A 180-year-old private Christian university in South Carolina is closing at the end of the semester after failing to raise $6 million to sustain its educational operations.
Limestone University raised about $2.1 million from nearly 200 donations during a two-week fundraising period, falling short of the funding needed to continue its on-campus and online programs, the university said in a news release Tuesday.
“Our Limestone spirit will endure through the lives of our students and alumni who carry it forward into the world,” said Randall Richardson, chair of Limestone University’s trustees. “Though our doors may close, the impact of Limestone University will live on.”
Limestone University’s online and in-person enrollment dropped from about 3,200 students in 2014 to about 1,600, according to state higher education data.
Several hundred professors and support staff will lose their jobs as part of the closure. The school said it promised to help students transfer to other schools.
Students and faculty have questioned whether the school’s financial problems could have been handled sooner.
“Why didn’t we do anything sooner?” Emma Knapp, a student, told WSPA-TV. “We kept spending money when we shouldn’t have been.”
“The problems didn’t happen overnight and they probably could have been addressed sooner,” Paul LeFrancois, a professor of economics at Limestone told the station.
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Daniel Deneen Jr., who plays football for Limestone, said he was shocked at the school’s dire financial situation and sudden closure.
“When we found out the school had $30 million in debt, we all wondered how they were going to get out of it. The last two weeks have been very stressful with finals coming up this week,” Deneen told The Post and Courier.
Limestone, founded in Gaffney in 1845, will hold its final commencement ceremonies on Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.