Dive Summary:
- 2013 has already not been kind to Howard University, with a wave of staff cuts and a trustee raising doomsday warnings about the D.C. school's future, but now Moody's Investors Services is sizing up Howard for a possible credit downgrade.
- Howard "faces revenue challenges,” university spokeswoman Kerry-Ann Hamilton admitted, while federal funding cutbacks and declining enrollment showed up on Moody's list of reasons for the review.
- Howard currently has an A3 rating, putting at the seventh-highest of Moody's 21 levels, and a downgrade could indicate that Moody's believes there to be moderate risk associated with the likelihood that the university may default on its debt.
From the article:
... Howard will receive about $222 million this year through federal appropriations, roughly 5 percent less than what it received the year before. President Obama wants to restore the appropriation to its previous level. Whether that will happen is unclear, and university officials are bracing for a further squeeze related to the sequester. ...