WEBSTER GROVES 鈥 Even as Webster University was losing tens of millions of dollars a year, its top leaders received five-figure raises, boosting their pay to among the 狐狸视频 region鈥檚 highest-paid college leaders.
Newly obtained financial records show that the university lost more than $128 million over the past decade, including $25 million in each of the past two reported years.
Documents also show that university Chancellor Beth Stroble now makes just under $1 million a year, more than double what she made a decade ago as president. University President Julian Schuster, who oversees the local campuses, makes more than $850,000 a year, more than double what he made as provost a decade ago.
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In January, the university acknowledged financial struggles and a downgrade in its credit rating, and said it had a plan to recover. But just days ago, the university was sued in federal court for failing to pay rent this year at its downtown 狐狸视频 satellite campus. And newly released financial disclosures show that Webster鈥檚 financial and enrollment losses are the worst of comparable private colleges in the metro area.
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But Stroble, in an interview last week, insisted again that Webster has improved. The historically liberal arts college now is focusing on STEM and health sciences programs that she said has led to Webster鈥檚 highest fall enrollment since 2018.
鈥淲hy didn鈥檛 Webster do that 20 years ago? All I can say is we鈥檙e doing it now,鈥 Stroble said. 鈥淎nd we have put the pieces in place in a very strong way with strong buildings, strong faculty, strong programs and strong students.鈥
She referred questions about her pay to the university鈥檚 board of trustees, which has fiduciary oversight of the university.
But 16 of the university鈥檚 17 independent board members either declined or didn鈥檛 respond to a request for an interview. The 17th could not be located.
Experts said higher education in the United States is especially competitive now. There are fewer college-age students, and fewer of them are going to college.
鈥淲e鈥檙e at a fairly unprecedented moment in time in terms of trends that are affecting higher ed,鈥 said Mark Krafft, a higher education analyst and partner at global consultancy firm Bain & Co. 鈥淭his is the most challenging time we鈥檝e seen in the last 20-30 years, potentially ever.鈥
Webster University, nestled in Webster Groves in 狐狸视频 County, has faced financial pitfalls before. During a 1970s budget crunch, it began to target nontraditional students by offering evening programs in 狐狸视频 and across the country at satellite campuses in other cities. It launched programs and classes at U.S. military bases, where it was one of the few universities allowed access. And it was an early adopter of online education.
For many faculty and staff, it was the golden era of Webster.
But by the early 2000s, cracks emerged.
鈥楥anary in the mine鈥
In 2006, then-Webster faculty senate President Jim Brasfield circulated a paper he wrote that warned Webster鈥檚 revenue was slowing. The college faced more competition online and was becoming too dependent on tuition dollars from satellite, military and international campuses, which had started to see costs rise but enrollment fall.
鈥淭he current modest budget problem is the 鈥榗anary in the mine,鈥欌 Brasfield wrote in 2006. 鈥淚t signals a warning that our 30-plus year fiscal strategy may not be viable a decade into the future.鈥
But the university carried on. Webster moved its downtown campus twice in 10 years. It bought and renovated a former palace in Vienna, Austria, to better serve students there, Stroble said. And it opened other international campuses in Ghana in West Africa and, recently, in the former Soviet bloc countries of Uzbekistan and Georgia.
Enrollment hit a peak in fall 2009 with 21,317 students, the same year Stroble was hired to lead the university as president.
That same year, Webster began a years-long decline in enrollment. By the fall of 2021, the count was 10,014, the lowest it had been in 30 years.
Meanwhile, compensation swelled for Stroble and Schuster, who was hired in 2010 as provost.
Total compensation for Stroble and Schuster each rose by more than a third in 2019, the year that Stroble was promoted to chancellor, earning $799,000, and Schuster to president, earning $578,000. Enrollment that fall dropped 8% to 12,179 students over the previous year.
In the 2021-22 school year, Stroble and Schuster received $992,000 and $858,000 in total compensation 鈥 a 5% and 18% increase, respectively, over the prior year, according to the latest available data. Only the chancellor of Washington University, who made $1.6 million, and the president of Maryville University, who made $1.7 million, earned more money that year.
Enrollment at Webster fell 8% that year to 10,014, according to the school.
The school hasn鈥檛 turned a profit since 2013, according to audits from Webster鈥檚 federal bond disclosures. In 2020 and 2021, the school lost $25 million each year.
Making a splash
The Post-Dispatch reached out to several current and former Webster employees for this story. Those interviewed did not want their names published for fear of retribution, but they said morale among faculty and staff has plummeted. There鈥檚 a culture of blaming others across some departments when benchmarks aren鈥檛 met. And employees said it wasn鈥檛 clear whether the administration had seriously considered suggestions from faculty and staff about how to improve financially.
Various departments within the university have cut their budgets to accommodate overall losses. The administration made cuts, too, but some didn鈥檛 make sense to employees, they said, such as eliminating academic subscriptions or the staff barbecue.
There are also fewer tenured professors, who enjoy guaranteed employment and other benefits, and more adjunct professors, who are paid less and have fewer benefits. And while the school avoided layoffs, it didn鈥檛 fill jobs when staffers retired or resigned, so workloads went up and student services declined, employees said.
Brasfield, who wrote the 2006 paper, credited Webster for innovating 50 years ago but said in an email to the Post-Dispatch last week the university would again have to reinvent itself.
鈥淔ifty years ago Webster emerged from a precarious financial position by taking an innovative approach to higher education,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut the environment has shifted over the past decade and undermined Webster鈥檚 basic financial position. Faculty and administration need to once again find inventive adjustments for a changing world of higher education.鈥
Stroble said it has done so.
In recent years, especially since the pandemic, Webster has closed campuses in Thailand and Ghana, as well as several around the country and at military bases. Its campuses in Orlando and San Antonio, Texas, remain open.
Its new campus in Uzbekistan had just a few hundred when it opened in 2019 and now has more than 4,000 students, Stroble said.
At its main campus in Webster, the university built new health sciences and business school buildings as part of its focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The pivot, Stroble said, targets subjects in which today鈥檚 students are interested.
And for this school year, Webster is projecting global enrollment to reach 12,600 鈥 a 20% increase over the previous year.
鈥淲e knew that it would take some time to get back to the pre-pandemic numbers,鈥 Stroble said. 鈥淎nd this year, we鈥檝e done it.鈥
Krafft, the higher ed analyst, said many universities are now turning to STEM fields to bolster enrollment. But it takes years to build a brand, and switching to new programs could jeopardize the student base schools traditionally have drawn from while not luring new students, he said.
鈥淎 big new program and new facilities creates a splash. But are you able to sustain that over time?鈥 Krafft said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the question.鈥