Financially Fragile

Lucia Madron hadn’t planned to attend her mother’s alma mater, but now as a freshman at Rosemont College, she can’t imagine having gone anywhere else. As a freshman determined to make a difference, she has already started a club, too, focusing on Bible study. But what she likes most about the more than century-old Catholic college with the neo-Gothic architecture and leafy campus on the Main Line is its size: “Power of small,” she says enthusiastically. “Every voice counts.” But the 774-student private college’s small size, along with its dependency on tuition and its location in a college-saturated market, is also what threatens it. Rosemont reported operating losses for five straight years through June 2023, and since 2020 has borrowed millions from its restricted endowment to meet operating expenses.