Dive Temporary:
- Villanova College plans to take in Rosemont School, which can tackle the previous’s title 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 into “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 produce on three members of Rosemont’s governing board, in keeping with Rosemont. Tenured and tenure-track school will probably be provided contracts at Villanova and might 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 increased schooling, our shut bodily proximity and deep alumni connections.”
In a group 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 achieved 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 Little one Jesus, can also 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 12 months’s finances hole, in keeping with its newest financials. Villanova, in the meantime, has posted surpluses in recent times.
Rosemont’s fiscal 2023 audit additionally contained a going-concern warning, indicating there was “substantial doubt” about its capability 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.
Nonetheless, in response to the monetary points flagged by auditors, Rosemont made a number of strikes, together with chopping executive-level positions, nixing a handful of vacant positions to cut back general staffing and consolidating its pupil housing, transferring to promote one in every of its residence halls.
The school additionally borrowed $7 million from its endowment to assist operations and pay down a credit score line.
School leaders mentioned they believed these efforts, in addition to advertising and marketing initiatives and enrollment partnerships — similar 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, school and employees and imagine this merger with Villanova presents one of the best alternative to make sure that the Rosemont School historical past and legacy endures,” Rosemont President Jim Cawley mentioned Monday in a press release.
Rosemont will proceed working as a separate entity via the transition interval and keep its tutorial programming throughout that point. In keeping 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 school.
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 school is in search of different D-III establishments that would present fast and straightforward switch pathways for pupil 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 probably be created after the transition “supporting the mission” of the Society of the Holy Little one Jesus.
This isn’t Villanova’s solely latest enlargement. In 2024, the college purchased the 112-acre Pennsylvania campus of Cabrini College following the Catholic establishment’s choice to shut. Per the settlement, they renamed the positioning Villanova College Cabrini Campus.
A number of Catholic liberal arts schools have struggled in recent times together with their secular friends. Going through enrollment and monetary challenges, some have sought mergers.
This 12 months, Gannon College and Ursuline School, 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 12 months.
