Struggling Schools Should Look to Merge Much Earlier, Say Experts

As colleges struggle to cope with declining enrollment as the influx of federal COVID-19 money dries up, a wave of closures is widely expected. Already this year, at least six campuses are expected to shutter, including Finlandia University, Cazenovia College, and, after an announcement last week, Iowa Wesleyan University. But experts believe that some institutions could be saved if their leaders were more open to a different option: merging with other schools before their circumstances grow desperate.

Dr. Ricardo Azziz, a research professor at the State University of New York, Albany“Very often, ‘merger’ has been a word that we could not utter,” said Dr. Ricardo Azziz, a research professor at the State University of New York, Albany, who has advised schools on mergers. “People didn’t even want to discuss it. And the problem is, when you don’t discuss it, you’re totally unprepared when you need to consider it.”

Azziz believes that small, struggling universities need to start considering merging while they’re still relatively healthy.

“A lot of institutions are coming to us well after they’ve run out of political, financial, and enrollment capital. That’s a real problem, because your ability to find a partner that is suitable is very limited,” he said. “Smaller schools should start looking for partners sooner, when they still have something to offer, when they can still negotiate from a position of relative strength.”

There are several reasons that schools that may be in trouble don’t look to merge, said Azziz and Dr. Guilbert C. Hentschke, Stoops Dean and Cooper Chair Emeritus at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.

One reason is structural: that presidents and boards typically don’t look beyond the current budget year.

Another reason is psychological: college leaders have pride.