Book Review: "Requiem for a College" by Jonathan Nichols

When my co-author, Dr. Joe Sallustio, and I set out to research and write what we hoped would be the most ambitious, comprehensive modern book about the future of higher education (Commencement: The Beginning of a New Era in Higher Education), we knew we'd have to talk about both the treasures and the troubles afoot at colleges and universities across the United States and around the world. It wouldn't be easy to talk out both sides of our mouths — singing the praises of innovative leaders and forward-thinking organizations while also calling out hypocrisies, challenging outmoded thinking, and shining a light on the bad business practices that have held higher education back for hundreds of years.

In the midst of writing our book — which is purposefully and unapologetically both a love letter to higher education and a devil's advocate — we watched some portions of the higher-education industry contract and collapse around us. Small colleges were closing their doors faster than we could keep up with. It was sad. It wasn't all that surprising. Some days, I was (and still am) practical and callous enough to shrug my shoulders and think, "Good. Higher education was overbuilt. We're due for a right-sizing. Welcome to a new era in higher education."

I still stand by that position (yep, I'm a brutal realist to my core) but I have experienced two things in the past few months that have given me more perspective and more heart for the people impacted by the closure of failing colleges and universities.

• First, my husband's alma mater, Cardinal Stritch University, closed its doors. Suddenly, it was personal.
• Then, I read Requiem for a College by Jonathan Nichols, which made it suddenly multi-layered and complex. Requiem for a College is a book that gives us the "inside scoop" on the closure of Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, from the vantage point of an alumnus, a professor, and a man whose entire life was connected to a small, idyllic, and beloved institution he thought would exist forever ... but which closed its doors in 2017.

If you work in or around higher education, I think you should read Requiem for a College too. This is a book (and a story) that we ignore at our peril.

Five Stars for Courage, Clarity, and Commitment

Requiem for a College by Jonathan Nichols takes us “inside higher ed” — particularly inside the mindset, mayhem, and money-blind mania of America’s small, private, religiously affiliated, liberal arts colleges — the higher-education sector that is increasingly crumbling, contracting, and closing its doors.

I didn’t know what to expect when I opened the pages of Requiem for a College. Would it be a tale of woe from a professor whose poorly led institution needed and deserved to die a natural death because the marketplace of learners was no longer interested in what Saint Joseph’s College was selling? Perhaps I would roll my eyes and say, “This is what change and competition look like. The U.S. doesn’t need 4,000 colleges and universities, and only the strong shall survive.”

Would this book be an exposé on corruption, cronyism, and delusional thinking in higher education’s inner sanctum? Perhaps I’d have epiphanies and find the salacious details of collegiate mismanagement shocking — maybe I’d want to tell colleagues in postsecondary education, “You won’t believe this! What a disaster!”

I wondered — Would I get lost in a memoir-style narrative that endeared me to the author, grateful for his courage in writing this book, and empathetic to what he, his family, his colleagues, his students, and his community endured? Would I scribble copious notes in the book’s margins, energized and motivated by what I learned and eager to help other colleges and universities prevent their own version of Jon Nichols’s cautionary tale?

YES. To all of it.

Requiem for a College is personal and raw, compelling and complete, well-written, well-researched, admittedly biased and yet — in the end — objectively broad.

Requiem for a College is personal and raw, compelling and complete, well-written, well-researched, admittedly biased and yet — in the end — objectively broad. Jonathan Nichols has written a book that should be required reading for higher-education leaders at institutions of all types. Because the industry is experiencing a revolution — for better and for worse — in the 2020s that will impact hundreds of millions of people for decades to come. The college-closure crisis is an important part of the revolutionary story, and no one tells this part of the story better than Jon Nichols. Requiem for a College is a gift to the higher education community (and its students and alumni) and while that gift comes wrapped in grim, understated paper, I cannot OVERstate the importance of this book.

Your Homework if You Care About College Closures (and You Should)

1. Listen into to Gary Stocker , founder of College Viability, LLC , and author Jonathan Nichols , talking about the closure of Saint Joseph's College and Jon's remarkable book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYqRTlTavZg
2. Pick up your copy of Jon's book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3PgCKh4
3. Get your hands on the College Viability Apps to find out which schools are struggling, which are doing well, and which will require the next requiem: https://collegeviability.com/college-viability-app

Congratulations, Jonathan Nichols , on your remarkable book. Thank you for your candor and your rigor, and your ongoing love for your students. In the end, Indiana's loss is Waubonsee Community College 's gain. What an honor it was to recently meet you. Here's to the future!

#highereducation #collegeclosures #colleges #universities #collegeviability #highered