My alma mater, Southwestern University, is one of the few liberal arts oriented universities in Texas. While it has a strong academic reputation, the fact that it does not have an engineering or technology program means that there are not as many well paid graduates than in other programs.
A few years ago, gender balance became an issue. When I was a student in the mid-1980s the university was 55% female, but by 2010 it was 62% female. That also had an impact on donations to the endowment fund because of the gender gap in wages among the graduates. In 2013, Southwestern revived is football program after it was cut in 1950. The football team started with 96 freshman volunteering for the team and in the fourth year of the program they won their conference. It was an expensive proposition to start a Div. III program (no athletic scholarships), but the move was successful in addressing the gender balance issue and increasing donations to the endowment.
I wonder if there was a gender balance problem at SVC since it was liberal arts oriented and it also had a nursing program? If the college wasn't creating much wealth among the alums then I can understand why it had financial issues.
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