Dive Temporary:
- Cardinal Stritch College, a Roman Catholic establishment in Wisconsin, will shut when the tutorial yr ends in Might, its president announced Monday.
- President Dan Scholz in a video message attributed the closure to downward enrollment traits, the coronavirus pandemic and “mounting operational and facility challenges.” Describing the shutdown as devastating, he mentioned all of these components led to “a no-win state of affairs.”
- Scholz mentioned the faculty will proceed to supply tutorial companies this summer season to college students who’re near ending their levels. The college is within the means of hanging offers with native faculties the place different college students can simply switch, Scholz mentioned. He didn’t title these establishments in his message.
Dive Perception:
Cardinal Stritch, which celebrated its eighty fifth birthday final summer season, succumbed to the identical monetary stressors cited by different faculties which can be about to close their doorways..
Different establishments which have introduced closure or consolidation in latest weeks embrace Medaille College, a small non-public nonprofit school in New York that’s being acquired by Trocaire School, and Iowa Wesleyan College, a non-public nonprofit liberal arts establishment.
They every mentioned enrollment pressures particularly contributed to their downfall.
Cardinal Stritch enrolled 1,365 college students in fall 2021, in line with probably the most not too long ago accessible federal information. A few third of its undergraduates obtained federal Pell Grants, a proxy for low- or moderate-income standing.
Nonetheless, it has bled college students over the previous decade — in fall 2011, the faculty had near quadruple the enrollment, 5,159 college students.
Scholz mentioned in his message that the college’s trustees had advisable the closure to the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, the Catholic congregation that founded the college beneath the title St. Clare School in 1937, and nonetheless has close ties to the faculty.
The Sisters accepted the advice, and that began the closure course of, Scholz mentioned.
“We made a distinction within the lives of our college students, and all through our group and for that, I’ll all the time be grateful,” Scholz mentioned.
