This Week In College Viability (TWICV)

Where are we headed this week? Well, we'll start off with another unsurprising college closure announcement this past week. Get ready for some surprising ones in the next two months as the college year winds down. There was an interesting presidential departure from a struggling Illinois public college. 'Delusional' is this week's theme for both faculty and college leaders It's time to purchase yo...

Links to this week's stories. Cutbacks & Layoffs at Wright State and U Toledo IHE must be following me.   Their story last week about recent cutbacks and layoffs mimics the stories I have shared here over the past month or so. Chicken and College:  Interesting partnership A double dip enrollment recession? (Newsletter, no URL) Why Is the College-Completion Rate Stagnating?    Concordia leaders...

Here are the stories and commentary in the February 19 TWICV  Get your 2024 Private College Viability App here .   Select from a version for executives, one for faculty & staff, and one for students and families.  Special promotions are now available for each. Do you want to sit in on one of my free webinars on how to use the College Viability Apps?  Click here to reserve a spot . FAFSA delay...

 Raven Eye Consulting helps Higher Education clients accelerate their path to enrollment and retention results.  They work with Colleges and Universities to improve enrollment and retention functional processes, utilize data for continuous improvement, deploy technology to achieve scale, and develop a responsive and effective enrollment and retention staff redesign student experience. We talked wi...

This Week in College Viability for February 12, 2024 Valentine’s day is this week.  Throw a little love to Cabrini college and NOT-so-much to BSC and colleges who believe a snippet of data is a good thing. Here are some of the news stories and commentaries that follow. Colleges turn to older students to stem enrollment crisis Birmingham-Southern could get second chance at state bailout Scott Carls...

This week's podcast episode has news and commentary on: Top heavy Cornell The FAFSA delay Spin. Spin. Spin.  This time I will drill through the laughable spin that SIU Carbondale is putting on its Spring 2024 enrollment. Spin. Spin. Spin.  Take 2:   Sarasota Spring (NY) NOTE:  I will 'go to the data' for both. UConn has good basketball programs, but serious budget issues. Possible book title:  How...

Welcome to a special episode of This Week in College Viability . We're going to be talking with a couple of gentlemen who lead the Transformation Collaborative. Wallace Pond and Anthony (Tony) Bieda are my guests.  Their organization is rethinking the whole consultancy model itself, plus rethinking the how we bring value in the higher education space, what would that look like? During our discussi...

Larenda Mielke Senior Vice President, Higher Education at Kaufman Hall She has extensive leadership experience in higher education in the areas of strategy, curriculum and program development, accreditation, strategy execution, and financial modeling.  She has consulted with multiple universities across the world. She posts articles on higher education regularly.  In this episode, we focus on her...

For the week of January 29, 2024: More officials leave Fontbonne and Webster Universities amid enrollment troubles College enrollment picks up for the first time in over a decade — but student loan debt is still a major sticking point – NBC New York   Three More Major Universities Reveal Plans For Budget Cuts  -- Michael T. Nietzel Flagships Are Enrolling More and More Freshmen From Out of State R...

Here is the news and commentary we have for the January 22, 2024 episode of 'This Week in College Viability'. 1.    Cutbacks and layoffs 2.    Birmingham southern makes the WSJ 3.    Yet more faculty no-confidence votes 4.    Bonds and higher education 5.    Goddard College to become online only 6.    And much more

What impact do bonds have on colleges?  Will bonds be a factor in college closures?  Mergers and consolidations? Do rating services like S&P and Moody's impact most colleges? These and other questions are addressed when Gary Stocker and Ann Rutledge discuss in this reverse podcast interview on TWICV.  Bond holders view colleges as investments that are different than students view colleges.  Ho...

It is a really cold week across these United States, and the news from higher education is doing nothing to warm us up.  Welcome.  I am gs.  TWICV for January 15 2024 A lot of community colleges news this week A new college closures announced in PA. More doom and gloom enrollment predictions Vandy is allegedly boss and manager heavy Yet another short-notice announcement of layoffs.  This time at a...

It’s a new year full of similar stories from 2023.  I am not going to say 2024 will be exciting.  That is trite.  I will say that the college news and commentary I provide at TWICV will continue to try and earn your support for allowing me to be your informal fiduciary – going above and beyond the call to look after your best interests.  You might think that doesn’t apply to college leaders, but i...

Many thanks to the increasing number of folks listening to and downloading the podcast. I am grateful. Here are the stories and commentary for the final 2023 'This Week in College Viability (TWICV)' podcast. 1.       Public flagships are both booming and flailing 2.       Buch of stuff on more small college struggles 3.       MSU BOT pledges to not interfere with new president. . . Yes, and Santa...

This Week In College Viability (TWICV) where we look out for the best interests of faculty, staff, students, their families and others in higher education.  The December 18th podcast includes: More cutback and layoffs,  When a college abruptly closes, what happens to its students? IHE:  Why Higher Ed Needs to Be Disrupted    Brian Rosenberg:  Whatever it is, I don’t like it. . . . . Nearly half of...

Dr. Brian Rosenberg is my guest today.  His recent book:  Whatever it is, I don’t like it , is fascinating in many ways.  The 7 chapters are exquisitely balanced and logical  as they step the reader through where HE has been, where it needs to go, and how to get there.   The industry is changing.  Sticking ones head in the proverbial sand and hoping for the best is a dangerous and problematic appr...

It is 2 weeks before Christmas and there is no change in the news coming out of higher education.  The news continues to be less than merry and bright for many, many colleges in our country. The December 11, 2023 podcast includes much on The College of St. Rose (Albany NY)  Here is why:  It is the triad of closures.  First, the sudden closure.  Second, students, faculty and the community protest. ...

Dr. Chuck Ambrose, co-author with Michael Nietzel of 'Colleges on the Brink" is a formidable college leader.  He shares his perspective on decades in higher education to characterize the current state of higher education and to detail the work he and Mr. Nietzel did in providing substantive guidance to college leaders facing the financial, enrollment, outcome challenges and more. In particular, Am...

In this week's episode of This Week, the College of St. Rose -  some extensive coverage of the closure and the reactions associated with that. Our regular cutbacks and layoffs list. Bacone College graduates no one and is on the auction block for failing to pay a vendor. We'll briefly talk about that. Birmingham Southern College gets $7.5 million in public loans. We'll show you the math that says t...

Jon Nichols, author of 'Requiem for a College' (2022) joins me in this first special This Week in College Viability (TWICV) podcast - The Closing of a College - The College of St. Rose (NY) Jon's experience in living through a college closure at St. Joseph's (IN) in 2017 and in analyzing what went wrong at the college provides the basis for this episode.  He shares what the faculty, staff, and stu...

This week we have still more cutback and layoff announcements.   2 interesting cutback and layoff stories from Mark Oprea at the Cleveland Scene  Tuition deals that won’t work. Forbes Derek Newton and I agree to disagree on the state of higher education. MN and ND dive to the bottom of the pit to get students to enroll in their states I talk about talented, hard working, dedicated faculty and staf...

Today’s podcast includes: does a high tuition price indicate a high quality college?, ugly enrollment increase announcements, Lyon College (AR) wants to build a vet school and dental school, Fitch ratings continues to frown on higher education finances, a story out of Pittsburgh, and 2 more colleges try sports as a financial lifeline. Here is the link to get this podcast sent to your inbox. Show n...

An inside look at how I put a podcast together. . . . . . .  Special Edition Podcast of TWICV. This Small College Was Out of Options. Will Its Creditors Give It a Break? Re:  Lake Erie College in Ohio By  David Jesse and  Dan Bauman    NOVEMBER 13, 2023 https://www.chronicle.com/article/this-small-college-was-out-of-options-will-its-creditors-give-it-a-break?sra=true Credit to David Jesse and Dan...

We talk about the deplorable state of graduation rates in American Colleges. My friend, Kate Colbert offers these analogies: "Buy this car. There's a 50% chance it won't even run 4 years from now." "Just $1,100 for the new iPhone. No warranty. If it arrives dysfunctional, try rebooting it for 4 years and then we'll tell you we're sorry it didn't work out." "Spent $250,000 on a house and paid your...