Last month, Stockton University sent notices offering big bonuses to its highest paid professors and administrators if they agreed to retire early. Stockton claimed it was doing this as “part of a plan to support the school’s long-term fiscal stability.”
Click here for link to Press of Atlantic City article of April 29, 2026: Stockton offers faculty buyouts amid enrollment decline
This week, Stockton admitted that it had long term “structural” problems that had been going on since enrollment began to decline in 2019, seven years ago. According to the Press of Atlantic City:
Stockton University is facing a more than $20 million structural budget deficit for the 2027 fiscal year, President Joe Bertolino said during the school’s Board of Trustees meeting Thursday.
“We have managed that gap in recent years, but we cannot do so indefinitely,” Bertolino said. “The scale of the challenge requires urgency, discipline and thoughtful action to protect Stockton’s long-term stability.”
New student deposits for the school year are down 16% compared to this point last year, Bertolino said. First-time student deposits are down 17% and transfer deposits are down 24%, Bertolino said.
“I have said publicly that Stockton will need to become a smaller university. That does not mean we become less committed, less ambitious or less focused on students,” Bertolino said. “It means we must be more intentional about our size, structure, resources and priorities. This work belongs to all of us. Every division, school, office and member of this community has a role to play in strengthening Stockton’s future.”
As part of the cost-saving measure, there is a freeze on certain hiring actions.
Click here for link to Press of Atlantic City article of May 7, 2026: Stockton University faces $20M budget deficit for 2027
Stockton is now in a perfect financial storm. It went on a hiring spree and paid unsustainable salaries, benefits and pensions. Stockton was used as a cash cow buy political insiders. It built lavish new construction in Galloway Township. It built a whole new campus by the Atlantic City Boardwalk. For a while, Stockton even owned and operated the Seaview Country Club and Golf Resort!
While raising costs and going heavily into debt, Stockton went “woke.” It put indoctrination ahead of academics. It prepared students for careers in scarce government jobs and as low paid “community organizers” for government funded non-profits.
Stockton also ignored basic demographic trends. Fewer Americans are getting married. Fewer are having children.
As a result, student enrollment declined. Roughly 25% of students who enroll in Stockton drop out before graduating.
Click here for link to source: Stockton University Graduation Rate & Retention Rate
Stockton’s reckless expansion also put students and their families into long term debt. Click here for link to source: Student-Debt-for-College-Graduates-in-New-Jersey.pdf
Because of all this, Stockton University is in the same financial condition as Atlantic City government after the 2008 casino collapse. It needs the same drastic action to recover.
According to the Fitch Financial Rating Service:
“Stockton’s adjusted debt at FYE 2024 was $572 million. Fitch calculates adjusted debt as long-term debt ($346 million), debt-equivalent lease obligations ($4 million) and a Fitch-adjusted net pension liability ($222 million)…
“Student-generated revenues comprised about 44% of Fitch-calculated operating revenues in fiscal 2024, with state appropriations at about 31% and with grant/contract revenue of about 24% filling out the revenue pie…”
Click Here for Link to Full FitchRatings Report of March 14, 2025: Fitch Affirms Stockton University, NJ at ‘A’; Outlook Stable
Since 2006, “woke” professors, administrators, big union contractors, real estate speculators, and Wall Street bankers all got rich from Stockton’s reckless expansion. They were paid with $360 million from tax-free bond debt, $222 million promised as unfunded future compensation, $4 million of “debt equivalent lease obligations”, and big hikes in tuitions and fees.
Stockton University needs bold and immediate action to survive. It must again serve the needs of local students as it did when it first opened in 1971. At a minimum, Stockton University must immediately:
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Abandon its Atlantic City campus. Sell its beachfront properties. Get out of debt.
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Fire its overpaid “woke” professors. Hire more lower paid adjuncts with real world experience.
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Attract students by cutting tuition and again teaching useful skills and disciplines.
Republicans need to unify and demand the legislation needed to do that. They don’t have to create anything new. They just have to apply the “Municipal Stabilization Act” they made for Atlantic City in 2016 to Stockton University and other “woke” and broke NJ colleges.
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If Stockton can’t manage its own affairs then why should they have the authority and power to presume to prepare students for … what?
Exactly. Stockton University is a classic example of the failure of socialism– using and stealing from others to gain wealth and power, while claiming to “progressive” and “compassionate.”
Hello Seth:
I really appreciate your views and the effort you put into “the cause”. Your voice is like a cool drink in the middle of an information desert. Have you seen our governor on TV lately? or any of our prominent politicians? or anybody at all,,,,
NO, because there is no TV station in SJ! We are spoon fed garbage news from Philly and NY and starved of any local and state coverage. That’s why the republican lost the gov. race. At our place in N. Carolina there are three local TV stations with many local politicians voicing their views. We need at least two TV stations in our state for north and south Jersey.
Stockton as well as many of our schools from Kidergarten to Colleges/Universities need to get back to TEACHING & STOP the crazy “woke” ideas/ideals into our children’s heads. All it does is create confused, Illiterate, indoctorinated adults who have less skills & academic knowledge preventing them from moving forward in a lucrative career or trade. Our education system has failed in creating independent & creative individuals who can readily apply themselves to be self-sufficient with no need to depend on their parents!