My latest piece in Forbes examines how colleges need to reinvent themselves to survive. The piece starts by noting that in the past two years over 30 no-profit, four-year institutions closed. But it also explores how, in other cases, such as Mills College, Hampshire College, and Sweet Briar College, the spiral toward closure was reversed, providing useful lessons for reviving liberal arts colleges. The piece examines these three cases in more detail, explaining how Mills College merged with Northeastern to become the Mills Institute, how Hampshire College was prevented from closure by support from alumni and restructuring under its new president Ed Wingenbach, and goes a bit deeper in the case of Sweet Briar College. I interviewed Meredith Woo, who was the President of Sweet Briar College just after it was saved from closure, to discuss how she approached the problem of making Sweet Briar sustainable for the coming decades. She describes how she was able to “turn what seemed to be fatal into a life-giving force for us,” by “imagining how to make liberal arts more relevant for our time.” You can see the entire piece here on Forbes.com.
Link to the piece on Forbes.com:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/01/29/saving-and-reviving-liberal-arts-colleges/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/01/29/saving-and-reviving-liberal-arts-colleges/