University seeks to raise $1.5 million by June 30 to prevent further debt
HANNIBAL – Hannibal-LaGrange University (HLGU) remains “viable” amid an ongoing financial crisis, according to a public letter released March 16 by HLGU transitional president Rodney Harrison. With support from the school’s trustees and accreditors, he added, HLGU is moving forward with a three-step plan to “ensure the long-term sustainability” of the school.
According to Harrison, step one is “the immediate debt reduction of $690,000.
Step 2 involves raising “$1,510,000 … by June 30, 2022 (the end of the current fiscal year) to get us to the new academic year without incurring additional debt.”
Summarizing step 3, Harrison wrote, “At the start of the new fiscal year in July, we will implement our new budget, which is balanced and achievable and will restore HLGU to strength.”
Harrison’s public letter came nearly a week after HLGU trustees, students, faculty, staff and administators joined local pastors and Missouri Baptist Convention leaders in a solemn assembly.
John Yeats, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention said, “The dire financial and institutional situation at Hannibal-LaGrange University is too big for humanistic responses, so we are compelled to begin with our faces to the ground in fasting and prayer.”
In an interview with Baptist Press, HLGU trustee chairman Mark Anderson said several factors coalesced that brought HLGU to its current financial condition.
“There’s been a changing landscape of higher education,” said Anderson, senior pastor of Lynwood Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. “A lot of small, Christian colleges, in particular, have been affected.”
HLGU, which currently has 780 students, joined other institutions of higher learning that have experienced a decline in enrollment, he added. Plus, the school’s discount rates were too high “and the financial situation was aggravated by the pandemic for several reasons.”
The result, Anderson stated, “was an unsustainable financial model.”
“We met with our accreditation liaison with the Higher Learning Commission and they confirmed that we are right on track,” Harrison said March 17. “We have a very tangible plan and a path forward … a plan that results in a balanced budget and adjustments so that we can weather this year. We’re moving forward with trying to re-engage our network by leaning into our mission.”
HLGU, founded in 1858, is setting a goal of $2.2 million for donors. Four “giving areas” of greatest needs are immediate debt reduction, student aid and scholarships, faculty retention and operating expenses.
Read a Q&A with Harrison about HLGU’s financial crisis here.
(This article includes reporting by Baptist Press national correspondent Scott Barkley, as well as Pathway staff.)