Dive Temporary:
- Villanova College plans to take in Rosemont Faculty, which can tackle the previous’s title after a multiyear transition interval set to start in 2027, the 2 Catholic establishments in Pennsylvania stated 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 belongings and liabilities and convey on three members of Rosemont’s governing board, in keeping with Rosemont. Tenured and tenure-track college might be supplied contracts at Villanova and may apply for tenured standing by way of the college’s pointers.
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 courses and took part in packages 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 schools, although Rosemont’s has carried out so at a sooner 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 funds 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 faculty’s failure to satisfy the U.S. Division of Schooling’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 cut back general staffing and consolidating its scholar housing, shifting to promote one in all its residence halls.
The faculty additionally borrowed $7 million from its endowment to assist operations and pay down a credit score line.
Faculty leaders stated 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 very best choices for our college students, college and employees and consider this merger with Villanova provides the most effective alternative to make sure that the Rosemont Faculty historical past and legacy endures,” Rosemont President Jim Cawley stated Monday in a press release.
Rosemont will proceed working as a separate entity by way of the transition interval and preserve its educational programming throughout that point. Based on the establishments, Rosemont college students who haven’t accomplished their levels by 2028 could 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 — on condition that Villanova is a Division I college. The faculty is searching for different D-III establishments that might present fast and straightforward 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 keep up Rosemont’s legacy, the establishments stated an endowed scholarship might 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 determination to shut. Per the settlement, they renamed the location Villanova College Cabrini Campus.
A number of Catholic liberal arts schools have struggled lately together with their secular friends. Dealing with 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 accumulate Mount Mercy College as a part of a plan introduced final yr.