This article is required reading for this thread.
https://rlo.acton.org/archives/124300-a-catholic-college-guts-its-curriculum.html
It reads as though the author has been reading this thread. Marymount seems to be in the same mess as VU, only they’re not selling paintings, they’re eliminating theology and philosophy.
Interesting article, and very realistic. He notes the coming "demographic cliff" of 2025 to 2029, with the dire prediction that "50% of colleges are poised to fail by 2032". He also astutely observes how many colleges and universities have essentially shot themselves in the foot by gutting not only the uniqueness of their identities (such as a Catholic institution removing theology from the curriculum), but also in watering down the core nature of the fundamentals, where the basics become niche subjects driven by the whims of the professors and the prevailing trends of the culture. While it is not necessarily encouraging to hear the predictions he offers, we are probably facing an inevitable corrective in a bloated educational system. The LCMS has felt this and too often some have lashed out at the synod in anger while missing the realities that could not be ignored. During the pandemic the church where I was married and did my vicarage in Denver closed and sold the building to someone else. It was sad to see a part of my past and my wife's past disappear. But I could see the demographic shifts from before I came there in the mid-80s to the present. The days of growth had come and gone. The two high schools of my hometown are now reported to be in plans to merge. Populations change and so do the needs. We saw several of our regional rural grade schools in my current community close in the last few years and merge with the city's schools. The Baby Boom was done a long time ago. The needs are not there. The schools are just an economic liability.
Other Catholic colleges besides Marymount have stopped offering majors in traditional liberal arts fields, including two in Minnesota: St. Mary's in Winona and College of St. Benedict/St. John's University in Collegeville.
St. Francis College in Brooklyn, a NCAA Division I school, has chosen a different economy: they are pulling out of intercollegiate athletics. No art galleries will be affected, as far as I know. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/mar/21/st-francis-college-brooklyn-shut-down-division-i-a/
Peace,
Michael
Breaking Lenten fast from posting to say that St. Francis has been a great landing spot for lots of people whom I know, some of whom went there on partial athletic scholarships. It doesn't have the level of heft of some of the other Catholic universities in the area like Fordham, St. John's, Iona, but has been a real Godsend in Brooklyn in the past several decades because it represents, as might be imagined, a thoroughly multi-cultural/racial/immigrant student body. Athletic scholarships will be honored, according to their press release. However, this is in my opinion a calculated risk which must be based on how many students utilize the sports programs. I would guess the answer is quite a bunch. So either it's a continued paring down of enrollment while remaining sustainable, or a move toward another direction in the delivery of the school's educational offerings. (For those outside the NYC loop, they play in the conference with Fairleigh Dickinson in hoops of upset notoriety this year, and almost beat them, and used to regularly take that conference title - and they have had some great men's baseball teams too.)
Mercy College has adapted to and adopted some of the students who went to either Concordia or College of New Rochelle - the one of course Lutheran and the other a private school run by the Ursuline order until closure - and Touro College, a Jewish institution has joined them in growing while others have declined. Additionally the CUNY (City of New York) system with 220,000 students and the SUNY (State of New York) system with 320000 students have gone through 20% plus enrollment decline in the past five to ten years. CUNY for stay at home students only runs about $12000 per year all-inclusive, and SUNY about the same for those living in NY, and those are scattered all over the state. Included in CUNY are community college (2 year) schools which cost New Yorkers even less. So there are very affordable options. A lot of kids will take the community college route, live at home, and then transfer to one of the four year CUNY's or SUNY's.
So in the overall decline, there are still over a million college/university students in metro NY, with the economics dictating choices for the majority of young people.
Dave Benke