Sadly, my prediction that Fontbonne University would not make it to 2030 proved to be correct. (I also predict that two or three other universities in the St. Louis region will not make it to that year, either.) It started out so promising, though, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph, whose legacy still includes an extremely successful girls high school.

Founded in 1923, the university would eventually offer prestigious programs for the hearing impaired and other difficult educational fields. That is a major loss for the region. I completely understand why alumnae and alumni would be devastated to learn of its closure.

But I think a major part of the story that many are missing is the continued difficulty of what were once all-girls universities and colleges that never quite made the transition to co-ed in the 1970s. Yes, I’m well aware that was fifty years ago now, but the landscape of every major city in America is littered with the campuses of former all-girl schools that did not survive the social upheaval of the 1960s.

I would argue that just because it took a little longer does not mean that major structural issues borne of having to reorient itself in the 1970s did not eventually doom Fontbonne. Just look at Marillac College, now the south campus of UMSL, which closed after only a short run due to changing trends in the St. Louis higher education landscape.

And speaking of UMSL, it has developed into a top notch public university here in St. Louis, and it will be strengthened by some of Fontbonne’s (and future closed universities’) students going there once the latter closes, I believe.

Ultimately, I believe it is better to have fewer, stronger, and financially healthier institutions of higher learning in St. Louis than ones that cannot serve their students due to underlying and unsolvable fiscal problems.