Dive Temporary:
- The College of Findlay gained’t transfer ahead with its deliberate merger with Bluffton College after a Wednesday vote by Findlay’s board.
- Findlay is terminating its memorandum of understanding with Bluffton, signed final March, in accordance with a information launch. The college cited time and bills required to finish the merger, in addition to the prices of preserving their respective NCAA groups at completely different divisions.
- “For us, due diligence on this case has demonstrated that partnering in key methods is a greater answer,” Findlay President Katherine Fell mentioned in a press release.
Dive Perception:
Bluffton had no management over Findlay’s resolution to not proceed with their joint merger software with their accreditor, the Larger Studying Fee, in accordance with Cheryl Hacker, chair of Bluffton’s board of trustees.
The personal Christian universities, each in Ohio, introduced their deliberate merger in March 2024. On the time, each boards unanimously authorized the plan.
“From a vantage level sooner or later, we’ll look again at this second within the historical past of upper schooling as one which required new approaches and daring actions,” Findlay’s Fell mentioned then. “I consider this merger will show to be each.”
Findlay is by far the bigger establishment, with 5,057 college students in fall 2023, in comparison with Bluffton’s 678.
It’s the financially stronger one as properly, with $238.2 million in property and $84.7 million in complete income in fiscal 2023, properly over double what Bluffton reported on each counts. Though each establishments posted working deficits in fiscal 2023, Bluffton’s was bigger regardless that it introduced in much less income.
Their unique plan referred to as for Findlay to take care of each of their campuses post-merger. They’d additionally preserve their athletic groups beneath their present NCAA divisions — Division II for Findlay, Division III for Bluffton. This was a “key” factor of the merger, Findlay mentioned Thursday.
“Nonetheless, laws necessitate separate processes for athletic monetary assist distribution and prohibit the sharing of sources and sports activities services, leading to fewer synergies in these areas than initially anticipated,” the college mentioned.
Following Findlay’s resolution to terminate the merger course of, Bluffton’s Hacker mentioned that the college “continues to be financially secure, strategically impartial, and well-prepared for the longer term,” and that the termination wouldn’t detract from its mission.
Bluffton additionally famous that it’ll “proceed to discover strategic partnerships that help the long-term targets of the establishment and the scholars it serves.”
Officers at each universities additionally maintained that the due diligence and preparation course of was worthwhile and academic, regardless that it wouldn’t end in a merger.
In accordance with Fell, the method “resulted in a useful reflective course of for each campuses by the examination of strengths, areas for progress, and capability to innovate and alter throughout the evolving panorama of upper schooling.”
The expense and complexity of merging greater schooling establishments are among the many key challenges in making a mixture work, specialists say.
