Students at Spring Hill College in Mobile will soon be able to major in social media influencing, thanks to a partnership with another private Jesuit college in Missouri.
Facing financial challenges, the historic Jesuit institution in Mobile is boosting its enrollment through new academic programs and international study opportunities. It’s also trying to boost alumni donations and is opening a new Health and Innovation Center.
Both colleges – Spring Hill and Rockhurst University in Kansas City – are battling declining revenue. By combining forces, they hope to solve problems on both campuses.
“It’s a new time for higher ed,” said Mary Van Brunt, Spring Hill’s president. “One of the ways to really look at growing your enrollment is to look at strategic partnerships. It’s really hard today to just grow your enrollment organically. So we have to learn how to partner and find ways that better suit both of us.”
Van Brunt said social media marketing stood out as an opportunity for students and as an avenue of strategic communication within the business industry.
“Every business that’s out there now has to find a way to use social media to help them sell their products or sell their services,” Van Brunt said.
Starting in fall 2025, Spring Hill undergraduates can major in data analytics and intelligence, social influencing, exercise science and criminal justice. The partnership will also offer a study abroad opportunity in Italy and create a pathway for students to get a master’s degree in speech language pathology and a doctorate in physical therapy and occupational therapy at Rockhurst.
Spring Hill lost $13 million in net income in 2023, while Rockhurst lost $9 million, according to tax findings from ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.
In February, Spring Hill administration removed six majors, including chemistry, history and philosophy, due to low enrollment.
While Rockhurst’s enrollment has increased, a 2022 St. Louis scholarship foundation put them on a “watch list” for schools that could potentially close, according to the Kansas City Beacon. Rockhurst administrators say this data is old and based on the post-COVID slump.
Spring Hill laid off nine faculty and 24 students were impacted by the majors’ termination and were offered online alternatives or an independent learning option. Fall 2023 enrollment at Spring Hill was 977 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Like many other schools, large and small, Van Brunt said Spring Hill suffered enrollment decreases because of COVID and, more recently, a federal delay in processing financial aid applications.
Van Brunt said alumni fundraising has increased and Spring Hill is evaluating potential sale of real estate investments to increase cash flow. Spring Hill’s Give Day in March brought in more than $300,000 in donations.
“We had to kind of right size our campus to meet where we were with the enrollment and then be able to grow,” Van Brunt said.
Dr. Ricardo Azziz, who contributes regularly to Higher Ed Dive, said there are several forces affecting all American colleges, regardless of size or religious affiliation, including decreased demand, fewer educators, rising costs and a “cultural push against higher education.”
Schools with 1,000 students or less have to compete with larger schools with 30,000 students or more. Schools like the University of Alabama have sizeable marketing budgets, more academic offerings and have bounced back from enrollment declines due to COVID.
Early planning, including college partnerships, put schools like Spring Hill in a “much better position to maintain their mission and their heritage in the future,” Azziz said.
English faculty member Leigh Ann Litwiller is approaching 20 years at Spring Hill and has seen how the higher education landscape is changing. When it comes to this new strategic partnership, change is good.
“We need the ability to think about different ways of doing things, Litwiller said. Allying “with an institution that has some complementary strengths” will increase opportunities for students.
“That’s encouraging to me, because I think this is a time when higher ed has to be able to think outside the box,” she said.
Given changes to higher education funding and policies in the first few months of the Trump administration, Litwiller said change can be challenging. But a school that’s nearly 200 years old is always learning to adjust.
“I feel encouraged and hopeful,” Litwiller said. “I feel like we have strong leadership here that is really trying to look strategically and creatively at the future. That is encouraging to me, even though some growing pains always accompany change.”
Plans are still underway for a 60,000-square foot Health and Innovation Center at Spring Hill. Van Brunt said there was a short delay this year, but is opening in 2026, thanks to a $35 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services.
As of November of last year, there were more than 29,000 enrollment inquiries compared to 4,100 inquiries the year prior, according to a 2023 audit statement from Spring Hill.
Spring Hill College’s audit revealed other promising signs for the school. Its 2023 total assets are about $143 million. While that’s slightly less than in 2022, that is still more than double its liabilities. The school’s debt has reduced from about $59 million in 2019 to $50 million in 2023.
Nationwide, there’s been an overall decline in enrollment in religious-affiliated schools. Since 2010, there’s been a 9.2% decrease in students entering Roman Catholic schools, according to data from Higher Ed Dive. That’s a loss of more than 680,000 students.
Azziz said higher education is still of great value to the country despite imminent challenges.
“If we’re not improving the student’s education, the quality of their education, the quality of student success, then we shouldn’t really be doing this at all,” Azziz said. “Because in the end, it’s all about the students.”
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