As Public Colleges Begin to Merge Or Shut Down, One State Shows How Hard It Is

While much attention has been focused on how enrollment declines are putting private, nonprofit colleges out of business at an accelerating rate — at least 17 of them in 2024 — public universities and colleges are facing their own existential crises. State institutions nationwide are being merged and campuses shut down, many of them in places where there is already comparatively little access to higher education.