Lourdes University Announces Closure

Lourdes University will shut in Could attributable to “insurmountable monetary pressures” pushed by declining enrollment, rising prices and an unsustainable funding mannequin, officers introduced.

The non-public Catholic college in Ohio was based in 1958 by the Sisters of St. Francis.

The Lourdes Board of Trustees wrote in a Wednesday announcement that they “explored doable paths ahead with care and seriousness” earlier than the Sisters concluded that persevering with operations past this tutorial yr is financially unsustainable, which necessitated closure in Could. 

Trustees famous that the Sisters of St. Francis may not subsidize its operations.

“Regrettably, it’s now clear that there is no such thing as a path ahead for this establishment, and this determination is essentially the most accountable one for our college students, our college and our mission. We’re profoundly grateful for all of the Sisters have given us for many years, and, in these remaining months, we are going to honor the spirit wherein that help was provided,” board members wrote within the announcement.

The choice to shut the college comes after a number of years of working at a loss, in keeping with publicly out there monetary paperwork. The college’s meager endowment of $13.6 million, a lot of it restricted, supplied little monetary reduction to fall again on as working losses piled up.

Federal enrollment knowledge additionally reveals scholar head rely had been slipping for years. In fall 2024, Lourdes enrolled 964 college students. A decade prior, in fall 2014, the college enrolled 1,780 college students. Enrollment beforehand hovered round 2,500 college students within the early 2010s.

Lourdes is the second establishment to announce closure plans this week and the third this yr.

Windfall Christian School, a non-public establishment in California, introduced this week that it’ll shut by the tip of the educational yr. Elsewhere within the Golden State, the California School of the Arts introduced in January it is going to shut in 2027 and promote its campus to Vanderbilt University.