Gannon University looks to merge with Ohio college

Gannon University in Erie and Ursuline College near Cleveland intend to merge, creating what leaders say would be the largest Catholic university system in the Lake Erie region.

Presidents of both institutions outlined the move to their campuses Monday.

The plan is subject to review by both institutions. If approved, it would be the latest example of realignment within higher education amid an increasingly challenging student market.

With increasing frequency, schools in Pennsylvania and beyond have formed strategic partnerships, merged or closed altogether amid a sustained drop in residential college students aged 18-22 and doubts about the value of a bachelor’s degree versus spiraling tuition rates, debt worries and a strong after-high-school job market.

Gannon, founded in 1925, enrolls 4,665 students, according to U.S. Department of Education data for 2022, the most current available. Ursuline, founded a century and a half ago, enrolls 850 undergraduate and graduate students on its campus about 20 miles outside Cleveland in Pepper Pike, Ohio.

The merger would create an institution with about 6,000 students, 1,300 employees, and campuses in three states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ruskin, Fla., where Gannon established a campus in 2014. The parties have signed a letter of intent to “enter a strategic partnership.”

Officials at Gannon had been looking at expansion possibilities and Ursuline leaders wanted to partner with a larger institution, officials said in making the announcement. The Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland view the move as enabling the institution’s legacy to be realized.

“We believe this is the best way to extend the life of the college and continue Ursuline’s legacy so that it can continue to educate students in the Catholic tradition, as it has done for more than 150 years,” Laura Bregar, president of the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland, said in a statement.

“This is an important moment for both of our institutions,” said Walter Iwanenko Jr., president of Gannon University. “Today, we are joining our stories. One will not erase the other. Instead, together, we will begin crafting the next version of ourselves.”

The announcement was made today at Ursuline College during a campus town hall meeting where presidents of both institutions, leaders of the Ursuline College Board of Trustees, and leadership of the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland gathered.

Ursuline President David King said, “This collaboration leverages the academic and geographic strengths of both partners to create a more dynamic educational experience.

“The landscape in higher education, particularly private liberal arts schools, is changing rapidly.”

As college enrollments shrink, campus closure rates have reached about one private college a week, according to Jason E. Lane, president of the National Association of Higher Education Systems in Adelphi, Md. Speaking to TribLive earlier this year, Lane noted the trend is found especially in the Northeast and Midwest.

The merger announced Monday of both institutions across state lines and 90 miles apart would blend proud and distinct campus traditions. It will require sign off from the U.S. Department of Education, education departments in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, said Doug Oathout, Gannon’s chief of staff.

The whole process could take 12 to 18 months.

Will its name be Gannon University going forward or something else?

“We’re early in the process, and still have to figure out a lot of details, including the name. The Ursuline College name will stay in some way,” Oathout said. “We just haven’t figured out what that is going to look like.”

Both campuses field athletic teams — the Ursuline Arrows and Golden Knights of Gannon. What happens to them has implications — for student life quality on campus, alumni affinity and since student athletes perform well academically relative to peers.

“What we’re telling our coaches today is that we will continue to recruit athletes the same as we always have, which is independently,” Oathout said.

“We’re going to be very careful about how we move forward with it, because it’s not something that has to happen immediately and maybe doesn’t happen at all,” he said.

He said the Ursuline interest in merging has less to do with any financial worries than the fact that the Order is aging and the Sisters wanted to act to ensure strong leadership in the years and decades ahead.

Since early June, Pittsburgh Technical College in Oakdale, Triangle Tech campuses including those in Pittsburgh and Greensburg and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia all announced closure or plans to do so.

Clarks Summit University, a 92-year-old Baptist college, is shuttering its Lackawanna County campus amid worsening financial and enrollment woes.

In neighboring West Virginia, Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi, W.Va., announced its closure last year. Enrollment there had fallen over the decade to 670 students from 1,117.

Small private campuses, including religious and arts institutions, have been vulnerable. But enrollment declines have also hit public campuses, including the University of Pittsburgh, the State System of Higher Education and Penn State University, which has reduced its branch campus workforce through buyouts and is sharing operations across its Commonwealth campuses.