Still trying to recover from last year’s “freshman melt,” the University of Portland now faces a projected $17 million loss because of smaller-than-expected first-year enrollment, lower retention and having to offer higher financial aid packages. “We're in a similar position to a lot of universities of our type,” Vice President for Finance & Operations Eric Barger said. “Community colleges are in worse shape right now than the small private and non-flagship, public universities. We're sort of in that middle group and performing in a similar way; we're all experiencing the same thing right now.”
