Wednesday, November 19, 2008

College closings rare, but could rise in economic downturn

According to Associate Press, Cascade College in Portland, Ore., a small Christian college with just 280 students and $4 million in debt last month announced it would have to shut down at the end of the current academic year. Another Christian institution, Taylor University, announced last month it would close the undergraduate program at a branch campus in Fort Wayne, Ind., while Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna, Minn. announced plans to close. And on Wednesday, Vennard College, a Christian school in Iowa that was down to about 80 students, announced it would close at the end of the current semester — two years shy of its 100th birthday. There are about 4,400 colleges in the United States, and the American Council on Education has records show that only four closed in 2007. The financial crisis is clearly serious. "It's something that's going to take a couple of years to play out."

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