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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 (00:01.416)
It is Monday, November 24th, 2025. Goodness gracious, only a month away from Christmas Eve for all the good boys and girls that are out there. And as always, it's This Week in College Viability, news and commentary sitting in front of the blue yeti microphone. Hi, I'm Gary Stocker. This is, of course, the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data and details and perspectives offered nowhere else. This Thanksgiving week,
Podcasts include stories on, I guess we're now sunsetting programs and majors. A little wordsmithing going on. Columbia University considers expanding undergraduate enrollment by up to 20%. I wonder why they're hiding the reasons. Rider University in New Jersey. Rider University's financial and accreditation troubles continue to make news. I have two stories on that one. And in a Dog Bites Man story,
A dog bites man's story. The University of Nebraska faculty senate votes no confidence against his chancellor because he had the temerity to actually try and change things. And finally, when grades stop meaning anything. This is a story, a follow-up story from the University of California San Diego one last week. Kelsey Piper on her Substack site has a fascinating story. I covered a little bit of it today and I just posted a little while ago on the internet for everybody to take a look at.
fascinating story, fascinating writing, and really, really good research. So we always start off with what? We always start off with layoffs and cutbacks. Simmons University, maybe it's called Layoffs, Cutbacks, and Sunsetting this week. Simmons University, Massachusetts, I believe, proposes Sunsetting five undergraduate majors during a town hall.
The story reads, the undergraduate majors that are currently proposed to be sun-setted are economics, accounting, physics, humanities, and applied Spanish. The board will vote on the proposal in December. This is a story from Alana Quirk-Abujadi, the editor-in-chief of The Simmons Voice, which is apparently their internal story, their internal newspaper, on November 22nd. And the office of the provost hosted the town hall.
Gary D Stocker (02:21.294)
on the Simmons Academic Planning Process and they were discussing majors to be cut, not the word they use. They're going to be, according to the Provost, sunsetted or reimagined. And when majors, they say, are sunsetted, students currently enrolled in the majors in that major are permitted to finish their major. And that's usually the case with colleges that do sun setting. You and I kill them cutbacks, cutbacks and dropping programs.
They don't say Quebec, they don't say eliminated, they don't say removed. Sunsetted. Is that even a word? I have to look that up. Do these folks at Simmons University really think that this kind of word smithing, that's a word, this kind of word smithing will fool anyone, goes into a Jish category. And I'll remind you, the 2025 College Majors Completion App, I'm going to give it away through the end of the year.
It retails at $799, but I'm going to have a new one in 2026 and I want some more users. So I'm going to give it away. It includes 64 common majors for the years 2020 through 2023, four years. It includes 64 common majors across associates, master's and master degree programs. You drop me a note to Gary at College Viability. That's Gary at College Viability, one really long word, collegeviability.com.
and say, Gary, send me the college majors completion app. Call whatever you want. Make some kind of reference to it and I will send you the full functioning link through the end of December. Who knows, maybe into January until I finally get the 2026 version of the app out, which is going to have five years worth of majors completion data. And right now it looks like more than 100, maybe as many as 150, 160 majors in the 2026 version of the app. University of Central Florida.
The of Central Florida lays off 60 employees as federal research funding dries up. Ryan Lynch from the Orlando Business Journal has a story. Included in the cuts, writes, are 57 workers from the Florida Solar Energy Center. The center has been open since 1975.
Gary D Stocker (04:40.717)
Let me do the math, 1975, 2025, fingers, hands, and toes, 50 years. The Florida Solar Energy Center has been available, has been open in Florida, and they're going to lay off some of the workers after 50 years. You make your own judgments. Or Columbia. Columbia University considers expanding undergraduate enrollment by up to 20%. The university plans to finalize a decision
By the time it releases its early admission results sometime in mid-December, Matt Luo had the story for the Columbia Spectator. Again, I think that's an internal news story at Columbia News Source at Columbia University. This was on November 21st. So let me just read a couple of lines that Matt Luo shared with us in his story. Facing losses of up to $100 million each month of the COVID-19 pandemic, Columbia, again, back in 2021-22, launched an inquiry
into expanding its undergraduate population by between 5 and 20%.
The inquiry resulted in nine, almost two handfuls, nine faculty reports three years ago, which recommended, now shock, which recommended support, let's try that again, which recommended postponing expansion considerations and focusing on, read this, focusing on improving areas of campus life associated with peer-to-peer.
connection, please feel free to send me a note as to what that is. And at that time, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences agreed to postpone expansion discussions. Fast forward to today. The number of students Columbia admitted through regular and early decision for the 2023-2024 year was about 2,300. And for the 2024-25 cycle, about 2,600, not quite. However, the number of students admitted off the wait list this year, 2024-25,
Gary D Stocker (06:41.223)
is about 60 % more than the growth in the number of students admitted in regular and early decision. Listen to this next part suggesting that the University primarily used its waitlist. Columbia University primarily used its waitlist to expand the first year class. Now, nothing wrong with that. can do whatever they want. 1,800 students, let's say it's 20%, that's 360 students more, give or take. Will there be a trickle down impact?
Will other colleges lose those 360 almost certainly? And where have we talked about that is going to most impact students, not in the upper rational line colleges, but in those at the low end of the enrollment, the admission cycle, the low enrollment and admissions feeding area, the low performers, the financially challenged colleges. And I've already seen social media posts questioning the rationale for this 20 % addition.
Is Columbia University adding some 360 students to buffer financial losses from elsewhere? They're impacted by the government cuts. Could be nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. It would be nice. It would be nice to be more transparent, but it is it's silly to believe that most colleges are even familiar with the term up up up up sarcasm alert. Oops. College drivel. This week.
The undergraduate majors that are currently proposed to be sunsetted are economics, accounting, physics, humanities, and Spanish. Of course that's from Simmons University and a story earlier in the show page two. Ryder University can't get out from under it. November 13th, Rob Jennings at New Jersey.com had this story and another one I'm going to share in a second. A major New Jersey university is on probation. had that story last week.
Here's what that means for students. And there's a long list of things it means for students. I'm to pull a couple of items. The accrediting agency, this is from Rob Jennings at New Jersey.com or NJ.com. The accrediting agency has taken the unusual step of placing this university on probation as the school tries to get itself out of a financial crisis. Salaries for all employees will be reduced by 14 % and retirement contributions will be suspended. There's some cutoffs that go with that as well.
Gary D Stocker (09:01.741)
and a monitoring report aimed at ensuring Rider has a viable path for continuing is due on January 12th, so seven weeks out, something like that. So, States is their commission, is their accrediting agency. Middle States wants a plan described, written about, drafted. It doesn't, as is usually the case, it doesn't actually want results. Just tell us what you would do.
What you might do, what you think you will do, what your telus are going to do, but no actual results.
And you want proof? Kean University, K-E-A-N, also in New Jersey, was placed on probation in 2012 after falling short in several areas. And it was re-accredited by adopting a new academic integrity policy, academic integrity policy and making other changes. Well, can, you need a policy, I'll adapt one for you. Does that mean I have to follow it? And I went over the bad, going back to Ryder, I went over the bad financials.
at Ryder last week. Not good. Not good at all. I guess, sarcasm alert, I know. But I guess a plan will fix all of that, even in a declining market with intense pressure on tuition revenue and a high cost basis. It's a daunting, if even possible, challenge. Then Mr. Jennings, Rob Jennings' second story on November 17. The headline New Jersey University plans to cut 20 %
25 % of its professors. But shock of shocks, my words not his, shock of shocks, its union is pushing back. And of course, for those of you that follow the podcast on a regular basis, and there are 13,000 on the downloads right now, faculty will protest everything.
Gary D Stocker (10:57.197)
everything. It happens all the time. So let me make this easy. I used the college financial compass and pulled the total operating revenue and total operating expenses from the audited financial statements for Rider University from 2016 and 2024. In 2016, Rider had a dollar and two cents in operating expenses for every dollar in operating revenue. So two cents more in expenses for every dollar in revenue.
In 2024, Rider had $1.18 in operating expenses for every dollar in operating revenue. That's $141 million in operating expenses and $119 million in operating revenue. And I rounded up all the numbers, but that's a ninefold increase if I'm doing the math right. So for the past nine years, Rider and its faculty has to be complicit.
Riders University's expense base has grown faster than its revenues. Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, that's a trend and that's not a good trend. Let me do this. Last week, Matt Hendricks substantially reduced the price on his college financial compass. It's only $219, 219. It used to be a multiple of that. Here's why he wants everybody and anybody to be able to have access to it.
Gotta charge a fee because you gotta make a buck. This is business. This is America. And I'm gonna put the link in the show notes to purchase it. But if you want, drop me a note to garyatcollegeviability.com. I'll not only send you the link, I'll send you a tutorial on how to use the link. If you're faculty at Rider or Wittenberg or Albright or any other college in dire straits, this is a tool that you can use, trust me. You can use it to compare your college to others.
to make the case of how you can fix things if possible, but to have a source of information with which to make your own plans as faculty, staff, or even students in conjunction with what your leadership team, your administrative team may have. Margaret Spellings. In a LinkedIn post last week, talk was talking about the Department of Education changes. And these are the ones where the Department of Education last week announced moving a lot of functions other places in the federal government. So Margaret Spellings is the second, is the president and CEO
Gary D Stocker (13:18.401)
the Bipartisan Policy Center. to check that one out. The Bipartisan Policy Center. Because her writing doesn't sound bipartisan. But anyway, she says in her LinkedIn post, I wanted to share some thoughts about the changes. She goes on, too many students today aren't able to read at grade level or do basic math. And the gaps between the highest and lowest achieving students are growing.
There are urgent needs for our students in the country to be focused on education. She goes on to say the conversation in Washington is focused on the wrong things. She provides some details about moving the programs from one department to another. She talks about where the focus should be. And she finally concludes we've come together before in a bipartisan way. Okay, you need to some specs on that. A bipartisan way to improve education for all Americans.
She says, know how to partner with states, I don't know who we is, and to use the federal role to better prepare students for the future. Stop. Stop everything.
No, no they don't. They clearly, established systems and processes clearly don't know how to improve education for all Americans. This is just someone working to protect the status quo in American education. Did not the federal and state system, set of systems and processes have decades?
have decades to make things ideal for students, to help them learn to read, write, and do arithmetic.
Gary D Stocker (15:04.523)
Decades! This is a proposed change. To try and streamline things. Well, look, I have no idea. Beyond the scope of my intellect and capacity to even care at this point. Yet, we see stories like the one from out of the University of San Diego last week that showed really low reading and math competency skills. And we see these stories regularly. And so here is my question to Miss Spelling and others who...
were protesting, and there were many articles all over the place last week, many in LinkedIn and other sources, in social media that I looked at. To those folks, how many decades do you need? How many decades have you had to fix the very problems, the system you describe and you defend and you support created? Page three.
Colleges ease the dreaded admissions process as the supply of applicants declines. I've talked about this before. This is John Marcus at Hekenger on November 18th. Long story and talks about how colleges are making admissions easier. Of course, I have the link in the show notes. So what I started doing when I see these kind of enrollment stories is I look for one word. And again, those that follow me can probably guess what that word is. It's graduation. And in this story,
with quotes from all sorts of higher education folks and organizations, the word graduation does not appear anywhere in the article. Now, it's not John Marcus' issue. This is a source issue. This is a direct admissions article, one click and admit kind of process. There is a qualification that says it depends on grades.
That's a weak qualification because in this continuing era of great inflation, that hurdle to get the one-click admission is pretty small. And so as I've shared so many times before, we are still encouraging high school students without sufficient academic preparation and financial capacity to enroll in college. And as I've said before, damn the consequences. University of Nebraska.
Gary D Stocker (17:19.575)
Dog Bites Man, don't have to get your pencil out for this one. The University of Nebraska Senate votes no confidence against its chancellor. Mike Nitzel has a story in Forbes on November 19th, and I spent way too much time trying to decide how to cover that story earlier today as I was preparing the podcast. And no confidence votes are not much more in my mind than sophomoric reactions from college faculty.
who hide behind the facade of doing nothing and calling it shared governance.
You have heard me share, share before tongue in cheek, that if a college changes the font, changes the font on its business cards, there will be protests.
The essence of colleges has become one of an industry that can't even graduate half of its students in four years and overreacts to almost every proposed change. When does it stop? When grades, language issues today on the same the microphone, when grades stop meaning anything. The University of California San Diego math scandal is a warning. Kelsey Piper, great.
great fabulous top of the line story on November 18th from our Substack account. this article is a follow-up to last week's on California and San Diego University on poor math and reading skills in the country.
Gary D Stocker (18:59.789)
And here's what Miss Kelsey writes, excuse me, here's what Miss Piper writes, In fact, many of the students didn't just need remedial high school math. Their scores indicated they needed remedial middle school or even elementary school math. These are high school students. Only 39 % of the students in the remedial class knew how to round the number 374,518 to the nearest 100.
The answer, of course, would be what? 374,500. Reviewing test results like these, you would expect transcripts, report cards full of Cs and Ds or even failing grades. But alarmingly, Ms. Piper writes, these student transcripts did not even reflect those profound struggles in math. The students were broadly receiving good grades. More than a quarter of the students needing remedial math, more than a quarter needing remedial math
at a 4.0 grade point average in
The average was 3.7, but they didn't have the math skills. Instead, she writes, here is the absurd image that the report slowly and painstakingly paints a number, a large number, my words not hers, a large number of high schools are awarding A grades to advanced placement calculus students who do not have any calculus skills and who would get the lowest possible score
on the AAP calculus exam if they took it. And a really good story. And there's much, much more to the story. I'm not going to make time to cover that in the story. It's the second week in a row that I've noted that students are starting college. Students are starting college without anything close to the needed skills to complete college level assignments. Colleges accept them.
Gary D Stocker (20:58.743)
They charge them tuition fees and they know that some absurdly low percentage of these students will end up graduating anyway.
Gary D Stocker (21:11.115)
They know that some absurdly low percentage of these students will end up graduating.
Gary D Stocker (21:20.567)
They know that some absurdly low percentage of these students will end up graduating. Folks, those on the academic margins are getting burned, and they're getting burned badly, by Education American. Yes, I know there are millions and millions that have the skills and do well. They graduate, they get a job and a career that's fruitful, but there are millions more who are falling, who are falling for the cultural expectation that college is good for them.
And yet they don't have the academic and financial capacity to do it or pay for it. They pay for it in lost time and in debt. And then finally, wrapped two weeks after Trinity Christian up in the Chicago area, announces closure. The city they live in, the city the college is in, Palos Heights, knows little about the college's sale plans. This is from Olivia Stevens, who posted this in the Daily South Town News and I think it was
also published in the Chicago Tribune on November 19th. Chad Muse, M-E-E-U-W-S-E, heard about the pending closure of his alma mater, Trinity Christian University, and he said he experienced a lot of, kind of a devastating feeling. So I reviewed the data last week, the closure data on, I reviewed the data last week on
Gary D Stocker (22:47.277)
I reviewed Trinity Christian's data last week and I did a quick look again today and it's somewhere in the 2016 to 2019 timeframe that Trinity's financial health started a decline year after year. So it's been a while. It wasn't something that happened yesterday, last week, last month, last year. And there are other college leaders and board members that as I record this, as you listen to this,
are in the process of making decisions to close just like Trinity Christian did.
And in every case when that happens, we have seen and will see the same story shock, indignation, protests, many times a belated attempt to financially revive the college. And here is what those colleges will say when they announce their closure. Despite strategic efforts to adjust our growth model and eliminate the deficit, the fast-paced evolving economic and cultural realities made that impossible to do.
post-COVID financial losses, persistent operating deficits, a decline in college enrollment, increased competition for students, and shifting donor giving and financial circumstances, the college will say. And you know what? That's exactly what Trinity said. I took that quote from their announcement.
These are not sudden events. There are clear multi-year trends.
Gary D Stocker (24:20.909)
It's one of the reasons we lowered the price of the college financial compass to just $219 last week. If you want to check on your private college's financial health as an alum, faculty member, community leader, even student or family member, the 219 might be a little bit pricey, but it's worth $219 if you can rule out a college whose financial health doesn't meet your specs and we provide tutorials. Matter of drop me a note to Gary at College Viability. I'll do a quick tutorial for you one-on-one.
This kind of tool needs to be in the hands of every college person, faculty, staff, leaders, board members, trustees, students, faculty, community leaders. It just shows who's doing well, and there are many, and who's not doing well, and there are way, way, way too many. There will be more closures. I've said it before, I'm saying it again. I look at the data every day, and I know which colleges I would not send my children to. Your call.
your call. best of the holiday week to you and yours. I'll be back next Monday on I believe the first day of December. Is that correct? On the first day of December with another episode of This Week in College Viability. As always, I'm grateful for you making time to listen to the podcast. Make sure to share the podcast link with your friends, family, neighbors, relatives, and anybody else you can think of. Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week.