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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 Monday, august tenth, twenty twenty-six. ⁓ Yes, time again for another podcast episode of This Week ⁓ in College Viability News and Commentary. Hi everybody, Gary Stalker sitting in front of the blue yeti microphone, and of course, as we start off each week, this is the podcast that talks about the financial health and even viability of public and private colleges with data ⁓ and with details and perspectives offered nowhere else. Where are we going this week, you might ask?
Still week in and week out, lots more layoffs and cutback news this week. ⁓ and then six and ten enrollment leaders in a survey we'll talk about said their college had met their fall 2026 enrollment numbers. Six and ten met their numbers. ⁓ Zero in ten ⁓ talked about the money piece. What was their net tuition revenue from that? What was their tuition discount revenue or tuition discount rate from that? None of them talked about that.
And direct admissions. ⁓ We've talked about that before. We've got another story about that today. Colleges send admissions letters to students who've not even applied, probably don't even know the college exists. And you know what? They're very similar to what you and I get in the mail regularly. They're called unsolicited credit cards. We'll talk about how much are they the same. ⁓ And the college majors completion app, whether you're a faculty member, college leader, ⁓
Student, family member, parent, you want to make sure that the colleges you are looking at, the colleges you're a member of, are graduating and completing a certain number of majors, certain number of students in the majors that they offer. We've got a tool for that. And then three weeks from today, ⁓ August 31st. Yep, do the math. August 31st, my college decision lens is out. We think that might change the way many students and families look at colleges in terms of their financial health.
And viability to layoffs and cutbacks. We go, Minnesota State Mancato to undergo layoffs, hike tuition amid $22 million shortfall. ⁓ this was published on August 7th in Higher ⁓ Ed Dive. Natalie Schwartz had the story they're gonna cut 60 positions, six zero positions, including laying off 17 employees to address a $22 million budget shortfall. The president of Minnesota State Mancato.
Gary Stocker (00:02:25)
Pres President Edward Inch said the financial imbalance we face is structural. He adds that ⁓ operating costs have continued to rise, while tuition revenue and state support have not kept kept pace. Okay, nothing like blaming others for your problems. Dozens of St. John's employees laid off. ⁓ fifty-five staff and administrative positions eliminated. Again
We see this ⁓ somewhat regularly, no faculty positions were impacted. Nicholas Saint Cyr had the story on august eighth in the torch, which is the student newspaper at St. John's. ⁓ here's part of what mister Saint Se Saint Sear said in the story.
Dozens St. John's University employees were laid off ⁓ as the university said it would undergo organizational changes to better align itself with its previously announced strategic plan reimagined.
Gary Stocker (00:03:28)
The it goes on to say the organizational changes are part of the administration's three-year strategic plan ⁓ with a different name called Moving Forward Together. I'm counting two names. I don't know about you. I don't I don't know what's up with that. And then one overhaul student success, on and on and go. Same kind stuff. Here's how they categorize this ⁓ at the on the university's website. ⁓ St. John's University wants to be focused.
Be a focused, forward-looking, ⁓ nationally recognized Catholic and Vincenzian institution that transforms lives through academic excellence, inclusive student success, and a deep commitment to service ⁓ and the common good.
Gary Stocker (00:04:20)
a and and and you wonder why I call colleges a commodity? ⁓ I mean that's hot dog and apple pies throw Chevrolet in there. ⁓ That's not a differentiator. I why ⁓
It's like every company that makes a cell phone says we have cell phones. And you can text on them and you can take pictures with them. ⁓ There's no differentiation. Inside higher education, Josh Moody had a story on August 6th, and they've been doing this at Inside at AIIHE for a while. They listed colleges that made
Cut announcements, cuts personnel announcements in the month of July. I'm just gonna read the list. Institute, Illinois Institute of Technology, St. Louis University, Southern Oregon University, Temple University, Harvard University, Portland State University, Mount Hood Community College, Louisiana State, and American International College.
Gary Stocker (00:05:21)
Now I think I had all of them earlier in July, maybe even in June. I don't recall having Mount Hood, and I don't recall American International College, but always always glad to be there to provide listeners with an early heads up on colleges that are cutting back programs and majors or laying off employees. Page two
Where enrollment stands ⁓ as fall twenty twenty six approaches.
Joanna Alonzo had the story on Inside Higher Education on August 6th. Although six in ten enrollment leaders said their colleges had met their fall 2026 enrollment goals, ⁓ that number was lower for small colleges. I don't remember if it actually said that or not, which also discounted more and relied more on campus visits. ⁓ Don't know how you count that, but relied more on campus visits to convert prospective students.
Gary Stocker (00:06:19)
I'm gonna keep saying stuff, even though I've said it before. Enrollment is at best a secondary indicator. And I've teased before, you can't take students to the bank and say, here's our loan payment. We're giving you 27 students. You need the tuition revenue. You need the net tuition revenue. ⁓ And the question is almost never asked in these enrollment stories what's the average tuition discount rate? What's the projected net tuition revenue? Net tuition revenue.
And how does it compare to the previous years? It's ⁓ how many times have we done the layouts, cutbacks, and closure stories? And it's all about revenue or lack thereof. And colleges and and even reporters. ⁓ And Ms. Alonso, here's some questions to ask next time. Ask about the tuition discount rate. Don't let them say no, I don't know, because they do know they track it every day. Ask them about that net tuition revenue, what they forecast for the upcoming year, and what they had.
Last year don't let them off the hook.
She goes on to write, fewer institutions, just 22% listed increased ⁓ discounting as an important lever. And those who selected that option were less likely to hit their targets. Interesting. Were less likely to hit their targets than their peers. Niche, niche.com researchers argue that this indicates that quicker and clearer aid offers are more important than the amount of aid. Let me read that again. Niche.com says that.
Quicker and clearer aid offers are more important than the amount of aid.
Gary Stocker (00:07:58)
But in the story, Bob Massa, who is a retired enrollment manager with 45 years of experience in the field, argued that's not the case. He says in ⁓ Joanne's article, Miss Alonzo's article, to say that the amount of discounts, the amount of scholarships, the dollar in amount, is secondary, is simply not true, said Massa. He was the vice president emeritus, or is the vice president emeritus of enrollment and college relations at
Dickinson College. He says the survey did not ask. Remember we heard this before. The survey did not ask how big those aid increases were, nor how much aid was originally offered, ⁓ making it difficult to know exactly why the offers of increased aid were less successful helping institutions hit their enrollment goals. I told you so. I've told you so before, and I'll tell you so again.
It's the money, it's the dollars. You can spin enrollment all sorts of ways. I've talked about that before. And I will. I'm not letting it go. Colleges can spend. They're welcome to spend. They're gonna do it anyway, whether I whether I give permission or not. And I'm just here to say, hey, I'm your quality control person saying, Hey, they're spinning this. They're not telling you what's actually going on. And before I go to page three, two other podcasts.
Kitchen Table College Chat, I with Mark Debore every Thursday. And we do this podcast because it offers, this is for parents, ⁓ grandpas and grandmas, aunts and uncles, and students a little bit. ⁓ It's a podcast that was created to provide a new and different perspective for parents and their families. Mark and I regularly and teasingly challenge the conventional messaging from colleges and give listeners some new questions to ask. And then I've had Beyond the College Bo short out for a couple years now. It does just add.
It takes the discussion, it takes the argument, takes the spin beyond the the four colored brochures, beyond the colored web pages, ⁓ and offers perspective that goes deeper than just the gloss that colleges will offer. ⁓ make sure you tune into both of those as your schedule allows. Page three. You're in is the headline. Private colleges admit more students who didn't apply. Bloomberg had the story, Manda Albright, who does some good writing at Bloomberg.
Gary Stocker (00:10:26)
Had the story on August 4th. And so ⁓ here's the example: Wingate University told thousands of high schoolers some good news. They were already accepted into the Wingate class of 2030 this fall, and they'd be receiving $24,000 of scholarship. ⁓ No application required. No application required. $24,000 in scholarships. Okay. ⁓
You and I both know that's discounts. This is a private college. Wingate is outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, with some 2,600 undergrads. ⁓ And while some colleges, destroy rights, have been using this tactic called drug admissions for years, many more are now trying it out as they fight for a shrinking pool of prospective undergrad students. So I've talked about this before, but I'm taking a different spin this week.
And I've got a couple of analogies for you. I'm going to make the case that these direct admissions are just like the almost ubiquitous, unsolicited credit card offers you get in the mail. ⁓ And here's some different kinds of examples. The VIP club bouncer. Here's a scenario. You're walking past a nightclub, college, and the bouncer points at you, unhooks the velvet rope, and says, you have the right look. You're already on the VIP list, just head inside.
You feel incredibly special and walk in only to realize that once inside you still have to pay the fifty dollar cover charge and drinks are thirty dollars each. And the timeshare vacation. I've sat through a few of these, it's been quite a few years. The timeshare vacation offer.
Here's a scenario. You receive a glossy brochure declaring your three-day weekend in Orlando has been reserved in your name. It looks highly personalized, but the resort actually, just like colleges do, the resort actually bought a mailing list of something like 100,000 people in your exact demographic and blanketed the entire zip code. And that's all colleges are doing. So direct admissions is just like receiving unsolicited credit card offers.
Gary Stocker (00:12:42)
Use the card, use the college, pay the fees, ⁓ and hope that the fees and interest rates aren't ridiculously high. Colleges, colleges, and credit cards, you gotta love it. Howard University, I think this this three weeks running now. Howard University makes it onto the show. ⁓ And last week it was announced that they're gonna buy the Howard University is offering to buy out 600 employees. Now, before I get into the story.
Jasper Smith has been on top of this for the Chronicle, what about three weeks ago? She really has done some good reporting on this. Matter of fact, I dropped her note. I was so impressed with the depth and detail of what she's done. Now, back to the Howard story. Granted, granted, the admissions and communication folks at Howard have earned a substantial public slap on the wrist for the 500 disenrolled student admissions. They messed up the communications.
They didn't see all the documentation, appears to be the case. They screwed up. No question. As I talked about last week, a lot of folks have jumped up and said, hey, we'll take Howard Howard students. All right, that's fine. You expect that kind of silliness from politicians and others, and colleges even. And I again I looked at the financial data. Howard University is financially strong. Like I talked about a couple months ago, the University of Denver in Colorado.
These buyouts, I'm not sure it was buyouts in at Denver, these buyouts appear to be a legitimate effort, a legitimate effort to get ahead and stay ahead of negative higher education financial trends at Howard University.
Gary Stocker (00:14:24)
The total net assets and endowments in twenty twenty five are both over one billion dollars. Their endowment draw is below the four to five percent range. How many times have I talked about colleges and double digits on the draw? Howard University is below that, which is where you wanna be if you can. ⁓ And the enrollment and student revenues are growing.
I I'm gonna stick, ⁓ count me on Team Howard here. Even though they screwed up some of these. I'm I'm gonna stick with what I suggested two weeks ago. Students have responsibilities to pay their bills or at least say they're gonna pay their bills.
And just like any other business, colleges can quit serving, take back the product, take back the service when customers or students don't pay.
Alright, I'm going small-time college football. Spin, spin, spin. Ueka College in Illinois and Westminster College in Missouri launched the Berlin Wall Bowl. A first of its kind college football rivalry inspired by Cold War history. ⁓ And ⁓ Westminster College is famed and justifiably so for the Winston Churchill Museum ⁓ and Ronald Reagan, who had a big deal in.
helping bring down the Berlin Wall, ⁓ graduator from is an alum, deceased alum from Eureka College.
Gary Stocker (00:15:52)
⁓ In the category of desperate for good news, desperate for positive news, these two colleges have attached a name to a football game they were gonna play anyway, and have played ⁓ for a fair number of years. So why would they do this? Well, you know me, I'm gonna look at the numbers. ⁓ Both have negative adjusted net operating revenue. Westminster lost 40 million from 2021 to 2025 in operating revenues.
Eureka College lost 7 million and change. West Westminster College has a decent balance sheet. It's not bad, not bad at all. Eureka College does not have anything close to a decent balance sheet. And again, colleges are welcome to do this. ⁓ But ⁓ what's the why? What's the why behind it? Well they're looking for good news. They're entitled, they're welcome to do that. But moms and dads, ⁓ grandpas and grandmas, aunts and uncles students.
Please look at the finances. Please, ⁓ on August 31st, go get ⁓ free access to the college decision lens. So my college decision lens. Look at the finances of these colleges because there are too many in desperate financial peril. And there are many, many, many, many financially strong graduating students in something like four years that can provide the same can provide a quality college education that you want to make sure that you enhance your opportunities to receive.
So ⁓ page four.
Gary Stocker (00:17:24)
The Higher Learning Commission had a post out of Chicago. The Higher Learning Commission had a post on LinkedIn ⁓ that announced with great graphic fanfare that 622 out of 656 colleges met all accreditation criteria from 2021 through 2025. Now do the math on that, it's almost 95%. 622 out of 656. And here's what they said. And this is again the own LinkedIn post. HLC has published a new report that examines
How the criteria for accreditation were applied in all comprehensive evaluations that received a final decision in the academic years twenty twenty one through twenty twenty five.
Gary Stocker (00:18:07)
⁓ I alright. Sarcasm alert. I was gonna make it belated, but I'm gonna make it in advance. Sarcasm alert. I I I just hope that there were no serious arm injuries. I just hope there were no serious arm injuries from the AL HLC staff ⁓ as they patted themselves on the virtual back ⁓ for continuing to be the best eye dotters.
And T-crossers out there, of course, we all know creditors like HLC work hard to make sure their revenue source is not negatively impact by actually monitoring for financial health or outcomes for your graduation rates. They dance around that all the time. But they're gonna pat themselves on the back. Welcome to do that. ⁓ Spin it any way you want. ⁓ I am the quality control mechanism. I'm gonna point out how you have let and will continue to let colleges that shouldn't stay open.
Stay open. And I'm gonna make the argument because that's what these accreditation agencies need to pay their bills. And that's to a wrap. ⁓ Lemon laws. Remember Lemon Laws has been, what, 20, 30 years ago? ⁓ I was zooming ⁓ with a LinkedIn friend last week, and we were talking about a Midwestern college that was spinning its fall enrollment. It happens all the time. And I noted that a quick financial health check on this college.
revealed some serious viability concerns. I'm not gonna name the college. That's not the purpose. The conversation then turned to bad cars and lemon laws.
Now, what I'm about to propose will never happen, but let's have some fun with it. This will never happen. But but but what if there was something like a college graduation lemon law? Call it federal. If a state didn't graduate in a defined period, if a student, excuse me, if a student didn't graduate in a defined period, and the student met a set of educational milestones, something like showed up to class, ⁓ did the work, paid their bills, whatever.
Gary Stocker (00:20:13)
And could not graduate in four years or something like four years due to factors that the college controlled, like not enough course sections, faculty shortages, things like that, that that student would be entitled to something like a lemon law refund or free classes across any level to complete their degree at that college.
Gary Stocker (00:20:37)
Not gonna happen. It did to cars. I maybe it still does to cars. I haven't followed that. And so a final note: College is broken is the book out last week, August 1st, I guess it was. Tease Mattil wrote the book. And I was quoted in the book, and even ask me he even asked me to write a section in the book and how colleges spin data at their own risk. Of course, I'm an expert at that. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read my Amazon.com review of the book. And I've got it right here in front of me. I had read the early version, the ebook version before it was released.
And I ordered the actual book and I've been reading it night after night because it's good. It's good. Here's my Amazon review. Tease Mattheel's new book has a focus that most higher education leaders and experts ignore. College is really, really good for millions of students, both traditional and non-traditional. ⁓ If those students and their families that are not quite sure about the college experience and investment, the book College is broken.
Will become a valuable resource.
There's a chapter exclusively written for just parents that's worth the price of the book. Teege intimately and in great detail steps readers through the pricing manipulations. Yes, they call it discounting, ⁓ they don't they call it scholarships, through the pricing manipulation that colleges go through to get a student to accept admissions offers and enroll.
And here's the big point. Merit aid in almost all scholarships, also known as tuition discounts, are not recognition. They are not recognition of student achievement. They are sales closing tools. These closing tools are statistically determined amounts that push families to the edge of financial responsibilities, ⁓ but get them to accept the college's offers. College is good for millions, I write.
Gary Stocker (00:22:33)
In the review, college is problematic for millions more. College is broken, helps those on the margins, those not quite sure about college, to make a better decision about that college investment. Hey, let's call that a wrap. Thanks as always for listening and making time for this week in college viability. Make sure not to be, to be, not to be a college, ⁓ not to be a podcast hog. Share the link with those in your community, in their families, friends, especially.
Those thinking about college for the upcoming year. See you next week. ⁓ next Monday on This Week in College Viability. I'm Gary Stocker.