A lot of small religious colleges are in serious trouble because a lot of denominations are splitting apart along rural/urban and liberal/conservative lines. I attended a small religious college as did many in my family, especially in previous generations. My kids are uninterested as are many of their generation. And frankly I don’t blame them.
My own background is with Mennonite colleges (Goshen College, Eastern Mennonite University, Blufton, Fresno Pacific, Bethel (Kansas) etc. What has happened over the past generation is the following:
- More urban and liberal Mennonite families are increasingly sending their kids to public and secular universities because they have largely moved away from traditional Mennonite areas and don't see the value of sending their kids across country to a struggling liberal arts college with high tuition.
- The more conservative rural Mennonites tend not to send their college as much as might have been the case in the past. Maybe bible college. But there is an increasing skepticism about higher education in general.
- The small Christian colleges are caught in a bind. The aren't really progressive enough to attract liberal Christian kids from urban areas who might be looking for a more diverse experience. But they also aren't conservative enough to attract conservative rural families. So they are bleeding enrollment at both ends. Some aggressive schools with deep pockets like Liberty University are pulling it off, but they are operating on a completely different scale from small rural Christian liberal arts schools.
- Many of these schools are nearly 100 years old or older and were built in a time when the country was much more rural and much more religious. There is no escaping that fact. Culture and population has just shifted away from small midwest and northeast towns and nothing will change that.