There’s a long history of debate over whether potentially vulnerable colleges should be publicly named.
Colleges, universities and the government entities that regulate them have long been skittish about publishing ratios, metrics and models that seek to make plain which higher education institutions are in financial danger.
Five years ago, for instance, the Department of Education resisted sharing the names of dozens of colleges and universities on its heightened cash monitoring list. In the competitive higher education environment, “any public release of the confidential financial standing of these institutions will likely cause the institutions substantial competitive injury,” a department official wrote at the time.
The department reversed course under pressure in 2015, eventually sharing the names of institutions on different levels of the heightened cash monitoring list, which can restrict how colleges access federal financial aid dollars. Releasing the names was “doing what’s right for good government and transparency’s sake,” then Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell said at the time. The department had to use federal aid in a way that was accountable to students and taxpayers, he further explained.