A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Many small religious colleges are in trouble. Enrollments are down. Budgets are not balanced, and some people are skeptical about higher education and religion. Almost 80 nonprofit colleges have closed or merged since 2020, and more than half were religiously affiliated. NPR's Elissa Nadworny reports on two Catholic colleges in Iowa that decided to merge and join the trend of religious schools seeking strength in numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Mercy. Mercy. Mercy.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Tonight, the Mount Mercy Mustangs face off against the St. Ambrose Bees in men's volleyball.
(SOUNDBITE OF GAME BUZZER)
NADWORNY: The Mustangs have home turf here in Cedar Rapids, and they're having a great season.
(SOUNDBITE OF VOLLEYBALL HIT)
NADWORNY: But the Bees are hanging in. The first set is a nail-biter, 20-25.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE BLOWING)
NADWORNY: These two Catholic colleges, about 90 minutes away from each other in Eastern Iowa, are rivals.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Go, dude.
NADWORNY: But they're also quite similar. They're small and private. They're religious. And they've each been around for a century.
(CHEERING)
NADWORNY: Ultimately, Mount Mercy crushed St. Ambrose. But while they compete against each other, coming together - it might actually end up saving them.
AMY NOVAK: We have watched peer institutions right around us shut their doors.
NADWORNY: Amy Novak is the president at St. Ambrose University.
NOVAK: Cardinal Stritch was in our athletic conference, and Trinity International was in our athletic conference. And Iowa Wesleyan is not far from either of us and recently closed.
NADWORNY: A mix of financial and demographic challenges are at play. Fewer high school graduates means fewer college applicants, especially in rural areas and especially in the Midwest. There has also been a long decline in the share of adults who consider themselves religious.
NOVAK: To watch universities close across the heartland because we can't make it work will leave our communities fallow.
NADWORNY: It's not that either school is in trouble yet.
NOVAK: Both of us had reasonably good balance sheets.
NADWORNY: They both had good endowments.
NOVAK: So we were really trying to say, how do we do this before it gets really bad?
NADWORNY: The presidents of these two rival schools decided to meet on neutral territory at a Perkins Restaurant. Turns out, Mount Mercy's president, Todd Olson, was of similar mind.
TODD OLSON: We were certainly not at the edge of closing, but we were looking at a multiyear model that said it's going to be hard for us to sustain this.
NADWORNY: As more religious colleges close or face financial trouble, partnerships, shared services and other kinds of alliances appear to be the saving grace. And Olson was interested, and he was willing to be out of a job to do it.
OLSON: It was clear to me that the time to pursue this was when we didn't yet absolutely need to pursue this.
NADWORNY: Together, they wrote the seeds of the merger on a napkin. They'd have one president, one administration, one combined library system to cut down on costs. And they'd expand academic offerings, since each college has different program strengths. That plan will go into effect in 2026.
CATHY PENN: So in this scenario, we have a patient who has severe respiratory distress.
NADWORNY: On the day we visited Mount Mercy's campus in Cedar Rapids, first-year nursing students were practicing patient simulations.
PENN: Chloe (ph), which one needed to be given first?
CHLOE: Albuterol.
NADWORNY: Professor Cathy Penn was leading the assessment.
PENN: Albuterol. And why was that?
CHLOE: 'Cause she needs it right now for her shortness of breath.
PENN: OK, great.
NADWORNY: Both campuses have strong nursing programs, but the merger will expand their degree offerings.
PENN: The fluticasone is a corticosteroid.
NADWORNY: Mount Mercy, for instance, offers a master's and a doctorate in nursing. St. Ambrose offers a master's program in physician assistant studies and a doctorate in occupational therapy.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRAIN HORN BLARING)
NADWORNY: What do you like about this campus?
ALAINA BINA: I love how small it is and how connected everything is.
NADWORNY: Junior Alaina Bina walks with me and producer Janet Woojeong Lee out of the nursing building and across campus. She's wearing a gold horse necklace.
BINA: This is Sally - Sally the Mustang. So that's our mascot.
NADWORNY: Mount Mercy was her first college choice. She loves the culture. There's only about 1,500 students here.
BINA: It's very peaceful.
NADWORNY: Like a lot of students we talked to, Bina found the idea of combining with St. Ambrose nerve-racking.
BINA: Knowing that it's not just Mount Mercy anymore is, like, kind of hard.
NADWORNY: Why is it hard? It's just an identity change? It's, like, not what you signed up for? Like, what is hard about it?
BINA: You come to a school and you know that it's going to be Mount Mercy. Then you have to think about it, like, oh, it's going to change.
NADWORNY: On St. Ambrose's campus in Davenport, Iowa, which hosts about 2,500 students, school spirit also runs deep.
KHALIL RUIZ: Go Bees all the time, yeah.
NADWORNY: More than half of the students here play organized sports.
RUIZ: I really wanted to find a place where I could swim and study engineering, and this was the only place that offered me both.
NADWORNY: Khalil Ruiz is a senior at St. Ambrose, originally from Ohio. Swim team defined his college experience. And it's how he met his girlfriend, Rylie Steinkamp, who got him involved in campus ministry.
RYLIE STEINKAMP: Honestly, it's more rare for me to find someone who's not a student athlete, so.
NADWORNY: They both hold up their pinky fingers and smile at each other.
RUIZ: We're the fighting Bees, so we - pinkies up.
STEINKAMP: Stingers up.
RUIZ: Stingers up.
STEINKAMP: Yeah.
RUIZ: Go Bees.
(LAUGHTER)
NADWORNY: How could the Bees cheer for the Mustangs, and vice versa? Well, they won't have to. One of the key aspects of the merger - they'll keep two sports teams, two mascots, to preserve each campus' separate identity. Combining teams, Todd Olson knew...
OLSON: That would not be wise at all from a business perspective. It is a powerful enrollment driver.
NADWORNY: Ruiz and Steinkamp will be back next year, cheering for the Bees. And they're also happy that the traditions of St. Ambrose, like 9 p.m. Wednesday Mass at the chapel - the school's most popular...
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing) So good...
NADWORNY: ...Will be safeguarded by this new partnership. The two swimmers join about a hundred other students.
UNIDENTIFIED CONGREGATION: Holy, holy, holy Lord.
NADWORNY: Tonight, they pray...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: For the anxious and the afraid.
NADWORNY: ...For the poor and the hungry...
UNIDENTIFIED CONGREGATION: Lord, hear our prayer.
NADWORNY: ...And for the upcoming merger.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: For St. Ambrose and Mount Mercy University, that the grace of the Holy Spirit may help us to follow God's plan for our new partnership, we pray to the Lord.
NADWORNY: Whether or not it's God's plan....
UNIDENTIFIED CONGREGATION: Lord, hear our prayer.
NADWORNY: ...Campus leaders believe it's a necessary plan, and hopefully one that will ensure both campuses are around for another hundred years.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing) Amen.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
NADWORNY: Elissa Nadworny, NPR News, eastern Iowa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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