HANCOCK, Mich. – Michigan’s only private university in the Upper Peninsula will not be enrolling students, new or current, for the next academic school year.
The university’s Board of Trustees announced on March 2 the university’s decision. The president of Finlandia University, Timothy Pinnow, wrote to the university’s students, staff and faculty saying that the school has been struggling with enrollment and finances.
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“I am deeply saddened to announce that due to a combination of demographic changes, with fewer high school graduates available, a steep decrease in interest in going to college among those graduates, and an unbearable debt load, Finlandia’s Board of Trustees met and have decided to not enroll students for the 2023-2024 school year,” the Board wrote in its statement.
Finlandia University has been open for 126 years. The university is the only private college in the U.P and one of several universities in the United States affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. The private university was founded in 1896 as The Suomi College and Theological Seminary.
The university has finalized teach-out agreements with Michigan Technological University, Bay College, Adrian College, and Wartburg College. They are still working on a process with Northern Michigan University. Click here to read the statements from the colleges opening their doors to Finlandia students.
“As the leadership of Finlandia, our focus must now turn first to making sure that all of our students have good options to complete their education at another institution and that we can fulfill our intent that our employees be paid for all the work and tireless effort they have put into this little Finnish-Lutheran school way up north in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,” stated Pinnow.
Below is the letter the Finlandia University Board of Trustees sent to its community: