Deadpool, Twisters and Despicable Me—Summer 2024 seems to be a time for sequels, so I decided to revisit a topic I have written about in the past. About two years ago, I published an article on the higher ed enrollment cliff of 2025. The reviews of the content of that piece were mixed, ranging from “she is chicken little” to dismay. I wanted to update that piece with how things are going as we approach fall 2025 and the start of what is predicted to be an enrollment cliff.

Since my article in March 2020, approximately 61 colleges and universities have closed, or merged with other institutions to save themselves from closing. This includes three that have already announced closure for 2025. Some of these institutions have long and celebrated histories and all are not-or-profit. (Certainly, for-profit schools have closed and perhaps in greater number then not-for-profit, but for purposes of this article we are speaking about traditional not-for-profit institutions.) For example, the 100-year-old College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York had approximately 118 full-time faculty and had 2,800 students in 2022. That was down from 4,000-plus students in 2019. St. Rose announced their closing date as June 2024, due to being unable to complete another year with their current financials.