A University Had Big Goals for Expansion. Now, It’s Drastically Cutting Back.

Saint Leo University (FL) closed out 2012 with much to celebrate. It was an ascendant institution. For a third straight fall semester, the private, Catholic four-year university had enrolled more than 13,000 students (full-time equivalents). In addition to its main campus 30 miles outside of Tampa, the institution had expanded to more than 60 satellite locations across the nation, including stand-alone education centers, sites on military installations, and programs in high schools. Staffing this sprawling enterprise across the full year was a corps of more than 3,100 employees, including about 160 full-time faculty members and a vast array of part-time faculty members.