The weak can help the weak; or how small colleges, small towns, and small churches can help each other

The closure of Wells College is not just the closure of a small college, but also a blow to Aurora, New York, and the small Finger Lakes towns that surround it. The financial and accreditation challenges that St. Augustine’s University faces are, secondarily, evidence of the Episcopal Church’s weakened education mission in the United States.  Many small and shrinking colleges are affiliated with small or shrinking churches. Many are located in small or struggling communities. This coincidence seems an example of exponentially worsening luck–the one smallness multiplying the other(s) to make things all the more difficult. Historically, the response has been to disaffiliate, formally or informally. So the college and the church unhitch, the college happy to give up a bit of money in order to appeal to a broader audience, the church happy to keep that money for its own constrained budget. The community and the college look away from each other, the college seeking to provide its students with a more exciting experience than they can have in town, the town seeking bigger and richer partners for economic and community development. 

There is a certain logic here–that smallness neighbors weakness, and that weak entities need the help of strong ones to survive. It is rarely in the interest of large, strong institutions to help small, weak ones, though unless the small ones have resources which will make the large institution larger. 

So, while it is counter-intuitive, this seems a time for small, struggling institutions to help each other out.  I’ve written elsewhere about how small schools can support each other in becoming more efficient and effective. But it is also the case that schools, churches, and communities have interests in common, interests which can lead, through cooperation, to sustainability. The forms of cooperation will, of course, vary by place, denomination, and college. It is simple, though, to imagine shared facilities, shared systems, and shared staffing--all of which might reduce cost and improve quality.

As importantly, though, this is the time for these entities to acknowledge that their existence has long owed itself to their members believing that there are things more important than size, wealth, or location; that their struggles have common causes; that their assets are more valuable combined than they are separated; and that their future flourishing will depend on interdependence with each other, not independence from each other.