A sad ending for Wesleyan

News of the closure of Iowa Wesleyan University brings a sad end to the college’s rich 180-year history in Mount Pleasant. Like so many institutions of higher learning, especially smaller, private institutions located outside of large urban areas, Wesleyan was hit with a combination of financial punches.

There’s the pandemic, inflation, dwindling enrollment and the altered landscape of higher education due to the fact fewer students are seeking a four-year degree. And those who do may not want to come to campus to get it.

Wesleyan and three other small Iowa colleges, Graceland University in Lamoni, Upper Iowa University in Fayette and William Penn University in Oskaloosa, asked Gov. Kim Reynolds for $48 million in aid from pandemic relief funding through the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Each school sought $12 million.

“We urgently need funding support as a bridge over the next three years to continue the successful work we have already begun,” Wesleyan President Christine Plunkett wrote to the governor’s office on Feb. 17, according to reporting by The Gazette’s Vanessa Miller. “Absent this funding, we face the threat of closure just at a time when we are making substantial progress.”

But an independent risk assessment found the Mount Pleasant campus was “in financial decline” and questioned the wisdom of providing short-term federal funding for ongoing expenses. The governor rejected Wesleyan’s request. State economic development officials are now working with Mount Pleasant leaders to figure out what’s next for the campus.

We can’t fault Reynolds’ decision, given the worsening financial struggles faced by the school that were first publicly discussed in 2018. Although the funding was seen as a “bridge” by Wesleyan leaders to better financial days ahead, it might also have been a bridge to nowhere.

We’ve hardly offered glowing reviews in the past about Reynolds’ pandemic aid funding decisions, such as the time she tried to misuse millions of dollars to pay for a computer system upgrade that has now been scrubbed. But this seems like the right call.

Reynolds has yet to announce decisions on the requests from Upper Iowa, Graceland and William Penn. It’s possible those schools are better bets for funding.

But Wesleyan is a cautionary tale for all of Iowa’s small private colleges and the communities they call home. They may be on their own. It’s going to take strategic planning, creative thinking and strong community backing to save the schools. Certainly, some of that is already happening.

Still, overcoming major changes in the demand for higher education will be hard to overcome. There are examples. Grinnell College, for instance, has an endowment approaching $3 billion and has used its strong financial position to help students pay for college with less debt.

So there are strategies are out there. And more will be needed to avoid more sad endings.

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