Notre Dame de Namur University trustees have concluded the school “cannot be continued in its current form” as they discuss the next steps for the struggling institution.
“Over the past five years, Notre Dame de Namur University has been experiencing continued enrollment decline and fundraising challenges that many similar institutions of higher education have faced recently,” a university press release stated, noting that efforts to reverse those trends have been unsuccessful.
From a high of more than 2,000 students attending the Belmont campus in 2013, enrollment has plummeted, with only 1,363 students last fall. Declining enrollment and a lack of significant fundraising has further diminished the resources of the school, which ran an estimated $3 million deficit in fiscal year 2019.
Prior attempts by the university administration to respond to these challenges through establishing partnerships and programs and boosting marketing and development have failed, leaving the trustees to note “no innovation in recent history has met expectations for enrollment or fundraising….”
Notre Dame de Namur University, the third-oldest college in California, was founded as a women’s school in San Jose in 1851 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur….
The above comes from a March 2 story in Catholic San Francisco.
adios …….. !
As far as I see, article provides no reason[s] author believes college is in this situation.
The first class I ever took at a Catholic school was at the affiliated college, “founded upon the values of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and rooted in the Catholic tradition, Notre Dame de Namur University serves its students and the community by providing excellent professional and liberal arts programs in which community engagement and the values of social justice and global peace are integral to the learning experience. NDNU is a diverse and inclusive learning community.” When the priest teaching the class justified abortion and extra-marital sex, I knew I would pursue further Catholic education elsewhere. Years later, I contacted that priest when he was invited to speak at the parish our family attended. We had a nice-enough conversation, but he assured me that his views had not changed over the years. I informed the pastor at the time, who did nothing. We did not attend his presentation of dissent.
Perhaps if they were to be TRULY Catholic, as Thomas Acquins, Ave Maria, Steubenville and others?
It hasn’t been ‘Catholic’ for a very long time.