By Evan Doan, News Editor
Lourdes University entrance – Photo by Lourdes University
Feb. 10,th 2026 Lourdes University, a Franciscan Catholic institution, announced that it would be closing at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. They join a growing list of small private religious schools to partially or completely cease operations in recent years, including three Michigan Colleges in the last five years.
“Lourdes has faced mounting financial pressures driven by declining enrollment, rising costs and a funding model that is increasingly unsustainable,” said Lourde’s Board of Trustees and The Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, Ohio in an open letter to students and their families. Lourdes saw a 40 percent decrease in enrollment from 2019 to 2025.
In 2024 Aquinas made changes to the application process and established the Admission Championship Program, which… along with changes to the admissions process to streamline and simplify the process. Aquinas saw great results of this new process with the current freshman class being over 400 students, the largest incoming class since 2018.
In March of 2023 Finlandia University, located in Hancock Michigan, announced that it was closing due to an “unbearable debt load” among other reasons. Finlandia University announced its closure in the middle of the academic year, just like Lourdes, which left students little time to figure out what to do.
“I heard through rumors from other athletes, but I didn’t know if they were true or not until Christmas break when athletes were told that their seasons were over,” said senior Xavier Erickson, senior, who was a student at Finlandia University.
“I was lucky to find Aquinas pretty quickly over break and was able to transfer before the semester started,” said Erickson said.
In June of 2025 Siena Heights University, a Dominican Catholic institution just like Aquinas, announced its closure at the end of the 2025 – 2026 academic year. Their senior leadership announced the closure after accessing the school’s financial situation, operational challenges and long-term sustainability. It joined another WHAC member institution Concordia University Ann Arbor who closed most in person programs along with all athletics due to financial distress.
Aquinas is not without its financial troubles in 2023 Aquinas reported a 10 million dollar net income loss followed by a 4.29 million dollar loss in 2024, according to ProPublica.org. However from 2011 to 2018 Aquinas College was net positive every fiscal year until the renovation of Albertus Magnus Hall of Science in 2019 which cost 58 million dollars.
Albertus Magnus Hall of Science – Photo by Aquinas College
2025 Aquinas College listed the Brookby house for 3.3 million dollars. The Brookby house previously was used as the president of the college’s house and is currently no longer listed indicating it is currently being closed on.
The Saint 