Where Have All the Private 2-Year Colleges Gone?
Once numerous, most have either closed, merged, or switched to 4-year status
By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE
Banner Elk, N.C.
Lees-McRae College had a simple mission when Mary W. White came to teach here 25
years ago. The two-year institution
took students fresh out of high school and readied them for
four-year colleges.
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"We knew who we were and what we were all about," Ms.
White says of the private liberal-arts college, which is
nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina. "LeesMcRae was a place you came to so you could go
somewhere else."
But after decades of helping to fill baccalaureate institutions with Lees-McRae graduates,
the college decided that holding on to its students for another two years was the key to its
survival -- which was threatened, in part, by public community colleges that could offer
associate degrees for much less money. Competing would be easier, the trustees
reasoned, if Lees-McRae could market itself as a small, private four-year institution in an
area where the closest four-year college -- Appalachian State University -- is a public
university with nearly 13,000 students. Lees-McRae made the switch in 1990.
Ms. White, an associate professor of English, says that she wasn't "100 percent
convinced" that the switch was necessary. But in retrospect, she thinks that Lees-McRae
made the right move.
"Eventually, we would have had to do it," she says. "It's tough to be a private two-year
college now."
Over the years, many other private junior colleges have reached the same conclusion.
According to the American Association of Community Colleges, there are now 148
private two-year institutions, down from more than 300 in 1945. The association's
numbers include proprietary colleges and independent graduate institutions. Most experts
put the number of private liberal-arts junior colleges at fewer than 70.
Many of the institutions were started by churches or individual educators and were
viewed largely as finishing schools for high-school graduates. Support for two-year
private colleges started to wane in the mid-1940s as public community colleges began
opening in record numbers to serve World War II veterans who were using the G.I. Bill
to pay for their educations.
Hurt by Community Colleges
As community-college systems grew, they chipped away at the enrollments of private
junior colleges. In the 1960s alone, about 100 private two-year colleges closed or began
offering bachelor's degrees, their finances too shaky for them to make it solely on twoyear programs.
Recently, as the national economy has slowed, still more private junior colleges have
given in to the times. Competition for students has become more intense at the same time
that students are demanding more from colleges: cutting-edge technology, resort-grade
residence halls, strong links to employers. Many small colleges find providing such
services difficult, especially private two-year institutions with limited endowments. And
an associate degree doesn't carry the same weight with students and their potential
employers that it once did.
A few private junior colleges have merged with other institutions, and at least one more
such arrangement is in the planning stages. Springfield College, in Illinois, expects to
merge with nearby Benedictine College, a four-year institution.
Some institutions that have traditionally had two-year programs, like Indiana's Holy
Cross College, now award both bachelor's and associate degrees. Mitchell College, in
Connecticut, and Lasell College, in Massachusetts, are former two-year colleges that
have become four-year institutions within the past 15 years.
Other two-year institutions, such as Woods College, in Mississippi, have simply shut
their doors.
Some two-year institutions have managed to carve out successful niches for themselves.
But the trend is clear.
"They're really an endangered species," says James E. Samels, chief executive of
Education Alliance, a national higher-education consulting firm that has helped some
colleges decide whether to remain two-year institutions. "I think the time has come when
trustees are asking tough questions about long-term viability and then making some tough
decisions."
Officials at Keystone College, a former two-year institution in La Plume, Pa., were
determined to shed that endangered-species-list image. In the mid-1990s, the college had
a flagging enrollment, a deficit of $1.3-million, and no money to restore its aging
campus, which covers 280 acres in hilly northeastern Pennsylvania. What's more, the
college faced expanding competition from other nearby two-year institutions, both
private and public.
Edward G. Boehm Jr. was hired as president in 1995 to carry out the Keystone trustees'
plan to offer four-year degrees. "I was committed and determined that we would become
a baccalaureate college," he says. "I knew, with so many fine two-year opportunities in
our area, that we would no longer be able to move in that direction and be competitive."
Faculty members accepted a three-year freeze on tenure and salaries -- which also
included the pay of administrators and staff members -- so that the college could balance
its then-$10-million annual budget. Professors also agreed to teach two classes more than
their normal loads. The alternative, trustees said, was to declare bankruptcy.
"We all knew that this was serious," says Charlotte Ravaioli, who was chairwoman of the
faculty senate at the time and is now vice president for academic affairs and dean. "We
were very nervous about the future of the college."
Keystone issued about $11.2-million in bonds over five years to pay down debt, cover
years of deferred maintenance, and upgrade facilities. In the spring of 1998, it won
approval from state officials to offer two bachelor's degrees, a number that has since
grown to 13, in such areas as accounting, human-resource management, and criminaljustice administration. The college has gradually hired faculty members with terminal
degrees in their fields to teach in these programs. Enrollment, at 488 when Mr. Boehm
arrived, has risen to 1,079 full-time students this fall.
In the meantime, Keystone has scaled back its associate-degree programs from 37 to 17.
Next year, 45 percent of the students will graduate with bachelor's degrees, but the
college doesn't plan to dump its two-year offerings. "I think our revitalization was
directly related to our decision to become a baccalaureate college with two-year
opportunities," Mr. Boehm says.
For Chester College of New England, formerly known as White Pines College, switching
from a two-year to a four-year program in 2001 meant dropping its associate degrees as
quickly as possible. The college, located in rural Chester, N.H., has revised its mission to
focus on bachelor-of-arts programs with an emphasis on the visual and language arts.
That priority is reflected in the degrees it now offers, which include photography, studio
arts, and graphic design.
A two-year degree in liberal studies remains, but officials are not certain that it will be
offered for much longer, says William A. Nevious, president of the college. Only four of
the college's 176 students are enrolled in the associate-degree program today.
The name change, too, was crucial to the changeover strategy. "It would have been too
difficult to try to get people to think about White Pines College as a four-year college as
opposed to a two-year college," Mr. Nevious says. "We're going after a target market that
matches our mission. We're definitely looking at those very strong, creative students who
want a four-year degree."
Since 2000, when the college began its transition, enrollment has tripled, and the budget,
now at a lean $3.2-million, has been balanced.
'Unique Advantage'
Experts say the private two-year colleges that have the best chance of surviving are those
offering programs that aren't widely available. "They really have to look at what can they
advertise or market as their unique advantage," says Richard Alfred, a professor of higher
education at the University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Higher and
Postsecondary Education. "They really have to be able to justify their cost. They have to
tell students how they will connect them to the outside world."
Tuition at St. Catharine College, a two-year institution in St. Catharine, Ky., is about
$3,300 per semester for most programs. A nearby public community college charges
about $900.
William D. Huston, president of St. Catharine, knew when he arrived, in 1997, that the
college needed a specialty that would attract students despite the price difference. With
health-care workers in short supply, the college has expanded its mission to include a
liberal-arts core with an emphasis on health science.
St. Catharine now has six two-year health-science programs -- including one,
sonography, that is among only nine in the country accredited to give instruction in three
tracks: cardiac, abdominal, and vascular.
Mr. Huston saw the new focus as a way not only to produce health-sciences graduates for
local hospitals, but also to give the college the attractive specialty it sought. Enrollment
for the fall of 2002 was 738, up from 180 in 1997, and projections call for 800 students
this year.
Next fall, the college -- in yet another move to distinguish itself -- expects to begin
enrolling students in a couple of four-year degree programs that aren't available anywhere
else in Kentucky: a bachelor of arts in management and supervision, and a bachelor of
science in health services. Eventually, St. Catharine -- which the president says will
continue to award associate degrees -- would like to offer four-year degrees in education
and nursing as well.
Mr. Huston, who grew up in Kentucky, remembers when there were 15 private two-year
colleges in the state. St. Catharine is the only one left.
Bucking the Trend
Spartanburg Methodist College uses its singular status as a marketing tool. The college is
the only private two-year institution in South Carolina, and "we celebrate that," says Dan
L. Philbeck, dean of admissions and financial aid.
The college shares the city with three baccalaureate colleges, one technical institution,
and one chiropractic college, he notes. In the early 1990s, Spartanburg Methodist
considered becoming a four-year institution, but decided not to. "We just felt that we
couldn't compete on a four-year level," Mr. Philbeck says.
So it continues to award associate degrees in arts, science, criminal justice, and
information management. It thrives on a combination of enthusiastic marketing and fouryear-style offerings. Among them are scholarship programs, 13 intercollegiate athletics
teams, an array of extracurricular activities, and residence halls that hold 550 students.
Enrollment is at 750, prompting officials to contemplate expansion. And an average of 91
percent of Spartanburg Methodist students have gone on to four-year colleges in recent
years.
"Our main goal is to get their first two years of college under their belt and then get them
where they want to go," Mr. Philbeck says. "I think the two-year concept will continue to
work for us."
On the Edge
Still, for every two-year success story, there are several colleges whose survival is
tenuous. For instance, trustees at Mary Holmes College are deciding whether to keep the
doors open at the financially ailing institution in West Point, Miss.
Mary Holmes trustees voted last month to suspend operations for the fall semester at the
111-year-old college, according to a Presbyterian News Service report. Mary Holmes, a
historically black private junior college, is burdened with about $2.5-million in debt after
years of falling enrollment.
The institution, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), was stripped of
its accreditation in December 2002, mostly because of its financial troubles. An appeal to
its accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, was unsuccessful.
As a result, the institution was not eligible for the federal money that provided financial
aid to its roughly 250 students. And it faces losing the financial support it received
annually from the church. Mary Holmes is known for sending students on to nearby
Mississippi Valley State University and Jackson State University. Trustees have said that
filing for bankruptcy is an option.
Learning Curve
Even for two-year colleges that make the switch to four-year status, success does not
exactly come overnight.
When Lees-McRae became a four-year college, in 1990, the marketing of its new image
wasn't well thought out, and was further muddied by the college's continuing to award
two-year degrees until 1994.
A steep enrollment decline followed the transition. Enrollment, which had peaked at 850
in 1990, fell to 470 in 1998, with the college's budget deficit hovering around $3-million.
At that point, the trustees -- after scrapping a plan to sell the college -- hired Earl J.
Robinson as president. The board used the college's $13-million endowment as collateral
to secure a line of credit to pay operating expenses and to revamp its marketing strategy
to make prospective students aware of its new offerings.
"Ten years after we made the switch, people would say, 'Lees-McRae? Isn't that the twoyear school up in the mountains?'" Mr. Robinson says.
"I went everywhere within a 60-to-75-mile radius to preach that we had changed."
Now it appears that people have gotten the message.
Enrollment this fall is up to 750 on the main campus, in Banner Elk, and to 225 full-time
students on four branch campuses at nearby community colleges, established beginning
in 1997. At the satellite campuses, community college graduates can take junior- and
senior-level classes to get bachelor's degrees from Lees-McRae in elementary education,
business, criminal justice, and nursing.
In the 2004 fiscal year, Mr. Robinson expects the college to have about a $300,000
surplus, with a $14-million operating budget. A five-year effort to raise $18.75-million,
which began in 1998, surpassed its goal in four years and has been extended to $26million. And construction will soon begin on a $3.9-million residence hall, which will
hold 80 students.
Within five years, Mr. Robinson hopes to have 1,100 students taking classes on the 400acre main campus, with another 500 students in the institution's satellite programs.
Meanwhile, Ms. White, the English professor, talks of how teaching juniors gave her a
much-needed break from "teaching freshman comp over and over again." She enjoys the
extra time she now gets to spend with students -- as well as the payoff.
"We used to do all the hard work and someone else reaped the benefits," she says. "Now
we're the steppingstone to a career or a graduate degree."
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