BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) Medaille University's announcement this week that it will close August 31st was troubling for former Canisius College President John Hurley to hear. But at the same time, he wasn't surprised.
"The school has been under a great deal of financial stress over the past several months," said Hurley. When the Trocaire merger was terminated, it did not appear that they had any other options."
It's not just Medaille. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz pointed out this week that there are other colleges that he is aware of, in this community, that are dealing with difficult times, especially smaller liberal arts colleges.
"We don't have as many college aged students as we have had in the past," noted Poloncarz. That means a smaller piece of the pie for institutions."
Hurley agreed that it is largely a question of demographics. In New York State there are 110 private colleges in addition to more than 60 SUNY campuses and 23 CUNY institutions.
"That's a lot of higher education chasing a declining population of college-aged students," said Hurley.
The picture in neighboring states, such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio is similar. "There's too much supply in the Northeast for the demand that is out there."
Western New York has 21 colleges and universities, not including the Rochester area.
Why does this appear to be affecting smaller institutions, rather than larger ones?
Hurley said the smaller ones are heavily tuition-dependent are finding it increasingly difficult because they're competing with public school options.
"You're always going to have Cornell, and NYU and Syracuse U," he said. "They're going to sail through this because they have a value proposition and a national reputation. They will continue to attract students. It's the colleges at the lower end of the tier that are going to struggle first in the demographic shake-out."
Hurley, who retired from Canisius in 2022, was asked what he expects over the next 5 or 10 years?
"There is going to be a shake-out in higher education in the Northeast, and perhaps nationwide. We are going to have to look at creative new ways of co-existing as institutions. In some cases it might mean an outright merger, where one school acquires another. In others, like in this case, where time ran out on Medaille, it will mean that schools close. But the key for higher education leaders is to look far enough in advance at creative opportunities, to maintain what they have, but maybe do it in collaboration with other schools."
He said accrediting bodies, such as the New York State Education Department, are going to have to develop templates that will facilitate school mergers. Hurley believes that was one of the issues that Medaille and Trocaire ran into. "There's no template that is ready. Until we have that figured out, schools are going to struggle to get these deals done." He added, "there has to be a sense of urgency about it."