Recently, there has been a lot written about the competition for staffing at colleges and universities. Alongside that, you can also find a lot of information about higher education enrollment declines. Combined, they hint at a new reality: college closures.
According to data compiled by the Department of Education, since January 1986, US colleges and universities have closed 19,109 sites. More than 600 of those have been in Michigan. In many cases, the closures don’t represent the operational shutdown of an institution, but rather the closure of a program, a college within a university, or a specific location.
That’s beginning to change. The DOE list is starting to reflect institutional closures, and the number of sites slated for closure is expected to grow. In January 2023 alone, four institutions have announced their intentions to cease operations. The list welcomed nearly 250 entries last year.
Representation of community colleges on the list is growing as well. In many cases, community college closures are really consolidations of multiple campuses, and shutdowns of specialized training facilities like culinary arts or healthcare programs.
But some, like Oakland Community College’s Highland Lakes campus, represent a reduction of a community college’s footprint. OCC made that announcement earlier this month, stating that the facility will be sold sometime in 2025. According to officials there, the community college wanted to give the residents of Waterford Township as much notice of the closure as possible to assist in redevelopment efforts.
Already, citizens have begun circulating petitions to express their discontent with the prospect of new housing developments on the rolling 140 acre campus. Community college closures represent a disinvestment in the community that host them. There’s no other way to look at it.
Community college closures will target smaller communities
Satellite campuses make ripe targets for consolidations and closures when money is tight. The argument for opening a satellite campus is to better serve the residents there. So, what is the argument for closing one?
As community college enrollments shrink, look for a growing trend to reduce operating costs through community college closures in smaller, less economically desirable communities. Community colleges will attempt to preserve their main campus facilities at the expense of these satellites. WCC has already tried to close its satellite campuses. I’m not arguing that these college closures are good or bad; rather, communities that host satellite campuses need to be aware of the possibility that the trend will negatively and disproportionately affect their communities.
Photo Credit: Russell Davies , via Flickr
