PEPPER PIKE, Ohio — Two Northeast Ohio colleges, located just ten minutes apart, underscore the ongoing problems with higher education, such as declining enrollment and rising operating costs.
But the now-closed Notre Dame College and Ursuline College also highlight very different approaches with how to handle those institutional issues.
For Ursuline College President Dr. David King, it's crucial that small, private colleges acknowledge the current environment with higher education and adapt.
"There will be closures in this sector," he said. "We have to step back a step and go beyond incremental change. Reducing this, reducing personnel, balancing our budget, it’s a larger question than that. We have to think long term."
Earlier this month, Ursuline College announced its merger plans with Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania have been solidified. By December 2026, Ursuline College will become the Ursuline College Campus of Gannon University.
"Ursuline, and this goes back to the board, has been willing to make a bold move and take a risk, knowing what they're doing is our best pathway forward," Dr. King said.
When it's done at the end of 2026, Dr. King told News 5 the merger would help preserve the small school feel that attracted its nearly thousand students.
"This will remain a standalone college campus in Pepper Pike, Ohio and students will experience it that way," he said. "Students will [also] be able to sit in our classroom here and via technology, take a class at Gannon."
What happened to Notre Dame College? And what's happening with the campus?
That merger comes after neighboring institution, Notre Dame College in South Euclid, abruptly closed, citing “declining enrollment,” “rising costs,” and "significant debt.”
The school had just celebrated its centennial.
The property is still up for sale, and no deal has been announced.
Ursuline College was one of several schools that stepped in and secured an agreement to help Notre Dame students transfer and complete their degrees. Other schools included Baldwin Wallace University, Cleveland State University, Hiram College, John Carroll University, Kent State University, Lake Erie College, Walsh University and Mercyhurst University (Erie, PA).
RELATED: Notre Dame College students meet with partner schools ahead of closure
Ursuline College officials confirmed that 30 former Notre Dame students are currently enrolled at Ursuline.
But could more colleges close or merge?
In a recently published paper entitled “Predicting College Closures and Financial Distress," Professor Robert Kelchen and experts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia detail how the same factors that closed Notre Dame College could close even more small private colleges.
"Higher education is facing challenges," Kelchen, a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, explained. "I think we'll see an uptick in the number of closures. We're seeing this gradual decline in enrollment among traditional high school graduates. We're also seeing a declined enrollment among adult students because the economy is still fairly strong and they're able to go out and get jobs instead of go to college."
The report describes how certain signs such as declining enrollment, cash on hand and the ability to cover operating costs can be indicators of a college at risk of closing.
However, the elimination of academic programs is not necessarily always an indicator of financial distress, Kelchen says.
"It certainly can be a sign that they are doing everything possible to stay open," he said. "But also not cutting programs when they need to can be an indicator of distress. If a college realizes we have too many programs for the number of students, they cut some of them now and that gives them the financial runway to keep going. But if they wait until the last minute and try a bunch of cuts, odds are that's not going to work."
Kelchen told News 5 that we're seeing more colleges close right now since much of the federal COVID-19 funds ran out and are now longer prolonging the process.
Additionally, he said that closures will primarily occur with private institutions because, as the report points out, "closing a public college is a deeply political decision, similar to closing a military base."
"If a public institution is struggling, the state is not going to let it close," Kelchen added. "They can be really important, especially if they're in smaller towns or rural communities. That is a big economic driver."
Going forward, both Kelchen and King agree that doing nothing will not help higher education sustain itself.
"Colleges have to think about how can they operate potentially on a smaller footprint and how do they reach out to the community to make those ties, make those partnerships to really help bolster enrollment," Kelchen said.
"Ursuline is doing what many institutions I would argue need to be doing and pursuing seriously," Dr. King said. "We can't all do this on our own."
King said they’ve already begun looking at integrating with Gannon in more than a dozen different facets, including academics, athletics and business aspects, to see what exactly is needed going forward.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard, on Facebook Clay LePard News 5 or email him at Clay.LePard@WEWS.com.
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