FB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Dr. Doolittle]

Trust in the L#$@ mentality.   Like when Yellen said the economy is not in a recession.  You just can't fix stupid!!

[SagatagSam]

I've posted this on the MIAC board, but since fiscal strength seems to be the topic of the day, I figured I'd share here as well.

Forbes released its "Strongest And Weakest Colleges In America — Behind Forbes 2022 Financial Grades" this past June.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2022/06/09/the-strongest-and-weakest-colleges-in-america---behind-forbes-2022-financial-grades/?sh=3abbc937ffad

I went through and compiled the fiscal "GPA" according to Forbes and put it in table form for all D3 football schools. Obviously, you can pick apart the methodology if you wish, and there are many other factors not captured in the data from Forbes, so it is not gospel by any means. It does, however, provide an interesting place to start a conversation.

Here's what the SCIAC looks like according to Forbes:


The ranking in the first column is out of 205 NCAA D3 football schools whose information was available to Forbes. I also divided all of these schools into five quintiles. First quintile is the "best" and the fifth quintile is the "worst." I included Occidental and Whittier on this chart even though they no longer sponsor football, just so you can see where they stand in the rankings.

[SagatagSam]

I also put all the data together by conference to show the "strength" of each conference in terms of the Forbes data. Same disclaimer applies. I merely took the data from Forbes and put it in table form.

The SCIAC has the "^" indicator because of the inclusion of Occidental and Whittier (recent non-football schools)
The SAA has the "#" indicator because Sewanee did not have available data for Forbes to utilize and so the conference scores may be skewed
Any conference with the "*" indicator has a state-sponsored institution(s) not included in the Forbes data. For example, the E8 has "***" because there are three state schools in the conference, whereas, the UMAC has a single "*" because of one state school (University of Minnesota-Morris).

[10Freeway]

Got word that Redlands made over 20 layoffs last week of full time employees which included shutting down the Student Health Center.  Tough days ahead for liberal arts institutions.

[SagatagSam]

Got word that Redlands made over 20 layoffs last week of full time employees which included shutting down the Student Health Center.  Tough days ahead for liberal arts institutions.

It's always tough to tell if these cuts are part of a sensible "becoming leaner and meaner" strategy or if it is because revenue has dropped to where certain roles are being cut out of necessity to stay solvent. The former is more out of foresight and would generally be considered healthy. The latter is more like emergency crash landing measures. Given the current climate, I think we all fear the worst when we hear about these kinds of things.

[10Freeway]

Leaner and meaner, not words you like to hear when paying 70K to attend an institution.  Things like a health center should be part of those fees.  I know the UR has had some major turn over in the past year or two.  Of C level executives, that is not a good thing.

[SagatagSam]

Leaner and meaner, not words you like to hear when paying 70K to attend an institution.  Things like a health center should be part of those fees.  I know the UR has had some major turn over in the past year or two.  Of C level executives, that is not a good thing.

Right!

Students: "So, since _______ is closing, we get a discount on our tuition and fees, right?"

Admin: *crickets*

[Dr. Doolittle]

Leaner and meaner, not words you like to hear when paying 70K to attend an institution.  Things like a health center should be part of those fees.  I know the UR has had some major turn over in the past year or two.  Of C level executives, that is not a good thing.

Right!

Students: "So, since _______ is closing, we get a discount on our tuition and fees, right?"

Admin: *crickets*
That is good!!

[SagatagSam]

Something that is relevant to the ongoing enrollment erosion/shift in the United States:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-high-school-grads-forgo-college-in-hot-labor-market-c052c773

Here are the highlights:

- The college enrollment rate for recent U.S. high-school graduates, ages 16 to 24, declined to 62% last year from 66.2% in 2019, just before the pandemic began, according to the latest Labor Department data. The rate topped out at 70.1% in 2009.

- Last year 66.1% of women who graduated from high school, ages 16 to 24, enrolled in college, nearly 10 percentage points higher than the rate for young men.

- The number of apprentices has increased by more than 50%, according to federal data and the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

[SagatagSam]

Something that is relevant to the ongoing enrollment erosion/shift in the United States:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-high-school-grads-forgo-college-in-hot-labor-market-c052c773

Here are the highlights:

- The college enrollment rate for recent U.S. high-school graduates, ages 16 to 24, declined to 62% last year from 66.2% in 2019, just before the pandemic began, according to the latest Labor Department data. The rate topped out at 70.1% in 2009.

- Last year 66.1% of women who graduated from high school, ages 16 to 24, enrolled in college, nearly 10 percentage points higher than the rate for young men.

- The number of apprentices has increased by more than 50%, according to federal data and the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

And, it's worth noting that we haven't even hit the worst of the "demographic cliff," which is scheduled to see it's most substantial drop offs in 2026.

[OzJohnnie]

I think there is a lot of fat to trim. This data is from just one school but is reflective of the industry, and I don't know the specifics of Redlands, but the growth in non-teaching staff (ie, non-client facing, revenue generating staff) has been so high for so long in higher ed as to be irresponsible.  You can only carry so many people who aren't delivering customer value before these productivity anchors sink the whole ship.

[olddog]

About 30 years ago Chapman had a financial problem, brought in a business counsel led by Argos and wella...one of the better schools on the west coast. I wonder if any schools will attempt this move since it worked, or just go woke and broke?

[Gray Fox]

About 30 years ago Chapman had a financial problem, brought in a business counsel led by Argos and wella...one of the better schools on the west coast. I wonder if any schools will attempt this move since it worked, or just go woke and broke?

One of the things Chapman did was start a film school with a high reputation.  My little cousin here in Dallas had it as her dream school because she wants to make movies.  I think she is going to settle for Emerson in Boston.

[10Freeway]

The problem with Liberal Arts schools is that they have a bunch of educators trying to run a business.  The only reason government schools survive like this is they have our tax money.  LA schools need tuition dollars.  They do not understand how to manage a business.  Does UR still have buildings without AC?

[Dr. Doolittle]

About 30 years ago Chapman had a financial problem, brought in a business counsel led by Argos and wella...one of the better schools on the west coast. I wonder if any schools will attempt this move since it worked, or just go woke and broke?

Those were the days when I was a student athlete at Chapman College (D2-sccholarship school then) and the school was 1/5 the size in campus size and enrollment.  Since then, they have grown a lot, but it is now quite left and has changed.  CLU seems to also have change in recent years.