Students moved into their dorm rooms at summer’s end and classes resumed Aug. 22 at Hannibal-LaGrange University after a season when the viability of a fall semester was in question.
The school was in crisis mode in March, with closure predicted before the end of the spring semester unless immediate cuts were made and funds raised. The school needed to raise or save $2.2 million.
The 94-year-old school was “facing a financial Goliath,” transitional president Rodney Harrison said in a statement Aug. 1. “The president of ten years had resigned two months earlier, and the full reality of the University’s fragile financial situation was still coming to light.”
The executive team cut staff and benefits, trimmed some of HLGU’s 30 majors, appealed to donors, and called on volunteers from local churches to help on campus with lawn care and similar upkeep.
Faculty contracts were cancelled in the exigency plan, with about 15% of faculty dismissed or reduced to part-time status. Of 12 intercollegiate varsity sports, the Trojans’ golf and wrestling programs were eliminated. The school raised $1.5 million. By the end of July, Harrison declared the crisis averted.
“The pay and benefit cuts that had been in place since March would be lifted for all returning employees,” Harrison said. “With a business model in place based on scalability, and a balanced budget based on enrollment realities, HLGU may well become a model for small liberal arts universities.”
At the start of the new academic year, Inside Higher Ed reported a dozen faculty would not return. Enrollment, which dipped to 780 in 2021, had begun to inch upward, and the student retention rate bumped up from 50% to 60% last year.
In July HLGU began advertising for a few replacement positions.
At the same time, the presidential search team was digging into their pile of resumes. “We covet your prayers as we begin this search process,” trustee chair Mark Anderson said. “Our greatest desire is to find the person the Lord has to lead HLGU in the years to come. God has been faithful to bring us to this point and we believe he will continue to be faithful in this search process.
“I want to express my deepest gratitude for your commitment to the University,” Anderson wrote to supporters. “These have been difficult days, but we believe with confidence that God is at work at HLGU.”
HLGU was founded in 1928 from the merger of two colleges named for the Mississippi River towns where they were located. The school had a peak enrollment of about 1,200 in 2012. Anthony Allen, who resigned in January, was the school’s 17th president, serving ten years. Harrison is serving as transitional president while simultaneously holding his position as head of Baptist Homes & Healthcare Ministries in Missouri.