Anna Maria College, a small Catholic college in Central Massachusetts, may not have “sufficient resources” to sustain operations and enroll students through the next academic year, state officials announced on April 10.
The notice from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education — a last-ditch warning of financial risk at colleges — indicates that the school is low on funds to survive the next 18 months.
The announcement is a crucial piece of a state financial assessment system for struggling schools, created as a consumer protection measure after the abrupt closure of Mount Ida College in 2018.
“The FARM law requires institutions to post public notice of their financial condition if DHE cannot confirm, after extensively engaging with an institution, that it has sufficient resources to operate for at least 18 months,” a statement from the Department of Higher Education read. Anna Maria “meets the criteria.”
The Anna Maria board and president Sean Ryan — brought on just after the first financial warnings last March — said in a statement attached to the notice that the school “affirms its commitment to operating in full compliance” with state standards and “to meeting the current academic needs of its students.”
But Anna Maria fits squarely into the mold of New England liberal arts colleges facing the threat of closure, as fewer students attend college nationwide and tuition revenue falls behind what schools need to function. Already in Massachusetts, at least 20 colleges have shuttered or merged with larger institutions since 2014, state data shows.
In Paxton, Anna Maria educates just over a thousand undergraduate and graduate students, with popular programs in fire science and social work. First opened as a women’s college by the Sisters of Saint Anne in 1946, the school has expanded its academic programming over 75 years and become co-educational.
But its financial picture has worsened over time.
Since 2019, student enrollment has decreased by roughly 300 students from 1,458, and in 2022, the college discontinued three music majors after years of declining interest.
Last March, its accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education, flagged Anna Maria as being “in danger” of failing to meet its institutional needs. The agency said it would monitor the college’s ability to build enrollment and reduce expenses through this spring.
Then just last week, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported Anna Maria was facing allegations of failing to make its payments to the Paxton police department. (A college spokesperson told the Telegram the school already resolved its overdue obligations.)
The Department of Higher Education is now requiring the college to craft a contingency plan that would allow “students and their families to continue their education with minimal disruption,” should Anna Maria close.
In its statement, the college said the problems facing Anna Maria stem from “longstanding structural challenges in the higher education sector and the particular impact of enrollment declines on a small, tuition-dependent institution.”
That said, student deposits for the upcoming fall semester are “trending ahead” of prior years, and the college plans to cut expenses further into the next year, according to the statement.
Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_. Hilary Burns can be reached at hilary.burns@globe.com.