Gary Stocker traces Lourdes University's collapse near Toledo, Ohio. The school tripled its athletic teams to 700 athletes but enrollment dropped from 1,300 to under 700 students. Scholarships covering three-quarters of tuition drained finances faster than revenue could sustain, forcing closure.
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This is Gary Stocker with College Viability. Let's go beyond the college brochure. If you were to drive just a few miles outside of Toledo, Ohio, you'd find a quiet patch of ground where the Sisters of St. Francis once planted a seed of sorts, a college seed to be exact. In the late 1950s, it started small, a junior college built on faith and the hope of serving the community. For decades, it was a sanctuary for adult learners and commuters, people looking for a second act or a steady step up. It was, it was Lourdes University. But a little over a decade ago, the world started to change. The steady path wasn't enough anymore. The Great Recession was howling at the door, and the leaders at Lourdes decided it was time to stop being a quiet commuter school and start being a player. They looked at the empty seats in the lecture halls And they looked at the dwindling checks in the bursar's office, and they came up, and they came up with a plan that seemed like a slam dunk. They decided to trade the quiet of the library for the toot of the whistle. In 2012, Lourdes had just 8 athletic teams and a handful of athletes. Barely a tenth of the student body. But the order from the boardroom was more. Over the next 12 years, they didn't just add a team or two. They exploded. They had more than 20 sports. They recruited from far and wide. By 2022, some 10 years later, 7 out of every 10 undergraduates on that campus weren't just students, they were student athletes. They had the jerseys, they had the gear, and they were part of a growing roster of students But there is a detail of finance that says you can't run a university on team spirit alone. You see, to get those 400 athletes to come to a small school in Ohio, the university had to make them an offer they couldn't refuse. And while the average student was getting a competitive discount for sure, The athletes were being handed scholarships that covered nearly three-quarters of their bill. The university was buying its enrollment, but it was losing money on every single jersey it handed out. While the number of athletes tripled, the enrollment did something the college leaders didn't Predict. It fell. It tumbled from nearly 1,300 students down to less than 700. They were building a sports-focused college on a shrinking foundation. They were spending money on training gear and sports technology while the actual mission was starving in the shadows. Call it diversification, call it a growth strategy. They assume that if we just find one more niche, one more sport, one more hook, the home team will always win. But this past week, the sisters and the board had to walk into the light of sober assessment. They realize that the athletic trap isn't a safety net, it's a financial hole that has no bottom. Lord's University announced it is closing its doors for good at the end of this academic year. They tried to save the school by betting on the locker room, only to find out that jersey-wearing students cannot keep a college in the game. The brochure promised a bright future and a winning season, but for the Sisters of Saint Francis and Lourdes University, the final whistle has blown and there is no overtime. And now we have gone beyond the college brochure. This is Gary Stocker with College Viability.
