A newly compiled analysis by the U.S. Department of Education and obtained by "The Chronicle" shows that 114 private nonprofit degree-granting colleges were in such fragile financial condition at the end of their last fiscal year that they failed the department's financial-responsibility test. Colleges that fail the test are subject to extra…

The end of the fiscal year usually isn't a momentous occasion for colleges. But this June 30 could be a day of reckoning many never expected. Colleges borrowed billions of dollars over the past decade to improve facilities and fulfill their ambitions. Now the consequences may be about to blow up in their finances. The author reports on how…

By just about every objective measure, the $88-million in debt that Wartburg College has carried since late 2005 poses a risk. The college's debt load--twice the amount that it takes in annually from tuition and other revenue--has raised red flags with its accreditor, alarmed some faculty members, and left Wartburg with a credit rating just one…

This article reports that the credit crisis tying global financing systems into knots has left hundreds of colleges scrambling for cash to pay their bills and to cover the spiking interest on their debts. While it is still unclear to what extent the federal government's new $700-billion bailout package will help unwind the credit tangle, the…