This Week In College Viability (TWICV)

 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 with founder Alby Salsa the impact of FAFSA delays, graduation rates, and student retention.

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 Carlson  Chronicle - What’s Really Behind the View That Higher Ed Isn’t Worth It?
• WIU spring enrollment down 500 students, international numbers still high
• Athletics in the Small-College Marketplace
• Cabrini University does the closure process well.

This week's podcast episode has news and commentary on:

1. Top heavy Cornell
2. The FAFSA delay
3. Spin. Spin. Spin.  This time I will drill through the laughable spin that SIU Carbondale is putting on its Spring 2024 enrollment.
4. Spin. Spin. Spin.  Take 2:   Sarasota Spring (NY)
   NOTE:  I will 'go to the data' for both.
5. UConn has good basketball programs, but serious budget issues.
6. Possible book title:  How NOT to run a college in the 21st century.  (Webster University)
7. What would an episode of TWICV be without a story about Birmingham Southern College.  This time we drill down on their president’s ChatGPT-generated responses to questions from the Birmingham Business Journal.

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 discussion, some of the questions I ask are:

1. What happens to higher education in the next 1-5 years?
2. If faculty can't adapt, can the higher education industry be reasonably expected to adjust to changing market conditions?
3. Do they see more and more families moving to the relative safety of public colleges over private colleges.  (Note:  they make an interesting observation about regional public colleges.)

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 recent postings.
1. How Many Swings Can You Afford to Get a Hit?  Larenda strongly encourage colleges with clear financial challenges to consider new partnership models.

2.  "Financial Reserves Build Institutional Resilience for Colleges and Universities" She touches on the special challenges for smaller, private colleges.

3.  "Tuition Pricing: When the Road Less Traveled May Not Be the Best Solution."  Ms. Mielke discusses what KaufmanHall is seeing with its clients and others.

Special Note:  The 2024 version of the College Viability app is out very shortly.  'Click here to reserve a seat for one of the 8 FREE webinars I will host in February and March.

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

Rick Seltzer’s Jan 24 email newsletter focused on deferred maintenance at colleges - When maintenance can’t be deferred (No link available)

Western Oregon University Adopts New Grading System

Chasing Tuition Coupons is Changing College Choices

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.  How do we assess those differences?

These and other topics are discussed with Ann Rutledge.  Ann is co-founding principal, CEO and strategist for CleanFintech, S.L., based in Bilbao, Spain, and in the US, CreditSpectrum, a free-market credit rating agency.  

The reverse podcast involves Ann asking me questions about bonds and colleges' financial health and viability.

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

1. A lot of community colleges news this week
2. A new college closures announced in PA.
3. More doom and gloom enrollment predictions
4. Vandy is allegedly boss and manager heavy
5. Yet another short-notice announcement of layoffs.  This time at another public college.

Show Note Links to stories:

Strategic YSU plan calls for layoffs, new hires   [Youngstown State U]

Christian Colleges Try Eliminating Tuition to Draw Students

CUNY Mass Layoffs and Class Cuts Come Just Weeks Before New Semester

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to end its college degree programs

Experts predicted dozens of colleges would close in 2023 – and they were right

Vanderbilt has 1 administrator for every 2 students: analysis

Queens College Lays Off 26 Faculty Two Weeks Before Spring Semester

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 it does.  If I can be a part of changing the college discussion and perspective for students, faculty, staff, community leaders and others, college leaders won’t call me a fiduciary – that’s their job.  They will have to react to market changes and the data comparisons I provide through the CV App 

Today’s stories include:

'Egregious failure': Union Institute

 I ask yet again what are these accrediting agencies doing?  These issues didn’t pop up in November 2023. Grad rates have been pathetic and not even reported in some years.

New efforts to entice students to go to college

How will FAFSA’s  rocky roll out impact colleges?

If hospitals can do it, why can’t colleges?  Hint:  M&A

What is Quality Earnings for colleges?

Show Note Links:

A campaign to prod high school students into college tries a new tack: Making it simple

4 Disruptive Trends For Higher Ed In 2024

‘Frustration All Around’: The FAFSA’s Rocky Rollout

Report: College Education Or Training Will Be ‘The Only Pathway’ To Good Jobs

'Egregious failure': Union Institute loses federal aid, fined millions for misuse of funds

TAYLOR UNIVERSITY DETAILS $100M MASTER PLAN

West Liberty University Announces Tuition Free Toppers Program (WV)

Quality Earnings:  Contact me at [email protected] for more.