Three colleges have closed so far this year.
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Lourdes University will close in May due to “insurmountable financial pressures” driven by declining enrollment, rising costs and an unsustainable funding model, officials announced.
The private Catholic university in Ohio was founded in 1958 by the Sisters of St. Francis.
The Lourdes Board of Trustees wrote in a Wednesday announcement that they “explored possible paths forward with care and seriousness” before the Sisters concluded that continuing operations beyond this academic year is financially unsustainable, which necessitated closure in May.
Trustees noted that the Sisters of St. Francis could no longer subsidize its operations.
“Regrettably, it is now clear that there is no path forward for this institution, and this decision is the most responsible one for our students, our faculty and our mission. We are profoundly grateful for all the Sisters have given us for decades, and, in these remaining months, we will honor the spirit in which that support was offered,” board members wrote in the announcement.
The decision to close the university comes after multiple years of operating at a loss, according to publicly available financial documents. The university’s meager endowment of $13.6 million, much of it restricted, provided little financial relief to fall back on as operating losses piled up.
Federal enrollment data also shows student head count had been slipping for years. In fall 2024, Lourdes enrolled 964 students. A decade prior, in fall 2014, the university enrolled 1,780 students. Enrollment previously hovered around 2,500 students in the early 2010s.
Lourdes is the second institution to announce closure plans this week and the third this year.
Providence Christian College, a private institution in California, announced this week that it will close by the end of the academic year. Elsewhere in the Golden State, the California College of the Arts announced in January it will close in 2027 and sell its campus to Vanderbilt University.
