
Rider cuts deficit by $7 million, latest audit shows
By Jake Tiger
After sweeping cuts and a slight uptick in revenue, Rider reduced spending by about $7 million in fiscal 2024, according to the university’s most recent audited financial statements, as Rider continues to navigate an increasingly wobbly higher-education landscape with dwindling enrollment.
Rider has made significant reductions in recent years in its pursuit of a positive operating budget: program cuts, position eliminations and virtually stagnant faculty wages as the cost of living climbs.
Student-body shrinkage
In the 2024 fiscal year, spanning from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, the difference of Rider’s operating revenue and expenses shrank from a $28.2 million deficit to $21.3 million in the red, the audit shows, with most of the change coming from $5.7 million in cuts.
The trimming led to Rider’s operating expenses falling from $146 million in fiscal 2023 to $141 million in fiscal 2024; there were shavings of at least $1 million in each of: instruction and academic support, auxiliary and student services, and institutional support, according to the audit.
“The plan is, ultimately, to get to the point where [the deficit] is a surplus,” said Rider Chief Financial Officer James Hartman. “The challenge here is that, included in [the $21.3 million deficit] and included in your expenses is depreciation. We have about $12 million or so of depreciation.”
Without the depreciation, which is the decrease in value of facilities and other assets over time, and other minor factors, Rider still had a cash deficit of about $7 million at the end of fiscal 2024, the elimination of which is Rider’s current financial focus, Hartman said.
“Healthy institutions cover depreciation,” Hartman said, “although, there aren’t a lot of healthy institutions out there right now.”
At $119 million, Rider’s operating revenue ticked up slightly in fiscal 2024, rising from $118 million in fiscal 2023.
Despite the increase, Rider’s tuition revenue fell by around $2.2 million, as Rider, a tuition-dependent institution, continues to feel the effects of a nationwide, post-COVID dip in college enrollment. Rider’s enrollment revenue, once at $76.3 million in fiscal 2022, came in at $68.9 million in fiscal 2024. Hartman said the university was working on a plan to combat decreasing enrollment and to get Rider to a positive operating budget. He did not share specifics, but said, “We have to continue to find efficiencies where we can. … For us to be able to get rid of this in the long term, we have to grow revenue. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, ‘You can’t cut your way to prosperity.’”
Evelyn McDowell, an associate professor and chair of the university’s accounting department, said, “The biggest problem for Rider is tuition revenue. We are cutting costs, but we’re at the bone right now. … The situation is not going to change until we figure out how to increase tuition revenue.”
She said faculty have not received a “proper” wage increase in almost 10 years, and professors’ supplemental pay for teaching extra courses was cut by 20%.
Increasing liquidity
In fiscal 2024, Rider saw an $11 million jump in its quasi-endowment, which are unrestricted funds, for a total of $16.7 million.
Hartman said the sudden increase resulted from “understanding” donors and trustees unrestricting money that was originally meant for a particular scholarship or program.
“They unrestricted those dollars just to improve Rider’s financial position and to sort of give us a fall back if we ever need to go there, but we’re still awarding the scholarships, we’re still funding programs, so none of that has changed,” Hartman said, calling the extra, unrestricted funds a “fail-safe.”
The statement showed Rider, seeking more liquidity, took out a short-term loan of $4.9 million, which is payable in full June 2025. Hartman said Rider will either pay back the loan by then or extend it another year.
The statement also notes a line of credit Rider entered into in 2017, with the agreement ending Sept. 20, 2024. At the end of fiscal 2024, Rider had $8.8 million outstanding on the line of credit.
“Liquidity is always a concern, and yes, we’ve taken out a little bit more debt just to make sure we have that liquidity,” Hartman said. “You need to have that flexibility and those cash reserves as you get into your lower-cash months … which is mainly the summer.”