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 keep its doors open. Limestone University officials said that after two weeks of furious fundraising and other actions, they collected just a little over $2 million and had no choice but to close its campus in Gaffney and its online programs. The university stunned its students, alumni and community when it announced earlier in April without warning that it was in such bad financial shape that without an immediate infusion of $6 million it would have to close.
The AP reports more than 200 people gave a total of about $2.1 million, but it was not enough. The university said the donations will be returned. South Carolina lawmakers decided not to step in because Limestone University is a private institution. Private colleges and universities like Limestone have been closing at a rate of about two per month, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. The closures come as colleges try to cope with steep declines in enrollment, a consequence of both changing demographics and the effects of the pandemic.
Limestone University promised to help all its students transfer to other schools. The closure will also leave several hundred professors and support staff without jobs in Gaffney, a city of about 12,500 people on Interstate 85 between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Spartanburg. About 50 students gathered outside where trustees met Tuesday night and hugged as they got the email announcing the university was closing. Limestone University, founded in 1845, will hold its final commencement Saturday.
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Limestone isn't the only college in the region to announce it is closing this month. St. Andrews University, about 150 miles away in Laurinburg, North Carolina, will close on Sunday after the spring semester. The school is a branch campus of Webber International University. (More college stories.)
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