Rockhurst University has struck a deal with Spring Hill College in Alabama that could improve enrollment and give students access to experiences beyond Kansas City.
“With more opportunities comes the ability to attract more students,” said Rockhurst President Sandra Cassady in explaining the new “strategic partnership.”
The two institutions, both members of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, announced the collaboration March 31.
It includes plans to give Spring Hill students more access to undergraduate programs and streamline pathways for them to enroll in Rockhurst graduate programs.
Rockhurst students will have additional study-abroad opportunities through Spring Hill’s Italy Center in Bologna. Some students also will be able to do exchange programs on each other’s campuses.
For Rockhurst students, Cassady said that will mean access to industries and natural environments that are available in a coastal port city like Mobile, Alabama.
“Marine biology is a thing there,” Cassady said. “We don’t have a lot of marine biology here in Kansas City.”
How the partnership will work
Many of the details are still being worked out, but the partnership is designed to give students access to new majors, experiences and degree programs.
A news release from Spring Hill says it will mean the following new undergraduate programs for that college’s students:
- Data analytics and intelligence.
- Exercise science.
- Social influencing.
- Criminal justice.
The plan also includes pathways into Rockhurst’s master’s program in speech language pathology and doctoral programs in physical therapy and occupational therapy.
Spring Hill College President Mary Van Brunt said how those pathways work could vary.
They might look like guaranteed grad school admission for students who meet certain standards or what’s known as a “3+2 program” where students only have to complete three years of undergraduate education before moving to a specific graduate program.
Both schools are also planning how to give students experiences outside of their home cities.
Van Brunt said both institutions have programs in supply chain management. She envisions Spring Hill students learning about Kansas City’s trucking industry while Rockhurst students benefit from the port in Mobile, one of the largest on the Gulf Coast.
Spring Hill also works with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and is building a new Health and Science Innovation Center, both of which could provide opportunities for Rockhurst students.
Rockhurst and Spring Hill are located in the same Jesuit province and periodically meet with other Association of Jesuit College and Universities members in that region, which covers 12 states, part of Illinois, Puerto Rico and the country of Belize.
Cassady and Van Brunt — who became the first female leaders of their respective institutions within about six months of each other — said they became acquainted at those meetings and discussed how their schools could collaborate.
It’s not unusual for schools to partner for a single program, Van Brunt said. “But this is a strategic alliance because we see many programs … and pathways that we can do together.”
The institutions’ shared mission and Jesuit values have helped planning, Cassady said.
“We went into this having been colleagues,” she said, “and knowing each other’s institutions pretty well.”
Rockhurst’s context
The schools’ collaboration comes as some small, private colleges struggle to stay open and as the higher education sector anticipates a shrinking pool of potential students.
Within the past two years, Avila University in Kansas City successfully asked a court to lift donors’ restrictions on their gifts amid money struggles; Park University in Parkville announced cuts to faculty, programs and satellite campuses; and William Jewell College in Liberty made public that it was facing “significant financial challenges.”
In 2022, Rockhurst asked faculty to choose between increased workloads or pay cuts for the next academic year as it grappled with an approximately $10 million budget deficit that officials attributed to declining enrollment.
In late 2024, the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis said Rockhurst was of special concern on a watchlist of schools that could close.
Cassady, who joined the university in mid-2022, said the watchlist is using old data that reflects Rockhurst’s COVID-era struggles.
Rockhurst has grown by about 400 students, or 12%, in the past two years, she said, and no longer has a budget deficit. It currently enrolls about 3,600 students.
She also pointed to graduation rates well above the national average and strong career outcomes for alumni. The university’s U.S. News and World Report ranking has climbed from 26 to 7 among midwestern regional universities in the past two years.
“There are predictors for institutions that are really struggling,” she said. “That’s not Rockhurst. We’re doing quite well.”
Cassady hopes the partnership, which could bring Spring Hill students into Rockhurst graduate programs and offer more opportunities to prospective students, will help enrollment grow, which could further strengthen the university’s finances.
Both schools said they’re still working on projections for exactly how much enrollment could increase and what the financial impact would be.
Gary Stocker, the founder of College Viability, said he has no doubt that the partnership will bring opportunities for students at both colleges. But he’s less certain it will come with notable financial benefits or enrollment growth.
“It’s a realistic scenario. It’s not a likely scenario,” said Stocker, who uses publicly available data to assess the financial health and viability of both public and private colleges.
As too many colleges compete for too few students, new opportunities alone are unlikely to drive significant growth, he said. Stocker noted that Rockhurst’s graduation rate, enrollment trends and net income look stronger than Spring Hill’s.
“Rockhurst is financially quite fine. Spring Hill, much less so,” Stocker said. “What’s in it for Rockhurst?”
Spring Hill’s context
Spring Hill has faced struggles like many colleges, Van Brunt said, but it’s resilient.
One of the oldest Catholic colleges in the U.S. and the oldest institution of higher education in Alabama, the college is proud of its ties to the civil rights movement. When it desegregated in 1954, it became the first — and for years the only — integrated college in the Deep South, earning it a positive mention in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
The college currently enrolls 920 students, Van Brunt said. Enrollment had started to rebound after the pandemic but took another hit from widespread processing delays in federal applications for student aid last year.
She said the college is also grappling with demographic shifts and the impact of executive orders, but indicators show fall enrollment will be higher than last year’s.
Spring Hill recently had a good year of fundraising and is looking for other ways to increase revenue and reduce costs, Van Brunt said.
“There’s a lot of existential threats out there and challenges” that require solutions, she said. “How do we adapt and be innovative and bring our institutions forward?”
Asked if the partnership could lead to a merger, both leaders said they don’t know what the future might hold but are focused on making the academic partnership work for now.
A merger wouldn’t be unprecedented for Rockhurst. About five years ago, the university merged with St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences.
“Almost every national meeting I go to, the focus is on mergers, acquisitions and partnerships,” Cassady said. “We’re starting out in a relationship here and going to work on these academic programs first.”
