A perfect storm of rising costs and enrollment challenges has some small private colleges in Ohio, and across the country, facing an existential crisis.
In Northeast Ohio, Notre Dame College in South Euclid closed last year, citing those dual pressures as the reason. David King, president of Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, a suburb of Cleveland, said that served as a wake-up call for many schools of its size.
“Notre Dame here, Cabrini University outside of Philadelphia and others that we can name, there's a reality to this, that we need to begin to understand,” King said. “We need to move from incremental change to transformational change.”
By the time Notre Dame had announced its closure, Ursuline College’s Board of Trustees had already recognized the institution’s shrinking enrollment and rising costs were unsustainable, King said. And so they had gotten to work exploring solutions, about a year prior, in 2023.
“Given our profile under a thousand students, single-sex focused, the upper Midwest in terms of demographics … In those three factors, I've defined probably one of the most fragile higher education profiles,” King explained.
The most attractive option to preserve Ursuline’s 150-plus year history was to merge with another school, King said, and they found a partner in Gannon University, a private Catholic school in Erie, Pennsylvania.
“Our board had the vision and understanding to recognize we need to make a transformational decision,” King said. “We need a new business model. We can't do this this way at our scale.”
Both campuses will stay open, but Ursuline will be placed under the umbrella of Gannon’s leadership. They’re joining a growing number of colleges across the country who are plotting new courses for survival amid challenging financial and demographic headwinds.
Why is this happening?
The University of Bluffton and the University of Findlay, located about 20 miles apart, south of Toledo, also announced a merger last year. These mergers are coming as schools face the so-called demographic cliff. Birth rates have slid in the US and the number of high-school graduates is only expected to decline.
In a statement, the universities said that pushed them down the path of merging. In a statement, the schools said their shared background as private, faith-based institutions prepared them..
“The decision to pursue a merger signals our ongoing commitment to providing academic excellence in supportive communities that value faith and intellect, the sciences and the humanities, professional programs, and the liberal arts,” the schools wrote.
Typically, about 10 to 15 small private nonprofit colleges close each year. A recent research paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia suggested that in the worst-case scenario, where the demographic cliff seriously craters enrollment, potentially dozens of additional colleges could close each year.
Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and one of the researchers behind the report, said the change will likely be more gradual, with an additional one to two small private nonprofit colleges closing each year, or five total annually, across all types of colleges and universities.
In Ohio, Marietta College, Wittenberg University in Springfield and Baldwin Wallace University in Berea made significant cuts to staff and under-enrolled programs last year as part of major overhauls. The sooner financially struggling colleges make moves to cut costs, the better, Kelchen said.
“I think they’re taking these financial threats seriously,” Kelchen said. “Otherwise revenue’s not going up, but expenses are.”
Small nonprofit schools like Ursuline, Findlay and Bluffton - generally defined as having 5,000 students or less - are particularly vulnerable to declining enrollment because of their smaller endowments, Kelchen said.
Plus, the religious orders that long served as sponsors for some private religious colleges are dwindling in the U.S. The Sisters of Notre Dame severed ties with Notre Dame College before its closure. In a press release about the Ursuline-Gannon merger , the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland wrote, “We know we have a finite future as a congregation.”
An opportunity to adapt
Some schools are seeing the demographic cliff and rising expenses as an opportunity to course-correct.
Jennifer Schuler was facing down a $5 million deficit when she took over in 2023 as president of Lake Erie College in Painesville. She and her staff have since cut the deficit, added new programming and had a banner year for both fundraising and enrollment.
She says part of the secret is treating students like customers. That means adding programs students ask for, like online classes to convert associates into bachelors degrees to allow teachers aides to get their teaching licenses. She said the program has proven popular, with about 300 students currently enrolled.
Schuler added Lake Erie has made strides to make on-campus life more fun, too.
“We’ve really beefed up our co-curricular offerings in terms of adding and making some investments in some additional student organizations or student activities, things like a student choir,” she said.
Northeast Ohio’s Hiram College, another small nonprofit private college said in a statement it recognizes the financial pressures of the moment, but it has also made strategic investments to try to keep enrollment strong.
“We’ve expanded our campus facilities and invested in improving the student experience—both academically and co-curricularly—to support our students and strengthen retention,” the college said in a January statement.
Those investments include revamped advising strategies and a “100 Days of Onboarding” program that tries to engage students with new events each day for the first few months of college.
What’s next
On a snowy January day at Ursuline College, students walk across campus to Pilla Student Learning Center to get lunch.
At the center, Provost Kathryn LaFontana said the merger between Ursuline and Gannon University will save money for the two institutions, but students will benefit too, with access to new classes and opportunities from Gannon.
Meanwhile, the Ursuline campus will continue to offer degrees it’s known for like nursing and art therapy.
About 40% of Ursuline College’s students are first-generation, and more than half of them are eligible for Pell Grants, which help low-income students pay for college. LaFontana said the small college experience is even more important for those groups of students, who sometimes lack a sense of belonging and can struggle academically.
“We provide them with lots of personal attention, small classes, a lot of mentoring and coaching, working closely with faculty and staff. And it really helps them to thrive,” LaFontana said.
Schuler, with Lake Erie College, added that many small private colleges are part of the economic lifeblood of their communities.
“Lake Erie College is a huge … important entity not only for the city of Painesville but also Lake County. We’re the only four year baccalaureate degree granting institution in Lake County,” she said.
President King at Ursuline said the challenges facing higher education have actually energized him. By the time his school becomes the Ursuline College Campus of Gannon in 2026, he hopes they’ll have blazed a path for other colleges to follow.
“The way in which we do it can ultimately serve as a model for others, to encourage other small schools to think boldly and say, ‘We should consider this,’” he said.
Editor’s note: Conor Morris works part-time at Baldwin Wallace University, advising the student newspaper there.
