Will More Private Colleges In State Close?

Notre Dame Hall at Mount Mary University. File photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The announcement on April 10 that Cardinal Stritch University was closing after 85 years in business was a shock to the community. But there were signs that private colleges in this state and nationally face significant challenges to their survival, due to a declining birth rate and declining enrollment, as a story published by Urban Milwaukee reported in May, 2020. This was after Holy Family College in Manitowoc announced its closing, which came in August 2020.

As recently as 2010 Cardinal Stritch had about 6.000 students, as WUWM reported. Since than it has declined, and at a drastic rate in more recent years. From 2015 to 2020, Stritch lost 51.3% of its enrollment, dropping from 4,407 to 2,148 students. The university hoped enrollment would improve after the COVID-19 pandemic. But in 2022, the university was down to just 1,365 students.

This is part of a national trend related to lower birthrates. By 2030, some estimate that half the colleges will close. Others believe that overstates the problem.

Many thought the colleges most likely to weather the pandemic would be those with the best cash reserves and ability to transition to online learning. But the federal government was able to financially bail out colleges with an infusion of federal dollars. Stritch was able to post one year with positive revenue during the pandemic even though before and coming out of the pandemic it had losses.

In the nine years prior to the pandemic, from 2011 to 2019, Cardinal Stritch ended its year in the red, with an annual deficit ranging from $516,680 in 2014 to $9.2 million in 2013. For a decade the university averaged an annual deficit of nearly $3 million even as its annual budget declined from a high of $71.4 million in 2012 to $43.5 million in 2020.

Once the federal pandemic funding ended, Cardinal Stritch saw no alternative to closing. Other colleges in the nation may be forced to make the same decision.

States like Wisconsin are considering increasing state funding to save both public and private colleges, but for some that may not be enough to overcome the central problem of declining enrollment.

The still booming economy compounds the problem. High unemployment typically increases the percent of high school graduates going to college because they can’t find good paying jobs and believe that a college decree will improve their long-term financial situation. But with unemployment now at a historic low, individuals find many employers no longer use college degrees as a gatekeeper. As a result the national decline in college enrollment that occurred during the pandemic has continued since then.

Which Wisconsin Colleges Are Threatened

According to statistics compiled by StateUniversity.com, only two four-year colleges in southeastern Wisconsin had an increase in enrollment from 2015 to 2020: Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) by 6.1% and Wisconsin Lutheran College by 5.9%. MSOE has helped grow enrollment with the promise that its degrees will lead to higher paying careers. Alternatively, Wisconsin Lutheran College has an open-door policy admitting 98% of the students that apply.

Three of the four private colleges in southeastern Wisconsin that saw the largest drop in student enrollment from 2015 to 2020 were Catholic: Cardinal Stritch, 51.3%; Alverno College, 27% and Mount Mary University, 9.6%. The other is Concordia University Wisconsin, a Lutheran institution, which lost 19.8%.

Alverno has seen its enrollment drop from 2,536 in 2015, to 1,596 this year, according to Kate Lundeen, Alverno’s Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing. That’s a total decline of 37% over seven years. Lundeen lists reasons for this decline: fewer college-aged students, a shift to technical schools and other economic factors.

Records of Alverno’s annual budgets on the Pro Publica website show some problems: the college has gone from averaging big annual surpluses of nearly $7.8 million from 2012 to 2014 to annual deficits averaging $2.2 million from 2018 through 2020.

When single sex colleges went co-educational in the 1970s, many of those who refused to change simply went out of business. Instead, Alverno College embraced the women’s movement and empowerment. With innovations such as measuring competencies rather than relying on traditional grading, Alverno has been a force in Milwaukee higher education.

On April 19, 2022, Alverno announced its new president as Christy L. Brown, who in a press release touted Alverno’s mission: “embracing its unique identity, Franciscan values, dedication to women’s education and commitment to social justice, inclusion and equity.”

When Catholic Holy Family College closed in 2020, reproductive rights was not a major factor in student enrollment decisions. But with recent court decisions returning the issue to the states, universities in states where abortion is illegal lose enrollment, analysts have suggested. The issue is particularly pointed for Catholic colleges, which may find themselves caught between competing interests of women empowerment and Catholic positions on birth control and abortion.

Lauren Morrissey and Christian Frasik helped develop the Students Coalition for Reproductive Justice (SCRJ) out of Catholic Loyola of Chicago. They support reproductive rights (including abortion and birth control) at Catholic colleges with eight chapters coast to coast, none yet in Wisconsin.

They state that Catholic colleges sidestep this issue through third party health plans because of federal requirements, but that campus clinics follow church teachings opposing reproductive rights.

They state in a podcast that students might question why they should even attend a Catholic school if they disagree with the church’s position. Instead SCRJ wants students to stand up and fight: “You shouldn’t sign away your reproductive rights when you step on a religious campus.”

When asked by Urban Milwaukee, Lundeen declined to address the challenge Alverno may face with the heated abortion rights debate. Instead, she states “Alverno will face challenges. We always have. But our strength comes from the amazing women in our classrooms and in the leadership here.”

Alverno College has a history that goes back to 1887 and has weathered many changes over that long period of time. Neither Alverno nor any college in Wisconsin facing declining enrollment is likely to admit this is a problem. Nor did Cardinal Stritch, right up to the point it closed.