Since the start of the global pandemic, we’ve taken notice of the dozens of small schools which have been forced to merge with nearby schools or shutter altogether. These closures have affected the lives of not only the faculty and staff, but sometimes the student-athletes who represent the schools in intercollegiate competition.
Limestone, one year ago, was close to making a good run in the NCAA Division II women’s lacrosse tournament even after the school held its final commencement.
But it gets worse. Last week, Forbes published a list of 20 colleges and universities which have been borrowing funds, breaking into restricted funds, and even selling real estate to keep their doors open.
The formula used to calculate the schools’ financial health is a three-year average of a metric called UNAEP, sort for Unrestricted Net Assets Exclusive of Plant, which is a measure of actual, spendable cash that a university has on hand.
The school that has the worst three-year average of UNAEP, compared to expenses, is Drew University, with a ratio of minus 123 percent. They also have the highest deficit, at $124.3 million dollars.
Drew is located in a cluster of small colleges in the northern half of the state of New Jersey, and has to compete with the likes of Montclair State, William Paterson, Ramapo, Kean, and Stevens for recruits.
At the other end of Forbes’ list is Rider University, which has a UNAEP of $46.3 million. Rider, located in Lawrence, N.J., has to compete with nearby Princeton and The College of New Jersey for its field hockey players. And somewhere in the middle is Albright College in Reading, Pa., with a UNAEP of $36.2 million.
Now, the mere appearance of these schools on Forbes’ list does not mean an imminent closure of athletic or other programs on campus. However, it has not escaped my notice that another one of the schools, Keystone College, had dropped its field hockey program in 2025 amidst financial and accreditation turmoil.
Last year, Keystone had to merge with the Washington Institute for Education and Research in 2025 to retain accreditation. Earlier this year, the school appointed Courtney Dwyer as head coach, and the school has been diligently working on talent identification camps in order to rebuild the team.
I’m hopeful for the survival of the athletic programs here. But can the university financial people be able to remove the damage that has already occurred?