That’s a pretty heavy drop in enrollment, when most of the top tier universities are holding steady or increasing.
It does not make sense for a private university to have two separate campuses under two separate brands long term. Perhaps all will go swimmingly, both colleges will boom, and all will live happily ever after. More likely, the next downturn will force major changes leading towards consolidation. The article in message #9 is pretty brutal – college with financial and enrollment issues, president gets hired away, Elon swoops in the next week.
My comment about athletics is that its possible to have a split campus (see Northeastern) where people spend 1+ years somewhere else thats not commutable (unlike Emory). It isn’t possible to have athletic teams in that type of situation, which can affect a significant number of students. Same reasons athletes often don’t study abroad.