After more than 85 years, Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee will close at the end of the spring semester next month. Students, administrators and alumni are now grieving for the university which has helped shape southeastern Wisconsin and beyond.
In a somber video message posted Monday, Cardinal Stritch President Dan Scholz shared the “profoundly sad” news that the Sisters of Saint Francis of Assisi accepted a recommendation from the university’s board of trustees to close the campus in May.
Scholz said the decision wasn’t reached lightly. After examining alternatives, he said it was necessary.
“I wish there was a different path we could pursue,” Scholz said. “However, the fiscal realities, downward enrollment trends, the pandemic, the need for more resources and the mounting operational and facility challenges presented a no-win situation.”
In the end, Scholz said, “it was determined that we could no longer continue to provide the high quality education experiences our students rightly deserve.”
Sophomore Riley Enders followed in her sister’s footsteps and attended Cardinal Stritch for its theater and business programs. She called it her dream school.
“It’s definitely a shock because I was real close to graduating from here and only had a year and a half left,” Enders said.
The private university was not only a dream school for Enders, it also represents her home and livelihood. She’s living in one of the campus dormitories and has worked in the theater department’s costume and set design shop.
“It’s just sad to see a school that’s had so much of an impact on so many people’s lives just fall apart, and it’s definitely going to be sad to see some teachers and friends who’ve grown up here have to find new places and relocate themselves,” Enders said.
Cardinal Stritch University, like nearly all other colleges and universities in Wisconsin, has seen enrollment decline in recent years. During the 2019-2020 school year, there were 2,345 students at the school. In Fall 2021, there were 1,365.
The university has become known for its diversity, with a quarter of its student body identifying as Black and Hispanic. Among 2021 graduates, 21 percent majored in nursing, around 10 percent majored in business administration and management.
Source : WPR
