Diploma Dilemma: the future of small colleges

In the last few years, many small liberal arts colleges have found themselves in financial crisis and, in the worst cases, closing and leaving students without a degree. Students are left hoping their next school will transfer their credits.

Many are established and well respected schools that have been open for more than 100 years, like St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, Indiana which after 128 years folded and graduated its last class in May, a victim of dire financial straits.

Just across the street from WNDU, Holy Cross College looked to be heading for the same fate until a bailout by Notre Dame righted what was a sinking ship.

NewsCenter 16's Maureen McFadden recently sat down for a Conversation with Father David Tyson, who was brought in as Interim President to deal with the impending crisis.

He talked candidly about the future of Holy Cross and how the bottom line has forced the school to re-examine its mission and justify its existence in order to survive.

When Holy Cross College opened its doors in 1966, it was to educate the Brothers of the Holy Cross. Little did the religious community know what the future would hold.

Just one year later, a young man who was not a brother walked in and asked if he could go to school there. The answer was yes, and then his sister enrolled and it didn't take long before the two year Catholic school was open to the Michiana community.

Father Tyson, a Holy Cross Board member and executive at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business explains the decade’s long niche that made Holy Cross such a draw, not only in the United States, but around the world.

“Its foundation was a two year college that prepared people to go to tier one universities and that was a niche and it was a distinctive Holy Cross education,” he said.

And it worked for more than five decades, graduating many students who moved on to schools like Notre Dame, Purdue, even Princeton.

Like many small liberal arts schools, Holy Cross recently found itself in deep financial trouble, even under the threat of possible closure.

A Hail Mary came from Notre Dame when the university agreed to buy their land for millions and lease it back to the school for one dollar a year, giving Holy Cross what Fr. Tyson called "wiggle room."

He said, “I think the collaboration with Notre Dame literally was terrific. I think it was Providence.”

Maureen asked Father Tyson about the decision to become a four year college, as well as the colleges structural expansion, even adding dorms.

“I loved the movie Field of Dreams, but build it and they will come is a lie," he said. "I don't know the answer to this question, but if it was to compete, I don't think it was the right thing because it gave up the one niche for the other. To answer your question, yes too much growth too soon.”

"Well intentioned for sure, but add to that, Holy Cross, like other small schools, is tuition driven with a minuscule endowment," Father Tyson adds. “The whole thing of revenue and expense, you learn it in accounting, have to be balanced and the big issue for the college moving forward is going to be revenue.”

Father Tyson say the task at hand is determining what Holy Cross' future niche will be.

“What is its niche? That is the question we have to answer," he said. "We can't ignore the model, St. Joe Rensselaer experienced it, the model that small schools are trying to do a wonderful thing like keep the liberal arts as part of a general undergraduate education, it's looking like it’s not an operative model.”

So what is the new niche? Perhaps the original niche, acknowledging that half of its student body's goal is to transfer to a tier one school.

“I would say Holy Cross College, a transformative education that is intentionally Catholic, that is open to all faiths, and I'd like to say that we provide transfer opportunities and we provide some baccalaureate,” said Father Tyson.

And he says he would like to add sciences to the curriculum and perhaps provide a more intensive baccalaureate for very bright students who might graduate in three years instead of four.

He says these are focused and disciplined discussions he and the board of trustees will be having. “Everyone is on the same page about future, especially next year, and building on the room we now have in the middle of a severe financial crisis," he explained. "Which will allow us over time to have the resources to be able to build a curriculum that is not market driven.”

Father Tyson has no doubt that, like this year’s graduates, Holy Cross will be handing out sheepskins for years to come, whether it’s a two year degree or four.

“Some ten years from now, if we were known for that, whether we were giving them an A.A. (Associate of Arts) degree and knowing they were going on to Notre Dame or Princeton or whether they were going to stay here in a smaller elite baccalaureate program, it's a niche we can do,” he said.

If you’d like to learn more about a Holy Cross College education, visit

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