For 15 years, Cascade College in Portland, Ore., struggled to find the fuels that any college needs: students to pay tuition, and donors to help build an endowment.
Then came the global economic meltdown, and suddenly that struggle became an impossibility.
Late last month, the small Christian college with just 280 students and $4 million in debt announced it would have to shut down at the end of the current academic year.
“Our hearts would have said we would like to continue trying,” said Cascade President Bill Goad, somberly adding he never imagined his duties would include shutting the school down. But on top of their long-term challenges, “small colleges like Cascade just don’t have the slack to survive those kinds of impacts,” he said.
Colleges are remarkably resilient institutions. Princeton University’s Nassau Hall still bears the cannonball marks from the Revolutionary War battle that raged near campus. Dickinson and Bowdoin colleges saw their first buildings burn down, as did the University of Vermont, which also survived its first president going insane.
Still, every year, a handful of institutions go under. And while a wave of college closings is unlikely, the current economic turmoil could accelerate the pace.
In addition to Cascade, another Christian institution, Taylor University, announced last month it would close the undergraduate program at a branch campus in Fort Wayne, Ind., while Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna, Minn. announced plans to close.
