Rider University Creates $2M ‘Hope’ Fund to Help Students Pay Tuition as it Faces Cuts, Layoffs
“allocated entirely to provide immediate financial support for students whose education may be at risk due to unforeseen financial or family hardship”
Tuition for this school is more than $40,000 per year. The entire system of higher education needs to change.
NJ.com reports:
N.J. university facing layoffs and cuts creates $2M ‘hope’ fund to help students pay tuition
A newly-created Rider University fund for assisting students with unanticipated financial or family hardships has received more than $2 million in pledged donations as the school grapples with a financial crisis, campus officials said.
The success of the Presidential Hope Fund came as Rider prepared to lay off up to 35 full-time faculty members by the end of 2025. The university also reduced salaries of most employees by 14% starting in December in response to being placed on probation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education due to its financial problems.
Officials at the private university in Mercer County are not drawing a connection between the Presidential Hope Fund and the school’s financial challenges.
Donations to the fund will be “allocated entirely to provide immediate financial support for students whose education may be at risk due to unforeseen financial or family hardship,” a university spokesperson said.
Rider President John R. Loyack has pledged to personally contribute $250,000 over the next three years, according to university officials. That is an increases over the $150,000 he initially pledged.
Loyack said the fund’s purpose is to prevent any student from being “left behind when they face a temporary setback.”
“Whether it’s support for books and class materials because a student lost their part-time job or assistance to pay an unexpected medical bill — the fund is meant to address a variety of circumstances and needs,” Loyack said in an update on the university’s website.
To apply, a student must have already pursued regular financial assistance through Rider that was deemed “insufficient, unavailable, or not available in a timely manner,” the university said.
Rider’s annual tuition and fees are $43,515 for the 2025-26 academic year, not including room and board.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
It is a sad reality that most college mark up their stated tuition level to help fund the financial aid needs of other students. However, if a college is having difficulty maintaining enrollment, it is difficult to raise tuition, so some other method is needed to fill the financial gap.
The reason behind this news story is that tuition for a student’s second, third or fourth year is expected to grow at unforeseen rate beyond the first year tution level.. If a college is cutting 35 faculty, its cost structure is out of line with a viable financial model. The story does not say how many, if any, of the fired faculty have tenure.
Higher education is nearing the terminal phase of a classic bubble, similar to the subprime housing/real estate/banking fiasco from a generation ago. Most people with any sense know how this will end, with a mammoth correction, but that probably won’t get really painful until the Gen X and their Millennial tuition paying parents realize that they have sold their future financial security for essentially worthless degrees. A whole generation now will have to postpone or even forego marriage, children, home ownership and any hope for a decent retirement. So of course they’ll want to deny this is happening for as long as possible, which will make the collapse even more abrupt and dramatic. If there is a way to short academic stocks I’d be all in right about now.
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