Last month we reported that Bluffton University, a Mennonite college in Bluffton, Ohio, would not be merging with the University of Findlay. Get up to speed here.
Last week at LimaOhio.com, Mackenzi Lemann wrote that the failed merger is “not a do or die moment” for the Christian school.
Here is a taste of her piece:
Administrators say Bluffton University was financially stable when it pursued the merger with the University of Findlay.
Still, the school’s cash flow in recent years made it difficult for the college to hire for vacant jobs, offer raises or fund faculty research, then-President Jane Wood said on a podcast recorded in January.
“We just didn’t see that margin doing anything but continuing to get smaller and smaller” over the next decade, Wood said on the podcast.
The private Christian colleges, located a mere 20 miles apart, would remain separate campuses but would share resources under the proposed merger, which presidents of both institutions initially expected to be complete by the fall.
Unexpected delays in the federal regulatory approval process proved too costly for the University of Findlay trustees, who voted to discontinue the application process on Feb. 27.
University of Findlay President Katherine Fell hinted at those frustrations when she and Wood recorded a podcast with Wood about college mergers and aquisitions weeks earlier.
“We believe in this merger,” Fell said at the time, though she lamented that the approval process could take 18 months to three years to advance to the second phase, and that the schools would be “very limited in the early stages of this process.”
Wood’s sudden resignation on Feb. 26 surprised her colleague J. Alexander Sider, the university’s vice president of academic affairs and academic dean, who became acting president upon Wood’s departure.
The University of Findlay trustees voted to terminate its memorandum of understanding with Bluffton the following day. Then Bluffton trustees voted for Sider to become interim president as they begin the presidential search.
Sider said university officials always knew the merger may not be successful.
“This was not a do or die moment for Bluffton,” he said. “We’ll continue to remain open. We’ll continue to remain responsible to our community’s and students’ needs.”
Bluffton University remains financially stable and will continue seeking strategic partnerships, Sider said.
Read the entire piece here.
