal loans leave with $105,000 in debt, but earn just 45,000. New York University, master's film and video, 168 in debt, 47,000 income, University of Denver, master's degree in psychology, 126,000 in debt, earn 60,000 after four years. And on and on the list goes, there's a couple more, I'm just not gonna read them. And I'm just saying, I'm just saying.
In 2026 and before, students still choose majors on interest level. And nothing wrong with that, but there's consequences when you make bad decisions. They're choosing it on interest level, on not on livelihood, financial security, family incomes, whatever you want to call it. It's their choice, absolutely their choice. And I guess that's one of the reasons we're here to say, hey, guys, take a look.
Maybe you don't need to spend $126,000 to earn 60, or 105,000 to earn 45. Maybe you can find something where you earn more, or a college where you spend less, or negotiate lower tuition, because the income is so much lower. Just think about it.
The International, I'm sorry, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association released a statement last week, May 7th, talking about...
Gary D Stocker (10:46.552)
tennis in colleges. And while the press release was certainly focused on self-preservation for the ITA, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, here are some poignant quotes from the organization. Kirby Smart, who is the national championship football coach at the University of Georgia, rightly questioned whether the future of college athletics should be just 10 to 15 college football programs competing with $50 million per year rosters at the risk
of Olympic sports being relegated to club status or maybe even eliminated as extreme scenario. They have another one that say suggests many in the tennis universe, again, best in interest here, and beyond wonder whether John Calipari, now he's a basketball coach at the University of Arkansas, needs one more $2.3 million player, probably on the bench, at the expense of two entire 18 to 20 person tennis rosters. Fair question, worthy of discussion. And I offered this
thought to a college trustee last week for something to think about. I'm interested in your perspective as well. What happens if the power for is bail on Olympic sports? We might be on the early edges of that happening right now. Could the mid-majors, the non-power for's step in, upgrade their talent in these sports, offer some level of tuition discounts or scholarships, one of the same many cases, and ultimately replace
what the selfish power force walked away from. Now I didn't think this all the way through, but it does have an element of logic to that. Pondret, if you have some ideas, send your feedback to me, Gary, at collegeviability.com, page three. Eric Hilderman at the Chronicle for Higher Education, of Higher Education, posted something last week about accreditation. And he writes a little inside baseball news about accreditation.
Today, a dozen institutional accreditors and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation announced they are forming an Accreditor Leadership Roundtable, an Accreditor Leadership Roundtable. Sounds really nice. The new group, Kelderman writes, will bring together a small group of accreditor leaders in an ongoing forum focused on addressing common challenges, advancing national dialogue on accreditation, and supporting institutional quality and student success.
Gary D Stocker (13:13.59)
That's what they say. Here's my take. I knew that was coming. Here's my take. These accrediting agencies can't figure out what to do on their own. So they're coming together, antitrust discussion, anyone? They're coming together to stave off challenges or changes, excuse me, to stave off changes they don't like. Now, I have very little concern. It's not just what I focus on.
I have very little concern about how they address college systems and processes. I have many concerns about their inability to monitor and report on the financial health of colleges.
Gary D Stocker (14:02.464)
And more stories on cutbacks amid colleges sunsetting programs, what majors make are worthwhile. And while this is from Marketplace, Richard Perens had the story on May 8th, Marketplace.com. And he talks about most of these programs are liberal arts programs, they're not all that are being cut back. And again, we talk about that every week at the top of the show. And I guess my message out of this one is students and parents, it's not
just the liberal arts programs being cut. Check out the majors for colleges you're attending or considering and think about the 2026 College Majors Completion App, 29 bucks. It's available at collegeviability.com under products. And don't choose a college. If you're looking at journalism, for example, that has five majors, that's an at-risk major, that's an at-risk program. Look for colleges for majors you have.
want or are considering have something more than five or ten majors graduating per year. Page four.
A train wreck. Hempshire faculty staff left with no jobs, no severance as college prepares for closure. The Boston Globe had this story on May 7th. Brickhouser and Hilary Burns did the reporting. course, all the links for all these stories will be in the show notes. And let's start off with an expanded caveat emptor warning. Buyer beware, of course. That caveat emptor is Latin for buyer beware. And there's a buyer, college students.
And employees of colleges, college faculty and staff both need to be aware.
Gary D Stocker (15:49.196)
of their college's financial health. And I'm going to talk about this a couple of times, but hope is simply a subset of delusion. Hope is a subset of delusion. You want to think, you want to believe in your heart of hearts and your deepest thoughts that the college you're either attending or teaching at or employed at is going to make up because they tell you it is. But simple hope is nothing more than
a subset of dilution. So they write that, leaving Hampshire employees with nothing seems fundamentally wrong, said employment lawyer Michael Aleo, especially when the college's own employee manual states that eligible employees who are laid off without recall will receive severance pay based upon their years of service and signing a release of claims agreement.
But Hampshire simply didn't have enough money left for severance. A situation that's common when a college is closed, according to Larry Ladd, who's an expert on college finances.
Gary D Stocker (17:02.976)
It was perfectly rational and a sound business decision for the college to close, but hope prevailed as far back as 2019 and the college lasted another seven years. They truly believed they would be able to figure it out. And he goes on to add, administrators are not being heartless. It's highly likely they had no choice. Well, all right. At this point, they had no choice.
But I make the argument that they had choices many months, if not years earlier, that they could have chosen to realize and announce and enact a closure of this college and other colleges that have closed and will close in the future. Hampshire tapped $20 million from its endowment. That didn't do the trick. And like many colleges around the country, it failed to meet its enrollment goals. And it was about $6 million short of its forecasted net tuition revenue.
in 2025.
And I guess the last part of the story from the Boston Globe is some professors want to know why the board chose to vote on the closure only in April after the academic hiring cycle when professors are hired for the colleges, after the academic hiring cycle had passed. Pulling out the rug in the middle of the spring term after all the jobs are gone is a very surprising move, said Mr. Goldberg, and I'm sure that's being nice.
And so let's use that story as the wrap.
Gary D Stocker (18:41.058)
to faculty and students and staff and trustees and college leaders and community leaders, hope, like I said, hope is nothing more than a subset of delusion. And it's a phrase that suggests that people sometimes cling to optimism despite evidence pointing otherwise. Hope can become a way to avoid confronting hard realities. Not easy to do.
And really, if you think about it, optimism or hope without evidence will, can and will, drift into self-deception. In the higher ed context, it captures the dangers of relying on potential enrollment miracles, donor fantasies of millions, multimillions of dollars. Next year will be better budgeting and enrollment wise or emotional branding instead of audited realities.
Gary D Stocker (19:47.566)
The data is out there, whether it is in the high-end financial products from Matt Hendricks at Prospective Data Science or the financial health and viability comparisons we provide here at college viability to all those stakeholders that I just mentioned. Look at the data. Hope is a subset of delusion. And finally, for more perspective, Jonathan Nichols' 2020 True Book on Requiem for a College.
about the closure of St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana is an excellent look at what may be happening at your college now. Different details, same story that happened to St. Joseph's almost 10 years ago now. And finally, again, the 200th episode for this Week in College Viabilities next Monday. And for those who have been along since 2023, I am grateful.
For those of you just getting used to me poking the higher education bear each Monday, trust me, trust me, even though they many times don't like it and say so, the bear needs to be poked and maybe, just maybe, we're doing our small part, I'm doing my small part to help move this industry forward. So thanks as always, I'll be back on next Monday with the 200th show and we'll see what happens then. Take care, talk soon.