Anna Maria College in Massachusetts to close

Dive Brief:

Anna Maria College in Massachusetts plans to close at the end of its spring term, the institution said Thursday. 
The governing board’s decision to shutter “reflects years of financial pressure that we were ultimately unable to overcome,” college President Sean Ryan and board Chair David Trainor said in a statement. “We tried to find a way.” 
The Catholic institution has transfer agreements with five regional colleges for students who can’t graduate by the end of the term. The college will lay off employees in waves depending on their roles. 

Dive Insight:

The early months of this year brought some promising signs for Anna Maria. Enrollment for the spring term was up 7.5% from last year, while student deposits for the fall were pacing ahead of recent years, a sign of more enrollment gains to come. To top it off, fundraising was beating leaders’ projections.  

Anna Maria had also cut $2 million in operating costs, including by reducing staffing, and invested in student recruitment since Ryan arrived last summer.

“That progress, although substantial, was not sufficient,” the college said.  

Enrollment took a large hit during the pandemic era. Between 2019 and 2024, Anna Maria’s fall headcount declined 16.6% to 1,202 students, according to federal data. 

In recent years, the college has racked up multimillion-dollar losses while carrying $18.4 million in long-term debt as of last June. 

Its financial cushion was also dwindling. In fiscal 2025, its endowment assets totaled just under $1.4 million, all with donor restrictions, while its investments — mostly held in its endowment — had fallen by roughly 80% from the previous year.

Earlier in April, the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education warned Anna Maria that the agency couldn’t verify it “has sufficient resources to be able to sustain operations at current levels” or meet obligations to students. 

In other words: Anna Maria was a closure risk, in the department’s view. 

As the college explained in a FAQ page on its impending closure, “Several consecutive years of operating deficits drew down reserves to a point that the ability to assure continuous operation for the length of time that regulatory provisions mandate was in doubt.” 

Prior to the board’s vote to close, the college had explored potential mergers, as well as other partnerships and alternative revenue streams. 

Anna Maria’s closure announcement came on the 80th anniversary of its founding. The state college authority granted approval to the Sisters of Saint Anne to found a college on April 23, 1946. 

The institution’s student body grew from 25 to 160 students during its first 10 years. Its founding order envisioned it as a liberal arts college, with a special focus on music and art. In 1951, it moved from Marlborough, Massachusetts, to nearby Paxton. 

“The Sisters of Saint Anne were always ready to fill an unmet need,” the college said in a recent post on its website. They pointed to a Montessori school that the religious order hosted on the Anna Maria campus for five years. The college also acted as a venue for a local theater company as well as for Biblical and peace studies.