This Week In College Viability (TWICV) Oct 27, 2026 - Families: Financially healthy colleges no longer means 'nothing will change here.

In this week's This Week in College Viability, I examine a troubling trend across American higher education: financial pressures are forcing colleges and universities of all sizes and financial conditions to reduce staffing, eliminate academic programs, and reconsider their operating models. 

Even financially strong institutions are making significant cuts. Clemson University is offering voluntary separation packages to 452 employees, while Commonwealth University in Pennsylvania faces up to 175 layoffs as it addresses a $17 million deficit. 

Syracuse University is reviewing its administrative staffing, the University of Maine is working to reduce its projected deficit, Ithaca College has doubled its projected budget shortfall to $8 million, and Keene State College has placed 14 academic programs on hold. These developments raise important questions about institutional priorities, financial transparency, and the consequences for students, faculty, and staff.

I also challenge the lack of meaningful financial disclosure accompanying many of these decisions. When colleges announce employee buyouts, budget reductions, or academic restructuring, they frequently fail to explain the actual costs, anticipated savings, or long-term implications.

I examine emerging concerns about accreditation accountability and question Illinois Wesleyan University's promotion of a $40,000 scholarship guarantee through its expanded direct admissions program. Despite the impressive headline, students and families could still face approximately $38,000 in annual attendance costs. T

he central message of this episode is that college financial health cannot be measured by reputation, enrollment, or promotional announcements alone. 

Students, families, employees, and policymakers deserve independent financial evidence, transparent institutional decisions, and a clearer understanding of the risks facing higher education.

What is This Week In College Viability (TWICV)?

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. I focus on news stories and commentary on college financial health and much more.

This week in College Viability is a proud affilate of The EdUP Experience podcast network.

Gary Stocker (00:01)
It is Monday, October 26th in the year 2026. Hi everybody, Gary Stalker back with yet another podcast episode of this week in college viability news and commentary. And of course, this is the podcast that talks about the financial health and even viability of public and private colleges with data and details and perspectives offered nowhere else. And each and every week I am sitting in front of the blue Yeti microphone and using the smooth running riverside.

dot fm podcast tool. I want to open up today's show with an experience that I had over the weekend and I had the chance to look at

Let's open up today's show with a rerun of an update

I'm gonna open up the show with a look at an update from Howard University and their buyout. we did this a couple of weeks ago, and we had the first concrete number since their original announcement. Howard University's own news site says roughly 173 employees accepted the voluntary retirement incentive. And the original offer went to about 600 eligible faculty and staff. The Chronicle had that story, Jasper Smith did on August 6th. That's a take-up number of the offer.

Under 30% of those offered. And and here's the question that that still haven't been answered. What's the total payout going to be to these employees? Somewhere around 170. What's the annual savings going to be in year one, two, three, and on? And how we're gonna fill those spots? How are the tasks, those 170-odd spots that were accompanying, how are they going to be filled? And interim president was in the house.

Always a bad indicator. Interim President Wayne AI Frederick framed the BIOS as a workforce refresh. Towards research status one. a workforce refresh, huh? So that must mean that the old workforce needed to be refreshed. That can't be what they meant with such an insult to their current employees. And same theme under the category of layoffs and cutbacks, Clemson University.

Big Time Football, Clemson University, was bigger than it is now, offers 452 employees nine months of pay to leave. And this is not a distress story yet. FITS News had the story higher ed watch Clemson Clemson's budget reckoning reaches faculty and staff. Jen Wood was the reporter. And it's it's a limited, ⁓ it's an offer of limited voluntary separation.

And went to roughly 8% of the workforce. And so I did the math, $452, and I assumed $50,000 over the course of nine months as an average. You can use whatever number you want. But at $50,000 over nine months, which is what they're offering, that's some $22 million in change in buyout costs. That's somewhere in the vicinity of 1% of the 1.76 billion in revenue that that Clemson had in the last reported year. ⁓

And in their debt at Clemson is approximately is a little over 1 billion. That's B, B is in billion. And the total long-term liabilities are approximately 2.6 billion. And that was from a May 2026 financial report. And again, cited by FITS News. So the budgeted, this is looking ahead, the budgeted fiscal year 2027 operating expenses were set at 8% higher. That's right, higher than the current year's actuals.

And that's per former CFO Rick Patillo's warning. And trustee Joe Swan proposed a 10% reduction goal. Trustee Nikki Haley, I presume that is a former presidential candidate and former governor, asked in the meeting of the board, how many more years do we do this? Well, it's a fair question. ⁓ I'll talk about the the longer term outlook here in a minute. And and here's you know, he here's the angle. Here's here's here's the big picture. Clemson.

Is not at risk of closing ever. It's just not. It's got strong enrollments, it's got a strong national name, strong credit ratings, and a roughly balanced book, so all of those issues right now. But the story is the opposite of what we're talking about. A university with Clemson's resources, 1.7 billion in revenue, strong enrollment, strong credit, looked at its own numbers and decided it must pay 400 plus people to leave.

And this is the whole argument of this show in just one college, one institution. Financial pressure is no longer a signal of institutional weakness. It can be, and often is, but it doesn't have to be. It has now become the baseline condition of the sector. Financial pressure has now become the baseline condition of higher education. And the colleges without Clemson's resources are not.

In a different category, they're just further along the same road of financial distress. Many of those will not survive. Clemson, of course, will survive. They'll just have to make adjustments. So, families, you can no longer read financially healthy, which Clemson is in the overall scheme of things, as nothing will change here. Because clearly at Clemson and hundreds, if not thousands, of other colleges, there are changes. Programs get cut, positions go unfilled, and apartments get reorganized.

At well resource schools and poorly resourced schools as well. So go back to the podcast, and I think it's week. Southern Cal University of Southern California cut 1200 jobs, not quite. Clemson is paying 400 plus to leave. Penn State is closing 47 programs. What's this all mean? Workforce and program reduction at every tier of higher education, public and private, distressed and healthy.

That's the pattern, that's the trend. That's not just three coincidences. And so again, what we talked about earlier at Howard, Clemson announced no projected participation rate, no es no estimated total payout cost, and no expected annual savings.

Maybe they don't know, maybe they're trying to hide something, I don't know. So notice again what Clemson didn't say. They're not giving numbers, they're just offering big pictures. They're not telling their stakeholders what this may cost and what the impact may be on the organization. Page two.

Commonwealth University, which is a merged organization, will lay off up to 175 staff and faculty against a $17 million deficit, continuing the same theme. And what we have here is this is across the former colleges of Bloomsburg, Lockhaven, and Mansfield. They have been merged. This is a multi campus consolidation. And the bill is coming due. Pennsylvania merged these three universities into one accredited, a single accredited entity.

Shared budgets now mean shared cuts. Students are protesting at the campus level for decisions made at the system level. We'll have to see how that shakes out. And again, here's the data challenge. Ask these colleges for the split. Of the 175 staff, 175 employees, what's the split between staff and faculty? How many positions are currently filled versus already vacant? And whether the $17 million deficit is recurring.

Or a one-time event. And poor Syracuse University. Again, they fall in the category of Clemson. They're not going anywhere anytime soon. But now, now they've launched a review. Syracuse University launches a review of administrative and executive staff. Higher ed Dive had the story on October 23rd, and it's an administrative portfolio review with administrative and executive staff.

In scope. Syracuse is sunsetting 93 programs, and I had that in an earlier story. And this is the staffing side of the same financial reckoning that Syracuse is going under. So Clemson asking 450 people to leave. Syracuse is reviewing its administrative administrative structure involuntarily because of financial issues. Different mechanism for sure. Same direction of financial travel.

And note that Syracuse is reviewing the administrative side. The layer that the Southern Cal student reporters found was tripling at that university. This is an industry that is a mess, not everywhere, but but in places you would never have expected this kind of financial trauma, even a year or two or three years ago. And next in line is Ithaca.

Ithaca College doubles Ithaca's not in the same category as Clemson ⁓ or Sutherland Cal or Syracuse for that matter. They have financial issues. I've done, we've had them on the College Financial Health Show with Matt Hendricks and Gary Stocker. Ithaca College doubles its projected fiscal year twenty seven deficit to eight million dollars. All right, this came from the student newspaper again, and then maybe we're seeing some new activism.

student newspapers, student organizations on these colleges and their financial health. This one is from the Ithacan, which is a student newspaper. ⁓ the def deficit for fiscal twenty-seven went from four million to now eight million with potential staff and layoff plans.

And again, I'm doing this. Student news organizations are doing this. Same thing we saw at Southern Cal's Annenberg Media last week, a student outlet. A deficit doubling between projections inside one cycle is the number to say out loud. And and and it's like we need private investigators like me to find these things out. Colleges just aren't being transparent.

In any significant portion, in any significant manner.

And at Ithaca, it would be interesting to find out. I haven't checked their normal numbers, I don't recall what they are, what their tuition discount rate was. You gotta wonder if colleges like Ithaca are giving away the store just to get students in the door. And if they are, it shows up in the financials because that's gonna be a significant source of revenue. Keene State College, next on the agenda, same pattern, same trend. They're putting 14 academic programs on administrative hold.

You know, ask how many students are currently enrolled in the programs. And again, one of the things that's not tracked regularly by s by really anybody except me is completions. It's not just that the programs are being put on hold, which probably means they're gonna be cut.

But look, students could could could have probably done a better job. Media could have done a better job of looking at the completions. The data is in iPads. I've got it in the my college decision team that I'll talk about later on in the show. We can tell you whether the biology major at your college has 40 graduates or four graduates in that program. And if it has four graduates or any single digit number, be careful. That's a low number. Those are the kind of programs being cut. Page three.

So NAAE, a new accreditor, is changing its tune while seeking federal recognition. And again, there's all sorts of change going on in the accreditation, accreditation side of higher education. New accrediting organizations like NAAE are are springing up, trying to take the business from the existing six major accreditors in the country. The story comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education on October 20th. and in last week, I think I had this story.

There were five independent colleges, the names aren't important. And what has happened is NAAE seeking the Education Department recognition in the next 18 to 24 months. They're kind of repositioning their pitch as it seeks recognition from the education department.

It's changing its tune, is is it it's it's adjusting its public identity while at the same time seeking federal gatekeeping stamp to get access to Title IV funds for its colleges. And and who's holding this a creditor and all their creditors accountable? They're still all I daughters and T crossers. None of them have exhibited any significant or consistent capacity to be a to be a consumer advocate for students and families.

And again, you know why. You know why. Because the colleges pay the accreditors' fee, and the accreditors' revenue comes in large part from the colleges they accredited. What a screwy system that is. And that's again why you need independent organizations like me, like College Viability, to provide this kind of analysis for colleges that are in trouble because we just can't rely on anybody else. Just can't rely on anybody else. I have no vested interest.

There will be colleges that close, there'll be colleges that do well. There are many of both. And the data shows which is doing which. And we'll continue to report on those. And I want to do as as I wrap up today's show, a special college spin story. Now I'm going to pick on one college. It's Illinois Wesleyan in central Illinois. And it but it applies to this whole directed missions and tuition reset.

We see happening in so many places. I bet we see it happen in many, many, many more places. So here's a headline. Emily Bullinger had this as an internal post at the Illinois Western University ⁓ news service, whatever that is. Illinois Wesleyan expands McLean County, which is where they where they are, expands direct admission, and increases local scholarship guarantee to forty thousand dollars. Nice headline, Emily.

But as the late great Paul Harvey would have said, what's the rest of the story? Now, all right, off the top, Illinois Westling is trying to go local. Nothing wrong with that. Probably a good attract, a good approach. However, let's keep in mind that what something we've talked about before that this directed missions where colleges admit students who haven't been applied is akin, is similar to the unsolicited credit cards, the unsolicited credit card invitations you and I get in the mail.

Cost you money, both of them cost you money. And I also continue to have the concern, and I think it's a reasonable concern, that many of those direct admissions, both at Illinois Wesleyan and other places across the country, might be probably are admitting students who don't have the academic capacity or financial means to be successful. Now, Illinois Wesley has some standards that these grads, that these direct admits must have. That's fine, I don't remember what they are. But nowhere, and here's the point.

Nowhere in the announcement, Ms. Bollinger, did your bosses let you say the total cost of attendance? That would include that 40,000 unfunded tuition discount. Now let's editorialize for a second. It's a $40,000 scholarship, is what Illinois Weston calls it. And that's fine. I can't change that. I can just point it out. But remember, there are no actual dollars transferring to the student, it's just a discount off of this price tuition.

And I'm gonna pull the numbers down for you right now. All right, so $40,000 guaranteed. Call it a scholarship, call it Merit Aid, call it a discount, call it whatever you want. It's $40,000 less. Good for the student, not necessarily good for the college. So I looked for the Illinois Weston 26, 2026, 27 full year tuition. $61,004. That got me a giggle. I don't know, don't know where the four dollars, what that four dollars covers. So let's take away the $40,000.

So the list price tuition of $61,000, which would scare a lot of people, that's annual, becomes $21,000. All right. Much more manageable. That's still out of pocket so far. And there are some fees, and I'm not going to read the fees. By the time you get all the other fees in addition to tuition, and that includes residence, hall, and food plans and all that kind of stuff. The total direct costs are $75,000 in change. They add in some things like books, supplies, and personal expenses. And you get a total estimated cost of attendance, Illinois Westing.

2026, 2027 of $78,348. All right, now let's go ahead and take out take that $40,000 out again, because I haven't done that on this on this calculation. And $78,000 less $40,000 is $38,000 for the first year. Out of pocket. Now that means loans, that means other scholarships from other organizations, that means grants from other organizations. But so far, it's you're writing a check for $38,000 in some form or fashion.

And then think about something like a 3% increase per year, and that's about $1,200 per year. And do the math to see what the $40,000 discount still costs students and families out of pocket at Illinois Wesleyan. Again, Illinois Wesleyan is not the only college doing that. They posted the story, and when I see these stories and they hit my hit my feeds, I'm gonna jump on some of them.

And so this is just bad luck on their part because they're not they're symptomatic, they're emblematic of what colleges are doing. And and they're just part of the higher education symptom of not being transparent with costs.

And again, the 40,000 is a discount. They're not being transparent. And I understand 40,000 is 40,000, no matter what you call it. And second, students and families need to know what will what it will cost, what college will cost them out of pocket. And I keep making the argument that 38,000 is still a scary number. 38,000 per year and probably not gonna go down over the course of four years. It's still a scary number, and colleges work hard to hide scary numbers.

And then finally, I'm gonna do a promo. And here are college viability. We didn't start with AI. It really wasn't a thing when we started back in 2019. We started with college transparency and are focused on that really for the last seven plus years. And since 2019, college viability has been helping all sorts of people, all sorts of higher education stakeholders look beyond the glossy brochures of college marketing to understand the financial health.

Academic performance and long-term stability of American colleges. We've developed independent research tools, produced weekly podcasts like this one and others, and college financial health shows like the one I do with Matt Hendricks, and contributed to more than 50 media stories examining the challenges facing higher education in general and some specific colleges in particular. And we've spent seven plus years asking questions that students and families should be asking before choosing a college.

And now we're bringing that experience to my college decision team. Our 13 specialized agents help students and families navigate college planning, affordability, academic programs, college financial health, campus visits, applications, financial decisions, the cost of travel, 13 different general functions.

We didn't create my college decision team because AI is popular. We created it because students and families deserve better information when choosing a college, and this will give them access to a tool 24 by 7 by 365, like any other tool now being developed with AI. And the technology may be new. It is new, relatively new. The mission of college viability, the experience of college viability.

And the commitment from college viability behind that technology is not. My college decision team available very soon for students and families and counselors. And you'll be hearing a lot more about that tool. And I'll be using it in the podcast as well in the coming weeks, months, and years. At College Viability, thanks for listening. As is always the case, I'm Gary Stalker. I'll be back next Monday.