After building boom, UMass $3 billion in debt. Tab could hinder future growth, but trustees are undaunted

The Boston Globe reports:

From a gleaming science center in Boston to an honors college in Amherst, the University of Massachusetts has enjoyed an unprecedented building boom over the past decade, with new classrooms and dorms and long-delayed infrastructure improvements across its five campuses.

But all that spending has also left UMass with $3 billion of debt.

And that cloud could present a challenge as it seeks to continue the growth that in recent years helped bolster enrollment and raise the university’s profile from an affordable “safety” school for many students to a more expensive, desirable, and highly competitive one.

While the university’s financial health remains sound overall, it has nearly maxed out its ability to borrow, and its debt is far outpacing revenues. Financial documents also show that the university is so highly leveraged that as it continues to borrow, it is pushing big payments farther into the future to be able to afford current ones.

Higher education , really is a bubble.