There are so many schools in this position. The dam is going to break, eventually.
Bloomberg News reports:
Largest Catholic University in US Faces $56 Million Budget GapDePaul University is facing financial pressure after the pandemic intensified declining enrollment and widened the Chicago private school’s budget gap.To narrow the growing gap between revenue and expenses the largest Catholic university in the US is starting to cut its budget. It is offering a voluntary separation program to about 15% of the school’s 1,400 full-time staff and administration, according to an April 4 notice by DePaul University President Robert Manuel, faculty are ineligible. School officials project a shortfall of $56 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1, barring cost-cutting measures.Higher education institutions across the country, in particular small private schools without the cushion of a large endowment, are facing financial strain as pandemic stimulus fades and students become increasingly leery of expensive loans at higher interest rates. Many students are even turning to alternative paths after graduating from high school.“DePaul is facing a lot of the same challenges that a lot of their peers are facing, especially in the Midwest,” said Emily Wadhwani, a senior director at Fitch Ratings. Those challenges include post-Covid recruiting as students weigh alternatives, alongside inflation pushing the cost of expenses like wages and utilities higher.University-wide enrollment at DePaul fell 3.5% year over year to 20,917 students in 2022. Since 2018, total enrollment fell 6.8%, with steep declines more recently among graduate students, according to data from the school. Nationally, undergraduate enrollment fell 9% to 15.9 million students between 2009 and 2020, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY