Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on September 13, 2025, 01:48:15 PMI did a little research yesterday which shows CUW is in a strong position going forward.
From 2023 to 2024 they reported an increase in undergraduate enrollment from 1700 to 2400. They had a budget surplus last year and the deficits in prior years haven't been huge.
They're also the flagship campus for the Concordia System, controlled by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (Moorhead isn't part of it, but most of the others you've heard of are). It's not unlike a state system, where the campuses are independent, but there's an overarching organizational structure that they're all a part of, as well.
In the last seven years they've closed three campuses and Concordia Texas is currently suing to separate from the system. The Ann Arbor campus (which is technically a satellite of CUW) keeps getting smaller and likely will go away at some point.
If the LCMS is like any other US denomination, it's likely hemorrhaging money and members - consolidating higher ed in one much larger, more stable campus is a good way to move forward in that situation. A bigger, more robust CUW fits pretty well in the CCIW and I think there's a lot of mutual benefit there.
I'm making a ton of assumptions in this analysis (I don't actually know what the Concordia system is doing), but I don't think they are far-fetched assumptions.
An enrollment jump from 1700 to 2400 in one year is almost unheard of, I would think. Is there any chance that is a different form of reporting? For instance, did CUW maybe roll the Ann Arbor enrollment figures into one overall total and report it as CUW? Or maybe CUW started up a mushrooming online degree completion program? I'm not doubting their numbers as much as trying to account for them.