Stockton University just voted to raise tuition 3% on working-class families while burning through $24.6 million in reserve funds to cover a budget the school can't afford — and administrators are already warning that harder cuts are coming. Just don't expect those cuts to touch the bureaucracy itself.
The New Jersey public university's board of trustees approved a $302.4 million budget for fiscal 2027, down from $311.8 million the prior year, according to NJ.com. In-state students will now pay $17,256 annually in tuition and fees before room and board. Out-of-state students get hit with $26,016. The hike comes as enrollment has cratered from 9,500 in fall 2019 to roughly 8,300 in fall 2025 — a 12% drop in six years.
State aid is shrinking, too. Under the budget signed by Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Stockton receives $41.8 million, down from $44.4 million, including a sharp cut to its Atlantic City campus — $2.6 million versus $4.6 million the year before.
Here's where the story tells itself: staffing makes up 61% of Stockton's entire annual budget, and workforce costs are projected to rise another 5%, according to a university report to New Jersey lawmakers. The CFO, Jennifer Potter, talked about "rightsizing the university" and "choices that affect programs, services, staffing, and operations." But the voluntary buyouts the school launched in May — offered to faculty in the American Federation of Teachers, the Communications Workers of America, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, and nonunion managers — come with no public numbers on who's actually leaving. The unions didn't even respond to requests for comment.
The pattern is familiar. When institutions of managed decline talk about "hard choices," they mean cutting what students use while protecting what administrators run. Programs get slashed. Services degrade. The DEI offices and associate vice provosts stay.
And accountability? Consider what just happened at College of the Canyons in California. A forensic audit identified $12 million in potentially misused funds — $8 million in contracting fees, $4 million in consulting fees — across more than 700 projects over two decades. Attorneys for the district called the conduct "nothing short of egregious." The DA's Public Integrity Division reviewed the case and declined to file charges, citing insufficient evidence. Both the college and the DA's office have refused to release the audit itself. The former chancellor, Dianne Van Hook, is now suing the district for wrongful termination.
At Stockton, a spokesperson said the university "will continue to examine ways to reduce costs and increase revenue." That's institutional speak for: students will pay more and get less, and the people who mismanaged the enterprise will keep their offices.
The question neither institution wants to answer: when the money runs out and the reserves are gone, who actually takes the hit — the bureaucracy that broke it, or the families who just wanted a shot at an education?
