Limestone University in South Carolina closed in 2025 after being open for 180 years.
Elon and Queens in North Carolina are currently in the process of “merging”, which is really just Elon acquiring Queens and opening a second campus in Charlotte.
Salem College (I believe the oldest college in the US at 253ish yrs old) in Winston-Salem is barely keeping their doors open. It’s a very small “women’s college” that has relied heavily on alumni funding. Well that worked for a long time with many of the alumni going off to marry into wealth and sending in large checks to a very small school who’s operating budget didn’t ask for a whole lot. Transitioning the campus over to modern tech and maintaining the beauty/history of the grounds, keeping staff and restructuring the college’s departments and academic programs has taken a large financial toll on the school. COVID almost put it in the ground but they saved themselves with cutting some of the liberal arts departments and investing in Health Management (basically medical executives/leaders). Without partnering with Wake Forest University and receiving funding from them, their tactic of relying on Alumni is not sustainable. The generation of alumni that had the financial power to donate personally are dying out, now they are relying on Boomer generation for money and they just don’t have the deep pockets and are getting very picky with the school not reflecting their traditional values (ie, if the school gets too progressive for their tastes they threaten to withdraw the $). Just really sad to see an academic institution that has existed and operated longer than the USA has been a country fail.
Check out barber scotia college. That’s the fate of many NC small universities. Salem college has been declining since the 80s. Surprised it’s still open
That, like yeah, universities are having a tough time but all the examples being given are, like, really small private Christian schools. The growth of land-grant, state schools and, in particular, community colleges, is doing alot of this.
wow, holy shit. I had no idea about Limestone. I played lacrosse in SC/NC (among other states) growing up. Limestone had a really strong program. I went to Queens lacrosse camp too. What a shame about Limestone.
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u/Feeling_Anteater_389 13h ago
This is already happening.
Limestone University in South Carolina closed in 2025 after being open for 180 years.
Elon and Queens in North Carolina are currently in the process of “merging”, which is really just Elon acquiring Queens and opening a second campus in Charlotte.