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William C. Ralston House on the Notre Dame de Namur University campus in Belmont. (Sanfranman59/CC BY-SA)
March 2, 2020
Nicholas Wolfram Smith
Notre Dame de Namur University trustees have concluded the school “cannot be continued in its current form” as they discuss the next steps for the struggling institution.“Over the past five years, Notre Dame de Namur University has been experiencing continued enrollment decline and fundraising challenges that many similar institutions of higher education have faced recently,” a university press release stated, noting that efforts to reverse those trends have been unsuccessful.
From a high of more than 2,000 students attending the Belmont campus in 2013, enrollment has plummeted, with only 1,363 students last fall. Declining enrollment and a lack of significant fundraising has further diminished the resources of the school, which ran an estimated $3 million deficit in fiscal year 2019.
Prior attempts by the university administration to respond to these challenges through establishing partnerships and programs and boosting marketing and development have failed, leaving the trustees to note “no innovation in recent history has met expectations for enrollment or fundraising.”
The board of trustees said the university “has been unable to change its trajectory for fundraising. It has been unable to make the needed large improvements in infrastructure to foster the growth that is needed to survive."
The board also said the university "has not been able to generate a viable relationship to the primary industries of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area (and) has not had the resources to shape stronger marketing and public communication efforts.”The university could pursue three paths going forward: renewal, merger and closure. Any revitalization of the university would first require significant capital, through donations or the sale of property, to get off the ground. The school has in the past held merger discussions with five other institutions, but has not found acceptable partners for a merger.
As the university goes through existential uncertainty, it has held meetings with faculty, students and staff to allow for “frank, open discussions” about what is happening at the school and where it might be headed.
The university said it would “take direction from the board and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur” and promised transparency as it finalized decisions around its future.
Notre Dame de Namur University, the third-oldest college in California, was founded as a women’s school in San Jose in 1851 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. When it was chartered in 1868, it was the first college in California to grant undergraduate degrees to women. It opened at its current location in Belmont in 1923. The university currently offers 15 undergraduate degrees and 10 graduate degrees.