University of Puerto Rico-Utuado
Composite Fragility Score over time
Pillar trajectories
Institutional debt per student
Total institutional long-term debt (not student loans) divided by full-time-equivalent enrollment, nominal dollars. For public-university systems with centralized bond debt (UC, FL SUS), the system pool is allocated across sibling campuses proportional to FTE.
Latest-year debt per FTE student includes IPEDS-reported plant debt plus the LLM-enriched DSO snapshot (off-balance-sheet bonds at affiliated entities — typically FY 2024 audit values). For University of Puerto Rico System, the system bond pool is the sum of all sibling campuses’ DSO_DEBT_SYSTEM values, allocated to this campus by FTE share — not attributed entirely to the flagship UNITID. The trajectory line shows IPEDS-reported debt only (no DSO) for consistency across years — DSO is a single audit-year snapshot, not a time series.
Athletics & enrollment
Share of undergrads who play varsity sports (EADA, U.S. Dept of Education). A rising ratio over time at a tuition-dependent private is the “athletic ratchet” — adding sports or expanding rosters to fill seats as enrollment pressure mounts. Snapshots taken at ~6-year intervals.
Other
What EADA counts: a student who participated in at least one intercollegiate (varsity) competition during the academic year. Excludes redshirts, JV / developmental rosters, and club sports. The actual athletic-recruit footprint can be substantially larger than this count. At D3 schools, “athletic aid” reads $0 in EADA because institutional merit aid that functions as recruitment subsidy isn’t classified as athletic aid — so the discount-rate signal on this page is the right place to look for that money.
vs 19.4% reported (57)
kept-peer range suggests 15–23% (43–67 athletes)
| Peer | UG | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| University of Puerto Rico-AguadillaPR | 1,732 | 6.2:1 |
| University of Puerto Rico-AreciboPR | 2,525 | 9.6:1 |
| University of Puerto Rico-CarolinaPR(trimmed) | 2,019 | 11.1:1 |
| University of Puerto Rico-HumacaoPR | 2,301 | 7.1:1 |
| University of Puerto Rico at PoncePR(trimmed) | 2,190 | 6.1:1 |
Peers chosen by similarity score: same control + NCAA division weighted highest, plus Carnegie classification and UG enrollment band. The highest and lowest peer ratios are trimmed before averaging so one outlier doesn’t shift the range; the implied range is the school’s coach count multiplied by the kept peers’ min and max ratios, capped at UG enrollment.
Where the money goes
Full functional-expense breakdown from IPEDS F1A (public) / F2 (private) filings. Every card shows nominal dollars, share of total operating expense, and dollars per fall-headcount student. Buckets sum to the reported total.
Administrative spending
Institutional Support (administration) measured two ways, from IPEDS expense-by-function reporting: as a share of total operating expenses alongside Instruction (faculty/teaching), and indexed against net tuition revenue to show whether admin spending tracks the revenue that funds it.
Instruction and Institutional Support as a share of total operating expenses. Instruction is the IPEDS faculty/teaching proxy; Institutional Support is the administrative proxy (executive management, finance, HR, general admin). A narrowing gap means admin is gaining on teaching.
What “admin” means here: Management (OCCUPCAT 300) + Business and Financial Operations (OCCUPCAT 310) full-time staff — the “decision-making admin” headcount. Source: IPEDS S2023_OC survey (Fall 2023). This is a headcount metric, not a dollar metric, so it isn’t contaminated by regional salary differences. Not part of the fragility score; surfaced as descriptive context only.
Program earnings outcomes
From the HEA Group’s January 2026 release of program-level earnings data used in AHEAD negotiations. Each tested program is checked against a same-state high-school-graduate earnings benchmark; programs also subject to OBBBA Gainful Employment lose Title IV eligibility on a fail and are flagged AT RISK.
- Agricultural Production OperationsAssociate · 22 completers in earnings cohortFAIL -2K
- Accounting and Related ServicesBachelor · 27 completers in earnings cohortPASS +10K
- Business Operations Support and Assistant ServicesBachelor · 29 completers in earnings cohortPASS +6K
Source: HEA Group Jan 2026 release using AHEAD-negotiations data. Pooled 2017-18 + 2018-19 completer cohorts; earnings measured CY 2022-23, inflation-adjusted to 2024 (CPI-U). Only programs with sufficient Title-IV completers appear in the test. “AT RISK” = fails the OBBBA Gainful Employment threshold — loss of Title IV eligibility likely, program likely closes.
Notes
Editorial context drawn from manual review of this school’s data, methodology interactions, and external reporting.
Low tuition + 25% margin = heavy state subsidy, not exceptional health
UPR-Utuado is a small UPR campus (368 FTE undergrads) where students pay symbolic tuition — real net tuition per FTE is about $884, against operating expenses of ~$22K/student. Puerto Rico effectively funds the entire operation: state appropriations (F1B11) of $10.1M make up 75% of total revenue ($13.45M). On the books that produces a $5.6M operating surplus — a 41% all-in margin, which the model clamps to its +25% ceiling. The Cash Position pillar still scores 5 rather than 0 (very good) because the state-appropriation-share modifier floors heavily-subsidized publics at "workable" — the headline surplus is real but entirely dependent on continued state funding. One PR-government budget decision away from collapse, not three.
$135K/FTE debt despite tiny size — concentration risk
UPR-Utuado ranks #2 on the per-public debt-per-student leaderboard despite being one of the smallest schools by enrollment. The math: ~$47M in DSO-captured campus-and-system debt (UPR system bonds, after netting against the $4.8M IPEDS-reported F1A10) divided by 368 FTE = ~$128K/FTE. The leaderboard reading is honest — small enrollment + outsized leverage produces real concentration risk. UPR's well-documented system-wide financial crises over the past decade make the underlying signal credible.
Latest-year breakdown (FY 2023-24)
| Pillar | Raw Metric | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Operating Margin | 25.0% | 5 / 25 |
| Pricing Power | $1,529 real net tuition / FTE | 0 / 25 |
| Debt Burden | -0.01 viability ratio | 23 / 25 |
| Liquidity | -28 days cash on hand | 25 / 25 |
Peer schools
Closest by Fragility Score in FY 2023-24. Financial similarity only — geographic / regional clustering is a separate (future) feature.
Selected raw financials — FY 2023-24
GASB / IPEDS Finance F1A. DSO totals from LLM enrichment of audited financial statements; see /sources for citations.