By ABBY BRAVO
Editor-in-Chief
The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet are losing yet another college, due to financial struggles. Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri, founded by the sisters in 1923, announced on March 11, that they will cease operations after the end of the 2024-25 academic year.
This announcement comes after Fontbonne went down a similar path as Saint Rose with financial struggles, a depleted endowment fund, and a continued drop in enrollment.
With over 900 total students enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate programs as of fall 2022, Fontbonne is almost three times smaller than its sister school Saint Rose, which had almost 2,800 students that same year.
There are nine total higher education institutions across the country under the Association of Colleges of Sisters of Saint Joseph (ACSSJ), which will drop to seven after the closures of Saint Rose and Fontbonne.
According to an article posted in December by Inside Higher Ed, 14 nonprofit, private, liberal arts colleges have announced their closure in 2023, 10 of which are religiously affiliated, including Saint Rose.
Similarly to Saint Rose, Fontbonne attempted to get the university back on track, but to no avail. “Despite our best efforts to cut costs, create new academic programs, and launch athletic teams, the university is unable to recover from many years of declining enrollment and budget deficits,” said Fontbonne University. President Nancy Blattner, in the announcement video posted to Fontbonne University social media.
The Chronicle attempted to contact several Fontbonne University faculty members for comments, but was told by a couple faculty members that the university told them they were not advised to speak to the media about the situation.
Fontbonne has begun their teach-out process and have echoed similar sentiments as Saint Rose toward students to reassure that they have done and are continuing to do everything they can for the campus community. “Please know that members of the university community and the leadership team have worked tirelessly during the past few years to forge a viable path forwards for Fontbonne,” said Blattner in the same video.
Fontbonne has given students and faculty a full year’s notice before the closure in contrast with the six months given to the Saint Rose community. The school is also using the $9 million left in the endowment fund to give scholarships to students who need to take summer classes both in 2024 and 2025. In addition, they are also providing all faculty and staff at the university with severance packages.
The college has already entered a purchase agreement with nearby institution Washington University to buy the property after the closure in 2025.
