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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 Stocker (00:00:01)
It is Monday, July 27th, 2026. ⁓ Yes, indeed, time yet for another episode of this week in college viability news and commentary. Hi everybody. Gary Stalker in front of the Blue Yeti microphone and the always performing Riverside.fm software recording ⁓ this podcast each and every week, along with all the other podcasts that I do. Hey, a couple reminders to start off the show, the College Majors Completion App, the 2026 version. If you're academic leaders.
You want make sure that you can track the number of completed majors you have and your competitors have. It's available at college viability dot com and for families. If your student, for example, is thinking about journalism as a major, make sure that the colleges you are considering have more than a handful of majors who are completing that major in any given year. And again, the tool is available at college viability.com. And as always, don't be ⁓ don't be a podcast hog.
Make sure to forward the link to this podcast to your higher education friends and to those families and friends who are looking or starting to look at colleges for the 2026-2027 school year and of course for the 2027-2028 school year as well. This week I have I have a summer spin award winner so far for the summer of 2026. I'll talk about that. Howard University. Howard University, all over the news last week, is correct.
Is correct, of course, in wanting to make sure students pay their bills. That was the original reason they unenrolled some 500 students. But for whatever reason, they are losing the PR battle to disgruntled students who are unenrolled. And and ⁓ there's more to the story, and I'll talk about that in a moment. ⁓ And we have a college in California, La Sierra University, who ⁓ spin must be the theme this week, who talks about the perfect score they got.
From the federal government, a top-tier score from Forbes, and yet they got a warning for their accreditor. Of course, I'm going to modify that spin with some more data from our sources. ⁓ And three, count them, three programmatic accreditors. These are ones for like nursing schools and pharmacy schools and chiropractic schools. Three of them withdraw from federal regulations, from federal recognition. ⁓ And it's ⁓ I'll talk about that in a minute.
Gary Stocker (00:02:29)
This week, not much going on in terms of layoffs and cutbacks. ⁓ Portland State University will eliminate its conflict resolution ⁓ and university studies majors while downsizing six other academic departments and laying off 36 employees to close a $35 million budget deficit. I should say to help close. Laying off 36 employees ain't gonna get you there. ⁓ Louisa Anderson had that story ⁓ on July 21st at KGW8NBC News.
in Portland, I believe. ⁓ And let's go on to page two. Spin time. ⁓ Chatham University, or Chatham University in Pennsylvania, prepares to welcome largest undergraduate class ever. That's the headline in an internal document on July 20th. ⁓ And they do. All right. They list some fine bullet points. This is they have their inaugural season of two NCAA Division III teams.
Men's and women's wrestling, they opened reopened Dilworth Hall. I think that's a residential hall. They have a new health and human performance center and athletic annex. ⁓ And they launched the new
Gary Stocker (00:03:46)
Falk College of Environment Leadership and Management. All good stuff. ⁓ All good stuff. To the data. We shall go. This is the data from 2020 through 2025. The last reported data, audited financial statements, IRS 990s, maybe even some iPads data mixed in there. At Chatham University, Pennsylvania, total net assets, total net assets down 18%. Unrestricted net assets cash.
Down fifty-five percent to immediately really small twelve million. Enrollment is down about two hundred ish two hundred ish students. And the endowment has dropped from from a hundred and six million to sixty-six million in those five years, down thirty-seven percent. And they have drawn down their endowment, they're using it as a using it as a piggy bank. They've drawn down their endowment on average of ten percent in the past five reported years, and of course, something in the vicinity of four to five percent as normal.
And interestingly, their employee count dropped from in in twenty-four to twenty-five, dropped from fifteen hundred to six hundred thirty-five. Now, my first reaction was ⁓ somebody entered something wrong, especially for the twenty twenty five data. But keep in mind that the W two employee count includes students that are working part time ⁓ to earn some money while in college. So I just I'd want to check that again. So colleges, ⁓ I shared this last summer. I don't think I'd be this summer.
So to any college, if you're wanting to spin your enrollment numbers, go for it. Knock yourselves out. Do it. Get her done. Just know, just know that the data points are out there. And if you're spinning just good stuff, I'm gonna use those data points to improve the transparency, especially on the financial side, to improve the transparency that you apparently are so desperately trying to avoid, especially in the case ⁓ of Chatham University.
So let's go to Howard University and and and off the top, I think the university's right. They had students who weren't paying their bills and so they unenrolled them. All right. It wouldn't it would happen to you and I if we quit paying our bills for whatever.
Gary Stocker (00:06:00)
And I got one ⁓ before the second follow-up story came out, there was even a report who said, Well, maybe Howard has such a good enrolling class in the fall of 2026 that they could afford. So essentially took off some 500 employees. Well, that's probably not the case. Here's a follow up story from just today. And it's entitled Howard You How Howard University, say it that fast, How Howard University is fixing a five hundred student enrollment scare.
Howard University is reviewing cases ⁓ after unenrolling hundreds ahead of the fall semester. Tika Egwabor had the story enrollingout.com. So here is what Ms. Eguabor writes. Howard University has successfully re enrolled 46 incoming freshmen.
This is following a significant enrollment crisis ⁓ that initially left more than 500 students without a spot in historically black university. The situation has raised broader concerns about the school's enrollment management processes and whether adequate resources exist to support students navigating complex financial and administrative requirements. And that's everywhere. Howard University's senior vice president for enrollment management.
Addressed the situation.
Publicly, acknowledging that some students had in fact submitted documentation or made genuine attempts to meet the school's enrollment requirements before the deadline. University officials are now working through the review process, examining student records to making sure that those who did try and pay or made the effort are not unenrolled. Okay. All right. We all make mistakes. Lord knows I make more than my fair share.
Gary Stocker (00:07:53)
And Howard University is losing this PR battle. ⁓ if you're not paying your bills, they're probably right to unenroll you, but they ⁓ it appears that there were some students that tried and Howard didn't make it easy enough to do. Well, okay, go go rah rah higher education. Nothing like showing process and aptitude ⁓ on important items like enrollment and tuition payments. That was a sarcasm alert, I just didn't get out in time.
And here's a headline from Susan Snyder at the Philadelphia Inquirer on July 24th. Under pressure from its accreditor, the University of Valley Forge offers students information on transferring. Now, I've seen this after colleges have announced closures before. I've never seen it before. ⁓ But trust me, the University of Valley Forge is in all sorts of financial distress. So I maybe, maybe we are seeing the slow.
Really slow evolution of accrediting agencies.
maybe moving toward a more college student and consumer advocate role, forcing these colleges to make sure their students are taken care of even if the college doesn't survive.
Gary Stocker (00:09:10)
And before I go to page three, two podcasts I've talked about before. The Kitchen Table College Chat that I do with another higher education professional, Mark Debor. It was this podcast was created to provide a new ⁓ and different perspective for parents and their families ⁓ as they go through the college decision and selection process. Mark and I, week in and week out, challenge the conventional messaging from colleges and give ⁓ our listeners some new questions to ask.
And then Beyond the College Brochure does just that. It's another podcast project that takes that takes the college discussion way beyond what the college market colleges market with brochures and websites. It includes Paul Harvey like stories ⁓ about colleges and started with a college student interviewing me about the college decision process. So stay tuned for both of those, and I'll leave podcast links to both ⁓ in the show notes. Albright College, we all know them. Frequent flyer on the show.
Albright College, Pennsylvania, gets okay for tax exempt bonds as it moves to restructure a $42 million in debt. And Amanda Freeze has been all over this story for months. She's with Spotlight PA and she posted this story on July 24th. ⁓ And the subheading reads A Top Albright official said the Board of Trustees is still weighing next steps as a school tries to write its
Finances. ⁓ Finances.
All right, well, this first of all is a thorough article. It's a thorough article for the finance nerds in the listening audience. It really drills down deeply into what's going on with the loan process and the financial piece. And as usual, Amanda Freeze is ridiculously thorough in her reporting. She has ⁓ she does no there's no regurgitation reporting with Amanda Freeze. And so you know me to the data. I ran Albright College, the college viability inspection report.
Gary Stocker (00:11:13)
And we measure nine parameters there. It's for students and families. It's available at my college viability.com free of charge.
In an in ⁓ the nine measures, Albright was ugly red and seven of them. I also looked at Albright on Matt Hendrix College Financial Compass. Red indicators, not good, although they're more peach color. Red indicators on fourteen of fifteen measures. So here's my question, and it's not to Albright College, it's to students and parents and grandpas and grandmas and aunts and uncles looking at Albright College and other colleges.
Why are you putting your college education plans and subsequent career ⁓ and earnings at risk with the college clearly and consistently and for too long a period of time demonstrating financial instability? There are ⁓ hundreds of colleges across the country, maybe a thousand even, and dozens in Pennsylvania.
That are financially strong enough to provide you that college experience. And even if this college survives, their austerity to stay alive, to stay survived, to say survived, to stay alive, will almost certainly negatively impact your college experience. So take a look at the college inspection report. ⁓ I'll be talking about the My College decision lens in a moment. That'll be a tool you can use also to
To to evaluate and compare colleges. Page three.
Gary Stocker (00:12:51)
Three programmatic accreditors withdraw from federal recognition. And again, these aren't the big boys. This is not the higher learning commission or the Middle States or SACSOC or the Western ⁓ Accreditation Agency. These are there's a chiropractic one. Do I have the others down here? Chiropractic one. I don't see those referenced. But anyway, these three programmatic accreditors withdrew ⁓ from federal recognition. And the education department says because they couldn't meet the specs.
And the college says, Well, we have other options. So all right, there's a lot of he said, she said, kind of, ⁓ in ⁓ in the posturing going on here. But here's here's just it's another story.
⁓ another story about our creditors and the changes that are starting to take place and I think will move much more rapidly in the coming months and years. I still believe that accreditors who are paid ⁓ by the colleges and schools they monitor and a credit is a flawed and perilous ⁓ business model.
For obvious reasons. You're not gonna say something bad about somebody who gives you money.
And that's why companies like mine, that's why companies like College Viability, we generate revenue, not from colleges, ever. We're just not gonna do that. We generate revenue from people paying us for our information, paying us for our apps, paying us to give us their data to use for whatever purpose they may want. The crediting process is not a good one. I don't know that it goes away, but companies like mine, companies like ⁓ College Viability are gonna have a lot more credibility.
Gary Stocker (00:14:35)
Than accreditors in the coming months and years. All right. Spin, this is the time of year when spin is heavier, I think, than other times. ⁓ So here's the headline. ⁓ it's an internal document from La Sierra, La Sierra University in California. ⁓ actually it's not, it's from Spectrum magazine. So the headline reads a perfect federal score, a top tier Forbes grade, and a WASAC, which is a crediting agency, warning and accreditation urgency.
And a crediting agency warning. So Kristen Arthur is the president at LaSalle University. ⁓ And here is what comes out of that story. First of all, make sure you're taking your anti-spin pills before you listen to this. The college president says Forbes rates, that's the Forbes financial grades, which came out a couple months ago. Forbes rates La Sierra University as a B plus for its financial health. The US Department of Education gives it a perfect financial responsibility score.
And US News and World Report, the Wall Street Journal, and our own students rank it among the strongest universities in the West. ⁓ So why on July 9th did our creditor place La Sierra University on Warning? And he goes on to not answer that question. And this shows how important context is.
How important listening to an independent source like me is. First of all, I don't doubt the Forbes grade for a second. I'll tell you why here a second. Because LaCier does not have significant financial issues. They've got things to watch. Referencing the financial responsibility score is a joke. It is dated. It is not reliable. It doesn't measure the right things. And then US News and World Report, the Wall Street Journal, they're talking about the ⁓ rankings.
And their students, well, I would hope their own students would rank it strong. ⁓ They're all false flags for something else. And I don't know what the other thing is. So ⁓ here's what I have for the data. All right, the four-year graduation rates at last year have improved nicely. They've gone from 47% to 60% in ⁓ 2024. Good stuff. The university's current cash position, however, it's okay.
Gary Stocker (00:16:51)
But expenses in the last couple years have skyrocketed 25%, while revenues have dropped 5%. The endowment has dropped a little bit from 129 million to 123 million. That's ⁓ over the last two years. And the endowment draw, this is concerning, is about 12% in both years. So this tells me there's a spending problem. There's an expense management issue at La Sierra University, and cash and investments, the dollars are down 16%. ⁓ Now
I can I I normally I can see accreditors looking at those numbers and go, ⁓ not a big deal. And I don't know that I can disagree with them in this case. ⁓ They don't like other ⁓ stories I've shared with your colleges that in trouble. This one doesn't ring the same bell of concern. So something else is going on. Something else outside the financial arena is going on and nobody's talking about it. ⁓ I suppose I could go to the WASEC website and find out what the letter of ⁓ of warning was about.
But this is how silly this president goes to say to avoid the issue of whatever the reason is the creditors are calling it calling them to a warning is ⁓ he says niche.com says good things about us. He lists a whole bunch of things. I'm not gonna read them. Niche.com says a bunch of nice things. Well, of course they do. Niche.com makes most of its money from colleges paying them.
Colleges paying niche.com to be listed on their site. So of course, of course, niche.com is going to say nice things ⁓ about La Sierra University and every other college on their site because niche.com is paid to say nice things, good things, constructive things, positive things about colleges. And I'll note one thing niche.com doesn't do.
Never have I seen them talk about the financial health and viability of colleges. Never.
Gary Stocker (00:18:58)
Never. So while the financials are concerning La Sierra, I'm guessing there are non-financial issues at play with whatever creditor warning is out there. So page four. The headline from Elizabeth ⁓ Guevara at al.com on July 23rd reads: Lawmakers seek stronger college accreditation standards ⁓ to protect student loan borrowers.
Gary Stocker (00:19:26)
Now what's coming out of this is there is a Senate bill that aims to overhaul higher education accreditation to improve overall oversight and accountability.
The Department Education has something out this summer. They announced it last year. But there's a new Senate bill that would update federal accreditation processes for colleges and universities, challenging ⁓ whatever the Department of Education is putting out right now. And there are two Democratic centers promoting this. I don't, there's no need to share their names. And here's what they want to do. ⁓ Nothing wrong with these bullet points. They want to ⁓ ease the transfer of college credits for students. That's good. They want to
require accreditors to accl disclose relationships with related trade associations. I guess that's fine. Would also be nice if accreditors said, hey, colleges are paying us, but that's not gonna happen. They want to reduce the cost for institutions to get accredited. Now I've never been able to find how much colleges pay for these. I wasn't under the impression it was much, but if if if if there's legislation at the federal level to lower those costs, that's gonna put these accreditation agencies
Under a little bit more of a financial challenge than they have now. And then something about evaluating all institutions on standardized assessments, on and on. It goes. Well, both the Department of Education and these two democratic centers, they're essentially talking about the same thing. The accreditation process in the next ⁓ in the next few years will almost, ⁓ almost certainly, almost certainly undergo ⁓ massive change. And you know what? ⁓ It won't.
Matter. It won't matter. The only thing that will change the accreditation process ⁓ is the massive consolidation we're going to see in higher education. And of course, as I've said before, it's going to be in the form of cutbacks and layoffs and closures and later on mergers, and I think large-scale mergers. The higher education market will drive accreditation changes.
Gary Stocker (00:21:31)
College leaders ⁓ can't change it, political leaders can't change it, faculty can't change it. You know who can and will and is changing it? Students and their families. And the decisions they will make on the margins. And we're not talking the big boys, we're not talking the IVs, we're not talking the PowerFours, we're not talking about the big publics. It's those ⁓ hundreds of colleges outside of that small set ⁓ of of well known colleges.
Students and families will decide what happens next. So let's do the wrap. And ⁓ I guess as the start of the college year gets closer, ⁓ I really don't think we'll hear about any college closures. It's just not not the right time of year. That's gonna happen September, October, maybe November, when colleges have received their fall in their fall funds from the Title IV and and and and ⁓ much of their student tuition and fee deposits. And they're gonna say, hey.
Huh, Numas. We we just don't have the resources to continue. And ⁓ I promise you, there have been hundreds of boards of trustees that have decided to wait at least one more semester before before having that close or not close discussion. And and my belief is many of those are waiting for other colleges to announce their closure first.
Let others announce their closure first, and it will give the laggard announcements, those that follow, some political cover with something along the logic of, hey, it's happening everywhere. We just couldn't survive.
And of course, there's there's not going to be anything close to hundreds ⁓ of college closures this fall. I look at so many, ⁓ so many bad private college financials that I can't even, and I won't, even begin to throw out a closure number, a closure guess, a closure estimate. I have quoted other sources in the show. In in in the next three years, something like it'll be a three digit number. Let's call it that. In the next three years to ten years, something like that. And to those college leaders who listen to the show, and I know you're out there.
Gary Stocker (00:23:44)
If you think that your college is the best kept secret in whatever state or whatever region, it's not.
The market has spoken and is speaking and and whatever your college offers.
And the price it offers it at are not being accepted by enough students to keep you strong or profitable. And keep in mind, college presidents, trustee leaders, keep in mind that there are many, many colleges who are strong and profitable.
Gary Stocker (00:24:18)
Don't burden your students with a college career at your institution.
Where you'll be watching every dollar circle the financial drain and wondering where the next one will come from. When the end when the end is obvious, please do the right thing. Turn the lights off. Give your students and faculty and staff and communities a long lead time. Decide now.
And give it 12 months, something like that. So your students can have the best college experience. And your faculty and staff and community can get on with their lives elsewhere. That was a downer. ⁓ That was a downer to wrap today's show, wasn't it? Well, so be it. The truth sometimes is uncomfortable. So remember college viability's role in helping all of
This happened. Coming in, coming out on September 1st, My College Decision Lens. This will be the product that is going to start to shift the power ⁓ more so from colleges to students and their families with an impactful new resource. And I'll give you more details in the coming weeks. And this resource is designed exclusively for students and families and for college counselors. ⁓ And it will
reshape the decision making market for thousands, if not tens of thousands ⁓ or more students in their families. So hey, August is the next Monday that comes up. August third I'll be back with another podcast episode of This Week in College Viability. I'm Gary Stalker at College Viability. Thanks, as always, for listening.