Merger Candidates: Canisius, Ithaca and Skidmore
Gary Stocker on three New York private schools
We are pleased to be cross-posting research from Gary Stocker of College Viability on New York State private colleges. See also Gary’s piece focussing on Ithaca College.
By Gary Stocker
You can read the summary and watch Gary present his findings in more detail on YouTube.
It wasn't until I searched Google Maps and saw the proximity of these 3 private, New York state colleges that I realized the possibilities.
3 successful private colleges who among them in the past 6 reported years have:
Lost about 1,300 students. (Note 1,000 of those losses came from Canisius College.)
Expenses exceeded revenues by over $70M from 2014-2019 (the last year of data reported to IPEDS).
Total 2019 endowment values for the three is more than $800M.
2019 core revenues were about $380M. It is concerning to note that those revenues are down over $50M during this 6-year period.
Core expenses increased about $25M. (Most of that was in the $14M decrease from Canisisus.)
6-year graduation rates in 2019 are really strong: Canisius (73%) Ithaca (74%) and Skidmore (88%), respectively.
Alarmingly, the expenses per student for institutional (administrative) costs has increased almost 25% for the group. This may be the single most significant indicator that consolidation of non-academic labor is needed to get better scale on those costs.
These colleges aren't going to close - or anything close to that. But each has already had some form of layoffs and furloughs. Program cuts almost always follow.
I used the word "merge" in the title of this blog. (It made you look.) At this point, the form of consolidation is flexibile. I always encourage joint ventures to separate the academic operations from the non-academic ones. See Michael B. Goldstein's 2010 article: "Cracking the Egg: Preserving the College While Protecting the Core"
Here is a quick look at key points of the consolidation.
Keep the sports teams.
Keep the cultures.
Consolidate marketing and admissions - there is alot of scale to be leveraged. Looking at admissions rates and percent yield, Skidmore is clearly a much more selective college. Leverage that market perception to help the recruiting at the other two.
Integrate the core academics.
Expand the specialty degrees and programs.
Eliminate the redundant and expensive duplicate of executive labor.
