A 154-year-old Northern California university said Monday it plans to close its doors for good next year as it struggles with declining enrollment, rising operational costs and financial trouble brought on during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Holy Names University in Oakland, which opened in 1868, announced in a news release that it will cease operations in May 2023 after the completion of the spring semester.
“HNU had a strong 5-year strategic business plan and secured long-term financing, but the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated and exacerbated existing challenges, and disproportionately impacted the students HNU serves, many from under-resourced communities or who are first-generation college students,” HNU Board Chairperson Steven Borg said in a statement.
Currently there are about 520 undergrads and 423 graduate students enrolled at the private Roman Catholic university. But the school said enrollment has dropped significantly so that only 449 total students are signed up for the spring semester.
Layoffs are expected to start at the end of January or early February, the statement said.
Students will have the option to continue their studies at Dominican University of California across San Francisco Bay in San Rafael.
“The missions and degree offerings of our two institutions are beautifully aligned,” said Dominican University of California President Nicola Pitchford. “We look forward to inviting Holy Names University’s continuing students to a new, vibrant and inclusive home in San Rafael.”
The above comes from a Dec. 21 story on KCRA.
The church’s slow march of death.
Good News!
Maybe, long ago, they were true to their name.
But for many decades, Romans 2:24 applies:
“For the name of God is blasphemed among
the Gentiles because of you “.
I guess those plans to offer doctoral degrees in chiropractic and nursing didn’t pan out. A commute from the East Bay to San Rafael will be a challenge.
Drive to another failing heterodox “Catholic” university?
“Dominican University of California declares its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through enjoining the campus community to uphold and further a shared vision of ‘unity in diversity.’
Our heritage is informed by a commitment to pluralism, defined by our understanding that our community draws strength from our differences. Dominican seeks to nurture attitudes and behaviors that promote global awareness, inclusive sensibilities, and respect for individuals’ diverse experiences and identities, across such categories as race, ethnicity, language, gender, sex, sexuality, age, socioeconomic status, religion, and/or ability.
Dominican University of California is located on land originally occupied by the large Miwok village of Awani-Wi.”
Notice the echo of the Creed, St. Dominic, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine of Siena?
Dominican Saints, pray for us.
No loss with “teachers” like the occult Starhawk and the former priest Matthew Fox. Some of these Sisters think bread prayed over by a priestess becomes the Eucharist. Their order has to sell off property to care for their elderly and dying population, as they aren’t getting vocations. This is all very sad. Their community at one time provided a great service.
In early 1996 Fr Fox left Holy Names to establish the “University of Creation Spirituality”. He commented “what school in the country has witches and physicists and Buddhists and Sufis on the faculty?”. While at Holy Names, they did hold the line at his efforts to set up a high-tech ritual center and offer coursework in rave spirituality..”Eucharist-centered” raves danced to hip-hop with pulsing arrays of psychedelic imagery.Cources in “ltiurgical dj-ing” and “Urban shamanism” were under consideration.
Holy names, college espoused the worldly idea of relativism this is where their heterodox sprang from. It’s important to understand why we do what we do, but they kept coming up with the wrong answer. We always have a choice to follow Christ or to follow ourselves in the world. Their education was based on dissent from the teachings of the church. They didn’t take time to think deeply about the issues that came up. It was all based on situation ethics if you don’t stand for something you fall for anything. In Catholic education we teach about distinctives categories truth it’s like a pallet that allows you to paint pictures. If you just mix all the colors together, you end up with an awful gray world that’s boring and unattractive. This is what happened to holy names, and it’s what’s happening to many Catholic colleges throughout our nation.