DEPAUL U financial woes

DePaul overexpanded in the 2010s and it is dependent on high school graduates in the Chicago area, which are on the decline. Half of DePaul students come from Chicago or its suburbs.

A $56 million loss is not terminal for DePaul given that it is well managed and has a stronger than average endowment ($825 million). Some concern, however, should be paid for small-enrollment Catholic schools with endowments under $90 million. Some familiar Jesuit names on this list include Detroit-Mercy ($83 million), Rockhurst ($45 million) St. Peter's NJ ($37 million), and Spring Hill, AL ($19 million). 

So what you're saying is the MAAC is on thin ice. 

Here is a link to the Forbes 2022 list.

www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2022/06/09/the-strongest-and-weakest-colleges-in-america---behind-forbes-2022-financial-grades/?sh=553a033affad

You are correct. Assume it’s largely tied to the new construction and higher interest rates. This is Phreek’s lane.  

Enrollment numbers are down nationally. Self identified religious affiliation down across the board. The liberal arts are facing challenges.
It seems there is likely to be a further culling of the herd with only those schools with the strongest financials surviving. I suspect RC schools will be especially hard hit as have been RC high schools.
It appears HC has been proactive in building & broadening. PVR is on his way to becoming a once in a generation transformative leader.(Hope it continues. Don't want him to enter the Transfer Portal.)Interest rates were low. It was a good time to spend other people's money on construction to broaden the appeal of the school. Of course athletics success is a part of the equation.
Next will be massive fund raising to double the endowment, pay down debt and provide greater student financial support and higher faculty & staff salaries. Gotta' get the best to be the best. 
School of Dreams: If you build a great school students will come? HC is a great school and will attain ever greater heights. GoCrossGo

As someone who got their M.Ed. from DePaul, seeing the institution in a negative light is naturally both disconcerting and a bit saddening. With that said, generally speaking, DePaul is still a reasonably wealthy Catholic institution home to numerous programs which attract a strong pool of students who want to spend 4-5 years in Chicago for their undergrad work or 2-4 years conducting their graduate work. DePaul also has a wide array of online undergrad/grad options which gives the institution a global reach in the post-Covid world. I believe this will prove to be beneficial since it aligns with DePaul's commuter roots due to the school's unique split campus set-up. Granted, I would like to see DePaul increase the residential offerings at the Lincoln Park campus given how nice the neighborhood is (safe and secure!) combined with the bucolic nature of the campus itself. While having the Driehaus and Kellstadt Colleges of Business downtown offers some unique educational and personal experiences, I believe DePaul would benefit if it was at Lincoln Park. DePaul also operates on the quarter system which is unique in the world of higher education. From an undergrad perspective I don't find it to be beneficial in terms of a student's academic engagement as well as attracting students who are generally "conditioned" to the traditional semester model. Grad students like it because their programs move along a good clip which keeps classes fresh and engaging while they juggle other aspects of their personal and professional lives. Competing with nearby Loyola is not an easy task. As nice as DePaul is by urban standards, Loyola is one of the nicest campuses in the country. Plus, they hold the Jesuit clout relative to DePaul's Vincentian roots (St. John's and Niagara being the other Vincentian universities).

Then there's DePaul basketball. What a mess....

As Forbes acknowledges, using a dataset that is based only on 2019-20, i.e., from either June/July 2019 to May/June 2020, introduces financial perturbations associated with the COVID pandemic and the closing of many campuses in the spring of 2020. Forbes financial scorecard for 2023 will also be affected by COVID-related effects, but to a lesser degree. The rankings that come out in 2024, which will be based on fiscal 2022, will represent a return to normal.

A poster made reference to HC's long term debt potentially being a factor. BC's long-term debt as of May 31, 2022 was $1.542 billion. (BC is graded A by Forbes.) HC's long-term debt on July 1, 2022 was $242 million. BC had 15,577 students in fiscal 2022, HC about 3,100. BC had a higher debt-per-student.  Note, I did not go back to financial statements for fiscal 2020.

The short answer, and the long answer as well, is 'No'.  BC's audited financial statement for the year used by Forbes (fiscal 2019-20) aggregates all its investments into three categories:  equities, fixed income, and real assets.  That's it. 

Holy Cross breaks out its investments into more categories than does BC, but for a very refined level of investment asset allocation, see these two tables from MIT's audited financial statement for fiscal 2020.

As usual, I will showcase my ignorance but outside of Phreek, I can't recall anyone else using a debt per student standard. 

Not sure if this analogy works but if a family of 4 owes $1 million ($250K per family member) and another family of 8 owes the same $1 million ($125K per family member) which family is better/worse off?

My gut tells me that it depends on many other factors than the number in the family or the number of students. 

In my analogy, yes the smaller family has a greater debt per family member but what if those 4 members are working Mom, Dad and 2 25-30 year olds working and the family of 8 is working Dad, Mom at home taking care of 6 kids under 16 years old and all going to school. and not gainfully employed? 

Outside of having more students to get tuition from, the debt per student doesn't seem to be a valuable standard. Then again, despite my ChFC, I was a history major so I'm likely missing the obvious. 

I can see the four year two semester schedule leading to a $300,000 liberal arts degree losing favor. But it's holding up so far among HC's peer group of national liberal arts colleges.

Interesting article in my local newspaper about Rider, which had its debt rating cut for the third time since 2020. At B2, it sits firmly in the "junk" category.

www.towntopics.com/wordpress/2023/05/03/riders-bond-rating-is-downgraded-for-the-third-time-in-three-years/#more-69259