July 1 - Moving Day 2023

[SW_Mustang]

Another D3 school to close- Eastern Nazarene. Eastern Nazarene announces sudden closure - D3sports

It's so oversaturated in that part of the country. I know it's the higher ed capital of the world, but it's just not sustainable - especially in 2024.

[laker]

I know that Oregon is moving to a new conference, but are they getting a new nickname too? They redid that forest fire of a basketball court, but instead of putting ducks on the floor they put on geese.

[Bballfan]

Given the number of students, shouldn't be a surprise. Many of them had to be athletes. Gordon College will at least give them a closer option. I am not sure how many want to transfer to Ohio or Tennessee to finish their education.

[laker]

Another D3 school to close- Eastern Nazarene. Eastern Nazarene announces sudden closure - D3sports

[chapmaja]

CUAA is going to be done within 2 years in my opinion. Dropping all athletics is the worst possible thing this school can do. You may retain some of your students, but 70% of the students at CUAA are on at least 1 athletic team. Some of them may still attend CUAA after their teams get cut, but I suspect you will see a huge enrollment plunge and accordingly a huge financial collapse of the school.

From what I am hearing, living not far from CUAA, this decision making isn't as much about the finanancial issues as school leadership is making it out to be. There is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes related to the university structure and it's affiliation at a Lutheran school that are behind these changes. I know at least one person on the committee looking into the situation with CUAA / CUW (they are all one school actually), left the committee because it wasn't looking into what the regents actually wanted them looking into.

In my opinion, you may see a "new" school form out of this entire mess, but time will tell what that school would be like.

I wish I was wrong, but today's announcement further's my ideas this school won't make it.

All programs with the exception of 6, all in the medical field, will be transitioned to online learning only. Students are being told they can either take the classes online, transfer to CU-Wisconsin to complete their degrees or work transfer out to other insitutions where teachout programs are being developed.

This absoltuely stinks of mismanagement by the president and management of the combined CUW-CUAA system. There was no warning of issues until February of this year, and enrollment had been increasing up until COVID. Even after COVID the enrolment was rebounding to nearly pre-COVID levels.

From what I have read, the CUW campus actually is in just as bad or worse financial shape than CUAA, but CUAA is taking the brunt of the damage as a result of the issues.

There were groups trying to seperate CUAA from CUW and those were rebuffed in favor of this mess.

[Tech Boys]

I'm operating under the assumption that St. Augustine's, even if they have athletics this fall, won't be an NCAA member.

I am too. Saint Augustine's not having football and after the sports Bloomfield College dropped neither are in compliance with sport sponsorship policy.

[Inkblot]

I've noticed that the CACC and NCAA logos are not on the Bloomfield College athletics site. The Saint Augustine's athletic site "not found" for several days now.

I'm operating under the assumption that St. Augustine's, even if they have athletics this fall, won't be an NCAA member.

[TheBigCat2192]

This was after faculty had a no confidence vote against the college president and provost in April and the president resigned in May.

(I work for the community college out there…might mean more students for us.)

I’ve always been somewhat baffled by Reading having two private Christian schools. I know they’re associated with different denominations but it struck me as somewhat excessive, especially with KU in the same county plus RACC and in more recent times PSU Berks.

[Bballfan]

Albright College still has football though! Actually they need that for their enrollment numbers. Undergrad is around 1,300. Actually not bad considering some of these other smallish D2 schools have much lower numbers.

[cwfenn]

This is a bit late but I didn’t see it mentioned here:

Albright College (a D3 school in Reading, PA) cut both their men’s and women’s swim teams as well as cutting or leaving unfilled over 50 faculty and staff positions at the end of May/beginning of June.

This was after faculty had a no confidence vote against the college president and provost in April and the president resigned in May.

(I work for the community college out there…might mean more students for us.)

[TheBigCat2192]

This is a bit late but I didn’t see it mentioned here:

Albright College (a D3 school in Reading, PA) cut both their men’s and women’s swim teams as well as cutting or leaving unfilled over 50 faculty and staff positions at the end of May/beginning of June.

[SW_Mustang]

Absolutely. The "cry" for help to booster donations. Lake Erie College is doing that now. But in the end if you don't meet your enrollment numbers and operate at a deficit, a private school is fooling itself if it can remain viable long-term. A public university can also go cry for more from the politicians, but private institutions are hamstrung in that regard. They have to beg for the donations. And it rarely works out well.

Northland College in Wisconsin just went through that scenario - they raised enough to stay open, but it's only a short term solution. That well is going to run dry really quickly, so they'll have to restructure to stay afloat long term. Remains to be seen if they have what it takes to do so.

[Bballfan]

The "magically" part is key - my alma mater was experiencing an enrollment decline while I was there. The administration wanted to snap their fingers and make it all go away - no investment or effort needed. The president literally told myself and a group of students to text our friends and tell them to go to school there - it was so pathetic.

I usually view these announcements as a cry for help - a last ditch effort to rally alumni/community support. It rarely, if ever works, especially in the long term. Higher education is so weird in that regard.

Absolutely. The "cry" for help to booster donations. Lake Erie College is doing that now. But in the end if you don't meet your enrollment numbers and operate at a deficit, a private school is fooling itself if it can remain viable long-term. A public university can also go cry for more from the politicians, but private institutions are hamstrung in that regard. They have to beg for the donations. And it rarely works out well.

[chapmaja]

Yes, dropping sports after the coming year, but still staying open.

The future of CUAA athletics beyond 2024-25

CUAA is going to be done within 2 years in my opinion. Dropping all athletics is the worst possible thing this school can do. You may retain some of your students, but 70% of the students at CUAA are on at least 1 athletic team. Some of them may still attend CUAA after their teams get cut, but I suspect you will see a huge enrollment plunge and accordingly a huge financial collapse of the school.

From what I am hearing, living not far from CUAA, this decision making isn't as much about the finanancial issues as school leadership is making it out to be. There is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes related to the university structure and it's affiliation at a Lutheran school that are behind these changes. I know at least one person on the committee looking into the situation with CUAA / CUW (they are all one school actually), left the committee because it wasn't looking into what the regents actually wanted them looking into.

In my opinion, you may see a "new" school form out of this entire mess, but time will tell what that school would be like.

[SW_Mustang]

Bloomfield College isn't on double secret probation, but they are on probation. I don't see them surviving. A lot of these colleges on this list are already closed or are closing (Wells, Saint Rose, Pittsburgh Tech). Once you are in jeopardy of losing accreditation, that is when the end is near.

https://www.msche.org/non-compliance...ons-by-status/

Yup - Morris Brown is the only school I can think of off-hand that survived long enough to regain accreditation candidacy and they still have a long road ahead.

It's a fascinatingly sad story with a redemption arc that is probably unique to only them. Very strange situation, but I'm happy they pulled it out.