Notre Dame College announced its official closure at the end of the spring 2024 semester on Friday, Feb, 29, in the face of uncontrollable debt, declining enrollment and amid recent talks on potential mergers or acquisitions with Cleveland State University.
Following the announcement, CSU announced its partnership with Notre Dame College to help its 1,400 enrolled students complete their degrees.
“Cleveland State University (CSU) warmly welcomes Notre Dame College (NDC) students seeking to complete their degree programs as part of our Teach-Out agreement with NDC,” outlines the University’s website. “At CSU, you’ll find yourself supported by a university that welcomes transfer students with open arms.”
Open to both undergraduate and graduate students coming from the struggling college, the program guarantees the following:
- Admission to students in good-standing
- Full transfer of all academic credits
- Waived application fees
- Minimum enrollment requirements
- Net cost for course completion “comparably or less than what the student would pay at [Notre Dame College].”
Eight graduate degree programs, nearly 30 undergraduate programs and four licenses are offered as part of this agreement.
Absorption talks with CSU
Notre Dame College’s closure announcement came after talks of potential mergers or acquisitions with CSU.
During the January meeting of the CSU faculty senate, President Laura Bloomberg, Ph.D., shared that the avenue of absorption was merely being explored and that Notre Dame was being thought of “something of a test case to help [CSU] come up with a rubric,” for the relationship between the two in the future, “whether it’s a merger or an acquisition or a teaching partnership with some revenue-sharing model.”
Notre Dame post-covid struggles
Officials from the South Euclid college shared in a press release that the college’s board “worked tirelessly for years on multiple fronts to address long-standing issues,” including refinancing debt and launching a marketing campaign for its centennial in 2022, to no avail.
The Catholic mainstay’s financial and enrollment struggles were agitated by the covid-19 pandemic, having operated at a loss for the last few years, according to statistics from ProPublica. Between 2021 and 2022, its revenue declined by some $2 million, all the while going from a net income of over $1 million to -$823,389.
However, Notre Dame College is merely one of several higher education institutions, especially small private colleges, falling victim to low enrollment and budget problems in the aftermath of the pandemic. The Hechinger reports at least 30 higher education institutions closed their doors in the first ten months of 2023 across the country.
But…what about CSU?
Cleveland State’s agreement with Notre Dame may serve to partly alleviate the declining enrollment and budget deficit the University faces in the post-pandemic era. As of the January faculty senate meeting, the budget is improving despite a 9% decline in enrollment.
The University has entered a $900,000 contract with Ernst & Young (EY), an accounting and consulting firm to serve as a point of guidance as CSU battles the deficit. Bloomberg has emphasized that the firm is not making nor implementing any decisions.
Ele Solovyov 
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