My impression, from reading many "college X is in grim shape" stories over the years, is that poor financial management is behind most those. Alumni, students, and most of the decision makers around a modern US college are far too focused on prestige, more-is-better, and "sounds cool" metrics. Vs. Vice-Chancellor "No", the college CFO, is the least popular person on campus.

So long as both enrollments and tuition are growing at ten-ish percent annually, you can get away with a whole lot poor money management. But when things aren't going so well...oops.