Welcome to Small College America!

Mergers, Acquisitions and Reinvention: What Small Colleges Need to Know

Welcome everyone to this special edition of Small College America and the first of our Consequential Conversations series. I’m Dean Hoke, and I’m joined by my co-host Kent Barnds. Today’s conversation is “Mergers, Acquisitions and Reinvention: What Small Colleges Need to Know.”Mergers and partnerships are no longer subjects that small colleges can afford to discuss only when they are in trouble. Today we want to look at when institutions should begin considering their options, what makes these efforts work, what can cause them to fail, and what presidents and boards need to know before circumstances narrow their choices.

We have three panelists who bring both direct institutional experience and extensive work with colleges considering partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, and other forms of reinvention. Let me briefly introduce them:
• Chet Haskell, Co-Director of the Center for College Partnerships and Alliances, brings extensive higher education leadership and experience with institutional partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions.
• Barry Ryan, Co-Director of the Center for College Partnerships and Alliances, has worked with institutions on partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic options for colleges facing change.
• Dr. Walter Iwanenko, President of Gannon University, has spent more than two years leading the Gannon-Ursuline College merger and brings the perspective of a sitting president navigating the process in real time.