OT: College of Saint Rose Closing

[UAlbany09]

It’s interesting in that article, it’s mentioned that students want to live on campus more and not in off campus apartments. When I was a student there it seemed like people couldn’t wait to get an apartment off campus. I had a place on Washington across from Beverwyck Park and had a really good time.  I guess that mindset has changed. 

[B9j2j6s]

2 hours ago, UAalum72 said:

UAlbany to embrace roots as a teachers college

plans to add undergraduate education programs, pending approval by SUNY and NYS Dept. of Education, to take in St. Rose students.

 UAlbany also has “interest in some facilities” on the Saint Rose campus

Pure Speculation

I would have to believe the facilities that UA would be interested in are the (Lally) Education building and probably Albertson hall which if memory services had the sciences.  Also maybe the library.  I seem to remember UA in the master plans had a desire for more space for the sciences and library so this would be a quick and relatively cheep gain of space, Albertson hall has a lot of SQ feet.

  Aside from those three I don't see the building with the gym, pool, dinning hall and book store in the basement being of interest.  Same with the dorms.  I have to imagine UA and the State will do something.  The cost of becoming a teacher needs to be affordable for people wanting to pursue it.  No disrespect to Russell Sage but they are more expensive then UA.

 

Edit was able to read the whole TU article.  Maybe UA takes over some of the dorms at Saint Rose should be interesting to see what happens.  Glad we have an Education Undergrad again.

Edited January 25 by B9j2j6s

[cwdickens]

On 12/1/2023 at 10:48 AM, Dane96 said:

As for Union and Skidmore...they are not in trouble in the slightest.  Both have nearly 500 million dollar endowments.  Not so sure about Siena.  Yes, they  had a large freshman class but there are VERY serious financial issues at the school.  Will they survive, very likely so.  Will it impact a lot of things, including basketball expenditures...very likely so. 

There are some concerns at Union College.

Union College’s rating falls

School officials say issues cited by credit analyst are being addressed

 

By Kathleen Moore

Jim Franco/Times Union

The Nott Memorial building on the Union College campus is seen on Tuesday in Schenectady. A credit rating agency has changed its outlook to “negative” on the college, saying it is heading into a multiyear deficit, is giving out too much financial aid and owes too much debt. The college counters that its endowment is robust, and it only used some of it to supplement financial aid to increase enrollment.

Jim Franco/Times Union

Union College’s financial position has a “negative outlook,” credit analyst Moody Investors Service said in an updated report. The college disagrees with the assessment.

SCHENECTADY — A credit rating agency has changed its outlook to “negative” on Union College, saying the college is heading into a multiyear deficit, is giving out too much financial aid and owes too much debt.

However, the college’s credit rating remains A1 — a strong rating for ability to repay short-term debt, according to the update from Moody’s Investors Service.

 

Unlike small colleges that are under extreme financial pressure, and in some cases closing, Union has not seen a decrease in enrollment and does not need to reissue bonds for debt with today’s much higher interest rates.

Instead, the issue is mainly that Union has given out too much financial aid, said Scott Jones, Union College vice president for administration and finance.

While that has kept the college’s enrollment steady, Moody’s said Union must do less “discounting” of full tuition to avoid an operating budget deficit.

Jones agrees.

“The biggest negative factor is our discount rate — that’s the amount of financial aid,” he said. “We’ve been talking about it for months. We’re talking about it this week with our board.”

Union gets two-thirds of its revenue from tuition and other student payments. That’s less than many colleges: The College of Saint Rose, which is closing in June, relied on student payments for 90 percent of its revenue.

But it still means the college is vulnerable and could fall into a deficit if student payments go down.

Moody’s is not confident that the situation will improve. Analysts dropped the college’s outlook from stable to negative because of “expectations of ongoing multi-year operating deficits requiring the use of reserves, resulting in weakening financial reserve levels relative to peers.”

Jones thinks the college is making investments that will lead to more students wanting to attend Union in the next few years. As demand increases, the college won’t have to give out as much financial aid.

Union has rebranded — changing its mascot and logo — and announced Monday a new hockey arena.

“The mascot, the logo, all of that is part of how we have a better discount rate going forward,” he said.

Union is also expanding its engineering and computer science programs.

“Having an engineering school differentiates us from the vast majority of our liberal arts fellow travelers,” he said. “There are schools facing true financial crises that would love to have an engineering school.”

He believes Moody’s thinks all small, private liberal arts colleges have a negative outlook right now. However, that’s not quite true: Moody’s gave Russell Sage College a positive outlook, for the first time ever, last month. But many other similar colleges are being downgraded.

“That sector is under a lot of pressure. They’ve seen a lot of negative downgrades and they’ve seen a lot of poor performance,” Jones said. “We have challenges, like others in this space have, but we have tools that others in this space don’t have, like our endowment.”

Union has an endowment of more than $520 million. The endowment is used for financial aid, among other expenses. By comparison, Saint Rose had a $44 million endowment, which it drew from heavily to stay open in its last four years.

But Union also is paying on $161 million in debt.

Moody’s wants that debt to be lower, calling it “high,” and saying that the college should “gradually de-leverage.”

Jones isn’t worried.

“There are things that keep me awake at night. Debt is not one of them. It’s fixed (interest rate), it’s in a reasonable amount,” he said. “We’re below 30 percent of debt to endowment.”

Moody’s acknowledged that Union has a lot of money: $544 million in total cash and investments, and enough unrestricted cash on hand to last 447 days.

“Wealth levels still provide excellent coverage of both expenses and adjusted debt,” Moody’s said, but added that analysts want even better cash flow.

“The ability to achieve fiscal balance will be largely determined by management’s ability to implement expense cutting measures without impairing the college’s competitive position,” Moody’s said.

Jones is confident that Union is improving its competitive position.

“Higher education is changing and the strong will survive. Those who are best in the position to educate students in future pedagogy like AI will survive,” he said. “We have to position ourselves even stronger in these investments. We are confident and bullish.”

“We have challenges, like others in this space have, but we have tools that others in this space don’t have.”
Scott Jones, Union College vice president for administration and finance