4-14-23 marian university enrollment emergency

Following the announcement this week that Cardinal Stritch University near Milwaukee is closing next month, Fond du Lac’s Marian University is taking steps to deal with declining enrollment and decreased revenue.   Marian president Michelle Majewski addressed the situation in a letter to faculty and staff.  “Our ability to deliver on our mission is threatened by decreased revenue associated with an ongoing pattern of decreased undergraduate enrollment,”   Majewski said.  “Because we are a tuition-driven institution, we do not have the luxury of drawing down on our endowment to make ends meet, which means right-sizing the university needs in order to improve our financial health.”   Last  month the Marian Board of Trustees declared an Enrollment Emergency.   The university’s assistant vice president for marketing and communications, Callista Gould said the university “took steps and was very proactive.”   Four faculty have been informed their positions are being eliminated and some staff positions have been terminated as well.   The  university is discontinuing eight undergraduate majors and 16 undergraduate minors.  Three undergraduate majors are being suspended for two years  and three graduate programs are also being discontinued.  “One of the things we focus on is there are majors where there is a great need in Wisconsin.  There’s a huge nursing shortage, so we have a very strong nursing program,”  Gould said.  Meanwhile,  the school’s  nursing program will be moving from downtown Fond du Lac, back to a remodeled space on campus  in the Stayer Center in December.   Majewski says there is good news.  She says multiple federal  grant submissions are in the works and an anonymous donor associated with the Working Family Grant program recently requested the university  submit paperwork for another $1 million gift for the upcoming academic year.  “To the Fond du Lac community we are here to stay,”  Gould told WFDL news.  “I’m looking at initiatives on how to bring Marian out to the community and how to bring the community into Marian.  We’re here for the long term.  We’ve been here 87 years, we’re going to be here for another 87.”