(Updated 4:50 p.m.)
Marylhurst University is closing.
The 125-year-old college had been struggling with declining enrollment. Based near Lake Oswego, Marylhurst attempted to carve out a niche serving professionals returning to college.
The student population at Marylhurst has been waning since the Great Recession, as it has at many colleges around the country. In the 2013-14 fall term, the school boasted 1,409 students. Last fall, that number had plummeted to 743. The university expected more declines next fall.
The question remains: Is Marylhurst an anomaly or the canary in the coal mine?
These are challenging times in higher education. The booming economy and near record-low unemployment has led to enrollment declines at many colleges across the country. In response, colleges have merged, downsized and turned to online enrollment.
In 2015, Moody's predicted the number of colleges shutting down entirely would triple.
Community college enrollment in Oregon is down 25 percent from the peak to about 93,000.
Private school enrollment actually grew over most of the last five years but slumped more than 5 percent just between 2015 and 2016.
Numbers at the state's public four-year institutions have remained more stable, falling just 1 percent since the peak in 2013.
Marylhurst's student count topped out at around 2,000 during the recession, said Melody Rose, president of the university. It's been dwindling ever since, leading the administration to shrink the staff and cull certain academic programs. But it wasn't enough.
"We thought the best for all involved was to stage a graceful closure," Rose said.
In a statement, Chip Terhune, Marylhurst board chair-elect, said the board reviewed numerous reorganization scenarios and strategies. "Despite these efforts, there was no viable financial path that would have enabled us to sustain the high level of academic programming for which we have always strived without putting an extreme, unsustainable burden on our students, faculty and staff," Terhune said.
The decision to close also ensured Marylhurst didn't encounter the accreditation issues, recalled loans or negative audits that often accompany other universities' closures.
The school hopes to wind down all instruction by the end of summer. Administrators are working with other area schools on procedures to transfer current Marylhurst students.
The closure raises questions about the fate of the 50-acre campus.
"The Sisters of the Holy Names gifted us this land in the depression," Rose said. But the property deed calls for returning the 50 acres to the religious order if Marylhurst ceases operations.
-- Jeff Manning