This Week In College Viability (TWICV)

TWICV News and Commentary for January 19, 2026

This is the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data, details and perspectives offered nowhere else.

This week:

+ California College of the Arts, Will Close in 2027

+ Hampshire College warned of potential closure by auditors

+ After Protests Over Cuts, Mary Baldwin U.'s President Resigns and Some Minors Are Restored

+ A company helping colleges avoid reinventing the wheel.

+ Another state talks public college consolidation

+ And, of course, much more.

Make sure to forward the podcast link to your Higher Education friends.  No sense in just you getting latest news and commentary on the whole industry

Want to start your own podcast, I use Riverside.fm.  Click here to get access to start your show.

Show notes:

San Francisco’s Last Remaining Private Art School, the California College of the Arts, Will Close in 2027

What We Will Lose When California College of the Arts Closes

UT-Arlington offers employee buyouts amid federal funding cuts, officials say

Hampshire College warned of potential closure by auditors

A College Missed Its Enrollment Goal by Nearly Half. What Happened?

After Protests Over Cuts, Mary Baldwin U.'s President Resigns and Some Minors Are Restored

5 Fall 2025 Enrollment Takeaways

How Oregon’s top higher ed board wants to solve university deficits

This week:

+ Closed college bails on faculty and students.  Don’t let this happen to you.

+ Universities cut over 9,000 jobs in 2025

+  How about a public college that graduated 6% of its students in 2023 getting public funds to build a multi-million dollar STEM building?

+ Is there a coordinated effort by some in higher education to write stories trying to deny that the industry is in decline?

INTRO:   Always add:  forward podcast link to your Higher Education friends.  No sense in just you getting latest news and commentary on the whole industry

Show notes and link:
Free MyCollegeViabilty.com financial health report on private colleges

Start your own podcast.  I use Riverside.fm.  Here is a link.

Now I have to start over' | Students left in dark after Martin University closes

Struggling Western Mass. college misses enrollment goal by half

Universities cut over 9,000 jobs in 2025 as Trump targets federal funding: report

Rider University Creates $2M ‘Hope’ Fund to Help Students Pay Tuition as it Faces Cuts, Layoffs

UC San Diego math weakness story has legs.

After No-Confidence Vote, University Of Nebraska Chancellor To Resign

The college backlash is a mirage

The curious disconnect between the data and the vibes of higher education

Sitting in front of the Blue Yeti microphone and the smooth running Riverside.fm podcast software.

As ‘Your College Financial Quality Control Advocate’  This is the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data, details and perspectives offered nowhere else.  I talk about delusional colleges, regurgitation reporting, 

And College Viability is Higher Education’s NORAD.  Our data radar tells you which incoming colleges are risky and which will safely deliver an education package.

Today:

+ Martin University terminates staff (without pay), encourages students to transfer

+ Rider University (NJ)  placed on probation

+ A potential college president foot-in-mouth story

+ Another college tries to spin bad news into a ‘Comeback kid’ kind of story

+ From Dow Jones Market Watch and Morningstar:  ‘They're in their 60s and still paying off student loans. College debt in America now lasts a lifetime.’

INTRO:   Always add:  forward podcast link to your Higher Education friends.  No sense in just you getting latest news and commentary on the whole industry

Want to use Riverside.fm for your podcast.  Click here to access.   BTW, I am a new affiliate with Riverside

The final 2025 podcast for This Week in College Viability.

This is the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data, details and perspectives offered nowhere else.

This week's stories include: 

+  Lots of layoff and cutback stories today

+ A college without a library.  (Bloomberg News story I was quoted in) That is the position that Albright College since 2019

+ Merry Christmas from your friendly accreditor
 
+ College Bankruptcies Are Coming

+ The Higher education market is adjusting:  Case in point:  Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wants merger of higher education and labor departments

Show notes and links:

+ Oklahoma regents vote to cut 41 ‘low-producing’ academic programs

+ Enrollment declining at WIU campuses  (Western Illinois University)

+ Martin University’s abrupt closure disrupts student plans, angers alumni

+ Guilford College comes off accreditor probation after budget cuts

+ Christian Brothers University out of financial probation after 2 years

+ College of Idaho’s ‘shift’ of resources comes with layoffs

+ Why a College Fighting for Survival Is Slashing Econ and Physics Majors

+ The Price of Waiting Too Long to Close

+ College Bankruptcies Are Coming

+ Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wants merger of higher education and labor departments

+ The College Viability Manifesto

Greg Pillar answers these questions on this special podcast episode of 'This Week in College Viability'.

1. "Enrollment teams are obviously focused on hitting the numbers, often relying on GPA and test scores. In your experience, why are those metrics failing to predict a student’s actual readiness for the modern college environment?"

2. "If Enrollment focuses on 'getting them in' and Academics focuses on 'teaching them,' who is responsible for the transition? Where are students falling through the cracks during that hand-off?"

3. "Instructional capacity is often overlooked in the viability conversation. Are we asking faculty to do the impossible by putting modern learners into outdated academic infrastructures?"

4. "Headlines about program cuts are usually framed as 'Faculty vs. Administration.' What is the nuance that the media almost always misses

5. "If a college accepts a student, they are making a promise of viability. Do schools have a moral obligation to stop enrolling students they are not structurally prepared to graduate?"

6. What is the 'tuition mirage'?

7. There was a west coast faculty post today about AI becoming a better teacher than teachers.  That may or may not happen.  Talk us through a scenario what that does happen in higher education.

It is, of course, the holiday season.  Sitting here in front of the Blue Yeti microphone, I have to wonder how many college leadership scrooges are out there.  The Yeti microphone and I look at college finances constantly.  It is almost certain, that even during this holiday season, there are colleges on the brink of announcing they cannot continue.

And on that happy note, this is the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data, details and perspectives offered nowhere else.

This week:

+ Closures, cutbacks, and exigency requests

+ OSU to end 8 majors.  Continuing the recent trend that colleges cannot be everything to everybody

+ 6-year grad rates – are they the standard now?

+ Dysfunctional U (aka University of Tulsa) is exposed in an excellent piece by Megan Zahneis [Zay-knees] Dec 2 in the Chronicle of HE

+ First come closures.  Then come real-estate vultures.

+ 2 college employees (one faculty and one administrator) whine in social media.  That happens all the time.  These two just caught my attention.

+ And more . . .

Show notes and links:

University of Lynchburg offers faculty buyouts to address finances

Here’s what to know about Calvin University’s (MI) 12.5% faculty reduction, program cuts

University of Providence (MT) asks board to allow financial exigency

Ohio State likely to end eight majors, over 350 courses in Senate Bill 1 compliance

U.S. Six-Year College Graduation Rate Stays at 61%

The Ambition Trap How the U. of Tulsa chased enrollment and prestige — but chiefly grew its deficit instead.

The Opportunity in Bankrupt Colleges

LI POST Dr. Crystal E Garcia Associate Professor of Educational Administration at UN Lincoln

How about Whine story #2:  Another LI post

Further Negative Projections for Higher Ed in 2026

TWICV News and Commentary for December 1, 2025

This is the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data, details and perspectives offered nowhere else.

 + Rider President Says the University Will Survive (That’s a tough sell when I look at the data.)

+ A study of 44 private colleges in the northeast by Michael Horn and Steven Shulman.   More data to support my premise that higher education will continue to move through its consolidation era: closures today.  Mergers tomorrow.

+ Daniel Greenstein:  How Selectivity Shapes Financial Resilience in Private Higher Education

+NBC news jumps on the college bad news bandwagon.

+ and more. . . .

Make sure to forward podcast link to your Higher Education friends.  No sense in just you getting latest news and commentary on the whole industry

Show notes and links

Rider President Says the University Will Survive

The Financial Risk of Declining Enrollment to Midsize Colleges

The price of admission:  How Selectivity Shapes Financial Resilience in Private Higher Education

Poll: In a dramatic shift, Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

This Thanksgiving week podcast includes stories on:

+ We are now ‘sunsetting’ programs and majors.

+ Columbia considers expanding undergraduate enrollment by up to 20 percent   (I wonder why?_

+ Rider U’s financial and accreditation troubles continue to make news.

+ In a dog bites man story:  University Of Nebraska Faculty Senate Votes No-Confidence Against its  Chancellor

+ When grades stop meaning anything (UC San Diego story from last week) Kelsey Piper on her Substack site

Show notes:

My email:  [email protected]

Simmons University proposes sunsetting five undergraduate majors during Town Hall

UCF lays off more than 60 employees as federal research funding dries up

Columbia considers expanding undergraduate enrollment by up to 20 percent

A major N.J. university is on ‘probation.’ Here’s what that means for students

N.J. university plans to cut 25% of professors — but its union is pushing back

Dept of Ed changes ……LI Post

Colleges ease the dreaded admissions process as the supply of applicants declines

University Of Nebraska Senate Votes No-Confidence Against Chancellor

When grades stop meaning anything

2 weeks after Trinity Christian closure announcement, Palos Heights knows little about college sale plans

TWICV News and Commentary for November 17, 2025

This is the podcast that talks about the financial health and viability of public and private colleges with data, details and perspectives offered nowhere else.

Where are we headed this week before Thanksgiving 2025?

+  It wouldn’t be a show without cutbacks and layoffs.  We had a closure announcement last week, but the college was so small, it did warrant big headlines.

+ Wittenberg U in Ohio:  On probation.  I will have the data for you.

+ Utica college president moves to get the college financially sound and it looks like he was chased out because of it.

+ Student protests at Mary Baldwin University (VA) because of cuts to minors.

+ I have a college president who, after the fact, says ‘we wanted to be smaller anyway’

+ Why Free Community College Is Missing The Mark In Massachusetts

+ and of course much more. . .

Show notes and links:

N.J. (Rider) university in financial crisis will lay off 40 professors, cut everyone’s pay

Keene State to lay off staff positions, asking faculty to retire after state cuts

Accreditor places Wittenberg on probation, citing ongoing financial problems

President of (Utica) university in Northeast steps down amid layoff threats, financial woes

Students protest Mary Baldwin University's decision to discontinue academic minors

Drexel’s first-year enrollment plummets by nearly twenty percent (corrected to 19.3%)

Change the Game and the Name of 'College Admissions'

Report finds UC San Diego freshmen not prepared for college-level math, writing classes

Why Free Community College Is Missing The Mark In Massachusetts

The headlines for November 10, 2025:

+ A college closure in Illinois.  How many more colleges are having that discussion?

+ IHE:  14 colleges with cutbacks and layoffs in October.

+ In Nebraska, faculty oppose academic program cuts

+ Accreditors move to control innovation

Show notes and links.

Suburban Trinity Chistian College to close at end of academic year due to financial challenges

October Brought Deep Cuts at Multiple Campuses

How Title IV Compliance Should Serve as Higher Education's New Strategic Planning

University of Nebraska-Lincoln committee opposes most academic program cuts

Pulling Back the Curtain on College Prices

Accreditors Launch Efforts to Endorse Short-Term Credential Providers

How college leaders can own the narrative about a major restructuring

Public college completion is heading in the wrong direction. One school is bucking the trend.