Dive Transient:
- Villanova College plans to soak up Rosemont Faculty, which can tackle the previous’s identify after a multiyear transition interval set to start in 2027, the 2 Catholic establishments in Pennsylvania mentioned Monday.
- After the merger is full, Rosemont — lower than a mile away from Villanova — will turn out to be “Villanova College, Rosemont Campus,” in keeping with a press launch. The deal requires approval from their accreditor — they’ve the identical one — and from state and federal regulators.
- Following the transition interval, Villanova will tackle Rosemont’s property and liabilities and convey on three members of Rosemont’s governing board, in keeping with Rosemont. Tenured and tenure-track college will likely be provided contracts at Villanova and may apply for tenured standing by way of the college’s tips.
Dive Perception:
Villanova College President Peter Donohue described the merger with Rosemont as a “distinctive and highly effective alternative for our two establishments given our shared dedication to advancing Catholic larger training, our shut bodily proximity and deep alumni connections.”
In a neighborhood message, Donohue additionally famous that Villanova and Rosemont college students for years have taken lessons and took part in applications at every others’ campuses.
With 777 college students in fall 2023, Rosemont is dwarfed by Villanova, which enrolled 10,111 college students for that interval.
Pupil our bodies have shrunk at each faculties, although Rosemont’s has accomplished so at a quicker clip. Between 2018 to 2023, fall enrollment plunged 17.8% at Rosemont in comparison with a 8.3% drop at Villanova.
Rosemont, based in 1921 by the Society of the Holy Baby Jesus, can be the weaker of the 2 financially. It racked up a complete working deficit of $914,220 in fiscal 2023, greater than triple the earlier yr’s price range hole, in keeping with its newest financials. Villanova, in the meantime, has posted surpluses lately.
Rosemont’s fiscal 2023 audit additionally contained a going-concern warning, indicating there was “substantial doubt” about its capacity to maintain working. The audit cited the school’s failure to satisfy the U.S. Division of Training’s benchmarks to be thought of financially accountable.
Nevertheless, in response to the monetary points flagged by auditors, Rosemont made a number of strikes, together with slicing executive-level positions, nixing a handful of vacant positions to scale back general staffing and consolidating its scholar housing, transferring to promote one among its residence halls.
The faculty additionally borrowed $7 million from its endowment to assist operations and pay down a credit score line.
Faculty leaders mentioned they believed these efforts, in addition to advertising initiatives and enrollment partnerships — akin to one with the Fraternal Order of Police — alleviated the going-concern doubt, auditors famous.
However merging with Villonova is supposed so as to add to each establishments’ strengths.
“We’re dedicated to securing the absolute best choices for our college students, college and workers and imagine this merger with Villanova presents the most effective alternative to make sure that the Rosemont Faculty historical past and legacy endures,” Rosemont President Jim Cawley mentioned Monday in a press release.
Rosemont will proceed working as a separate entity by means of the transition interval and preserve its educational programming throughout that point. In accordance with the establishments, Rosemont college students who haven’t accomplished their levels by 2028 may have a number of choices to take action, together with transferring to Villanova’s skilled research faculty.
Pupil athletes on Rosemont’s NCAA Division III groups can transfer to membership sports activities after the spring 2026 semester — provided that Villanova is a Division I college. The faculty is on the lookout for different D-III establishments that would present fast and simple switch pathways for scholar athletes from Rosemont, in keeping with the establishment.
The merger settlement additionally requires the preservation of Rosemont’s chapel as “a spot of gathering and inspiration.” To take care of Rosemont’s legacy, the establishments mentioned an endowed scholarship will likely be created after the transition “supporting the mission” of the Society of the Holy Baby Jesus.
This isn’t Villanova’s solely latest growth. In 2024, the college purchased the 112-acre Pennsylvania campus of Cabrini College following the Catholic establishment’s resolution to shut. Per the settlement, they renamed the positioning Villanova College Cabrini Campus.
A number of Catholic liberal arts faculties have struggled lately together with their secular friends. Going through enrollment and monetary challenges, some have sought mergers.
This yr, Gannon College and Ursuline Faculty, for instance, introduced a formal merger settlement. And Iowa’s St. Ambrose College is working to amass Mount Mercy College as a part of a plan introduced final yr.