Cardinal Stritch Closing

[Sir Lawrence]

Shutting down after this semester. 

[warriorchick]

Not surprising for any second-tier private university.

Unless they have some sort of special niche they serve, the days of most of them are numbered.  No one is going into six figures of debt to attend a school that no one outside their state has heard of.

[warriorchick]

BTW, where did you hear this?

It doesn't appear to show up in any of the news sources online.

[Sir Lawrence]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw4hepjCvRs

[warriorchick]

Journal Sentinel article just posted:

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2023/04/10/milwaukees-cardinal-stritch-university-shutting-down-operations/70101536007/

[Sir Lawrence]

Not surprising for any second-tier private university.

Unless they have some sort of special niche they serve, the days of most of them are numbered.  No one is going into six figures of debt to attend a school that no one outside their state has heard of.

I agree.  The switch to "university" stretched resources at Stritch.  Should have focused on cranking out education degrees. 

[mu_hilltopper]

OUCH. 

My MU roommate's wife has been a teacher there for 10+ years.  A few years ago, she'd mentioned shutting down as a possibility, but a ~year ago, she thought the situation had stabilized.  Guess not. 

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Closures will only go up

[dgies9156]

Closures will only go up

Same thing happened in the Bay Area with Holy Names University. A traditional nursing school that got out over its skis.

Property should be sufficient there to cover any remaining debt obligations. Unless Oakland intervenes.

[warriorchick]

Same thing happened in the Bay Area with Holy Names University. A traditional nursing school that got out over its skis.

Property should be sufficient there to cover any remaining debt obligations. Unless Oakland intervenes.

I am guessing Stritch's 40 acres in Fox Point is worth some money.  Its highest and best use may involve knocking down a lot of their buildings.

[mu_hilltopper]

I am guessing Stritch's 40 acres in Fox Point is worth some money.  Its highest and best use may involve knocking down a lot of their buildings.

True .. although just a half mile south, Bayshore is constructing 300 apartments, so .. that market is somewhat saturated.    I don't see it as retail either .. maybe single-family units.

[Dr. Blackheart]

True .. although just a half mile south, Bayshore is constructing 300 apartments, so .. that market is somewhat saturated.    I don't see it as retail either .. maybe single-family units.

Arby's Megaplex

[Herman Cain]

I am guessing Stritch's 40 acres in Fox Point is worth some money.  Its highest and best use may involve knocking down a lot of their buildings.

Did MU have any discussions about taking it over? Could have picked up the land by assuming the education component , broadly defined .

Thats what Iona did with Concordia New York.

[Coleman]

Did MU have any discussions about taking it over? Could have picked up the land by assuming the education component , broadly defined .

Thats what Iona did with Concordia New York.

Sometimes this can make sense (Loyola Chicago did this with Mundelein College in the 1990s), but only if there is a specific niche that the smaller university addressed that the parent university did not have. I don't really see that with Stritch and MU. MU already has a very vibrant and successful education program. I don't see it as a value add.

It might be too late but what would have made more sense to me is a Stritch-Alverno-Mount Mary merger. Combine the resources of the three tiny Milwaukee Catholic colleges to try to stay afloat.

It kinda blows my mind that Milwaukee still has TWO all-women colleges in 2023.

[The Sultan]

Heard yesterday that there's another Wisconsin private school that doesn't know if they are going to be able to make payroll over the summer. At this point I am less confident about more private colleges in Wisconsin surviving the next decade than I am in those who will for sure survive.

[Coleman]

Heard yesterday that there's another Wisconsin private school that doesn't know if they are going to be able to make payroll over the summer. At this point I am less confident about more private colleges in Wisconsin surviving the next decade than I am in those who will for sure survive.

I could think of probably a dozen+ off the top of my head that wouldn't surprise me if they closed this year. I think maybe half of these schools survive the next decade:


Maranatha
Edgewood
MIAD
Northland
Marian
Alverno
Mt Mary
Viterbo
Ripon
Concordia
Lawrence
Wis Lutheran

Lakeland, Carthage, Caroll and Saint Norbert have higher enrollment than the rest so I feel a little better about those, but even those are iffy long term.

I think MSOE is safe due to the increased demand around STEM.

[warriorchick]

I could think of probably a dozen+ off the top of my head that wouldn't surprise me if they closed this year. I think maybe half of these schools survive the next decade:


Maranatha
Edgewood
MIAD
Northland
Marian
Alverno
Mt Mary
Viterbo
Ripon
Concordia
Lawrence
Carthage
Wis Lutheran

Lakeland, Caroll and Saint Norbert have higher enrollment than the rest so I feel a little better about those two, but even those are iffy long term.

So, every small college in Wisconsin?

[Coleman]

So, every small college in Wisconsin?

I updated it. There are a handful that I think are safer than others, but basically, yes

[The Sultan]

Lawrence, St Norbert and Carroll will be fine though Lawrence will struggle to retain their national recruiting footprint. They also have an enormous endowment for their size. My guess is Concordia will be doing OK given their academic program array.

It's also not just about enrollment but how much that enrollment pays. And that's really the big unknown. So many schools are paying unsustainable rates for students these days so it's hard to tell who is doing well by enrollment.

[BrewCity83]

Lawrence, St Norbert and Carroll will be fine though Lawrence will struggle to retain their national recruiting footprint. They also have an enormous endowment for their size. My guess is Concordia will be doing OK given their academic program array.

LOL.  That's what she said.

[Hards Alumni]

True .. although just a half mile south, Bayshore is constructing 300 apartments, so .. that market is somewhat saturated.    I don't see it as retail either .. maybe single-family units.

There is a housing shortage in almost every big city.  Milwaukee is no exception.

[Shaka Shart]

Did MU have any discussions about taking it over? Could have picked up the land by assuming the education component , broadly defined .

Thats what Iona did with Concordia New York.

Maybe Marquette can move out of the warzone it currently is in!

[mu_hilltopper]

There is a housing shortage in almost every big city.  Milwaukee is no exception.

I've certainly heard that before .. but I found this interesting:

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2023/04/07/milwaukee-county-population-fell-most-in-wisconsin-during-pandemic/70081079007/

So .. there are 21k fewer people in Milwaukee County since 2020.

I would think that would make a huge dent in housing shortages .. figure 21k / 3 people per unit = 7000 units freed up over 3 years.

(Certainly, if a builder said they were going to create 7000 units in the county, people would tout that as a huge solution to the housing crisis.)

(Or was it 21000 homeless people, leaving the county?    )

I have a feeling it's not a housing crisis .. it's greedflation, where the market is very inefficient, landlords charge high rates because why wouldn't they, and renters take what they can find, rinse, repeat.

[Coleman]

DePaul just announced a $56 million deficit for the upcoming year and is also announcing cuts

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/education/depaul-faces-566-million-deficit-plans-cuts?utm_source=afternoon-10&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20230412&utm_content=article1-headline

[warriorchick]

DePaul just announced a $56 million deficit for the upcoming year and is also announcing cuts

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/education/depaul-faces-566-million-deficit-plans-cuts?utm_source=afternoon-10&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20230412&utm_content=article1-headline

Thanks for nothing.  How many scoopers subscribe to Crain's Chicago Business?