Will Notre Dame College’s closing be followed by others? Editorial Board Roundtable

Last week’s announcement that 102-year-old Notre Dame College in South Euclid would close at the end of the spring semester was gut-wrenching for many of its 1,400-plus students and its loyal graduates. Recruited athletes wondered if the nine colleges stepping up to take students would be offering them comparable packages. How would the academic transitions work? South Euclid mourned the loss of a community anchor and source of pride.

But at other smaller religious and private colleges around the nation, it signaled trouble ahead as the projected “enrollment cliff” arrives sooner for smaller private institutions of higher education than for the big ones. Projections show a sharp drop in college enrollments accelerating toward the end of this decade, but with uneven impacts. Smaller, religious and private colleges without big endowments are likely to fare the worst; the big elite universities the best. And with population movement still favoring the South, the Northeast and Midwest could see more colleges going over that cliff.