Dive Transient:
- The College of Findlay won’t move forward with its deliberate merger with Bluffton College after a Wednesday vote by Findlay’s board.
- Findlay is terminating its memorandum of understanding with Bluffton, signed last March, in keeping with a information launch. The college cited time and bills required to finish the merger, in addition to the prices of maintaining their respective NCAA groups at completely different divisions.
- “For us, due diligence on this case has demonstrated that partnering in key methods is a greater resolution,” Findlay President Katherine Fell stated in a press release.
Dive Perception:
Bluffton had no control over Findlay’s resolution to not proceed with their joint merger software with their accreditor, the Increased Studying Fee, in keeping with Cheryl Hacker, chair of Bluffton’s board of trustees.
The personal Christian universities, each in Ohio, introduced their deliberate merger in March 2024. On the time, each boards unanimously authorised the plan.
“From a vantage level sooner or later, we’ll look again at this second within the historical past of upper training as one which required new approaches and daring actions,” Findlay’s Fell stated then. “I imagine this merger will show to be each.”
Findlay is by far the bigger establishment, with 5,057 college students in fall 2023, in comparison with Bluffton’s 678.
It’s the financially stronger one as effectively, with $238.2 million in property and $84.7 million in complete income in fiscal 2023, effectively over double what Bluffton reported on each counts. Though each establishments posted working deficits in fiscal 2023, Bluffton’s was bigger though it introduced in much less income.
Their authentic plan referred to as for Findlay to take care of each of their campuses post-merger. They’d additionally keep their athletic groups beneath their present NCAA divisions — Division II for Findlay, Division III for Bluffton. This was a “key” component of the merger, Findlay stated Thursday.
“Nonetheless, laws necessitate separate processes for athletic monetary help distribution and prohibit the sharing of assets and sports activities services, leading to fewer synergies in these areas than initially anticipated,” the college stated.
Following Findlay’s resolution to terminate the merger course of, Bluffton’s Hacker stated that the college “continues to be financially secure, strategically impartial, and well-prepared for the long run,” and that the termination wouldn’t detract from its mission.
Bluffton additionally famous that it’ll “proceed to discover strategic partnerships that help the long-term targets of the establishment and the scholars it serves.”
Officers at each universities additionally maintained that the due diligence and preparation course of was invaluable and academic, though it wouldn’t lead to a merger.
In response to Fell, the method “resulted in a useful reflective course of for each campuses by means of the examination of strengths, areas for progress, and capability to innovate and alter throughout the evolving panorama of upper training.”
The expense and complexity of merging larger training establishments are among the many key challenges in making a mix work, specialists say.
