We have posted about the financial troubles of The Kings College. The Christian college is on the brink of closing. Kings is currently located in Manhattan, but from 1955-1994 it existed in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County, New York.
Nyack College was located about twenty miles away from Kings–across the Hudson River in Rockland County, New York. Holiness theologian A.B. Simpson founded the school in 1882 and it was affiliated with the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination. Kings and Nyack competed for students and were rivals in intercollegiate athletics. I know a lot of New York metropolitan area evangelicals who attended these schools and I was an adjunct history professor at Nyack during the 1990s. They were important institutions in 20th-century New York evangelicalism.
In 2018, Nyack announced that it would sell its Rockland County campus and consolidate at its location in lower Manhattan. In 2022, the school changed its name to Alliance University. Now this:
Here is Inside Higher Ed from earlier this week:
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education has withdrawn accreditation from Alliance University, effective Dec. 31. The move comes after the accreditor placed the institution on show cause status in March due to financial concerns and various other issues.
Alliance University, a private Christian university in New York, was formerly known as Nyack College until a name change last fall. Alliance also maintains a seminary in Puerto Rico.
The loss of accreditation—which is subject to appeal—is the latest blow for the small college; it is also on heightened cash monitoring status with the U.S. Department of Education.
Alliance, like many small, private institutions, has struggled with shrinking enrollment in recent years. In fall 2021, the latest semester for which federal data are available, the college enrolled 1,863 students—a slight decline from 1,981 in fall 2019, the last semester before the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. and slowed enrollment nationally. But enrollment at Alliance has dropped steeply over the past decade, from a total of 3,082 students in fall 2013, according to the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.
Read the rest here.
Today Emily Belz, a journalist at Christianity Today, is reporting that Alliance will close as of August 31, 2023:
Bro— I know you are a Springsteen fan but your read the rest link takes the to bandlands online. By the way, as a Manhattan region evangelical I am doubly impacted by the failure of these institutions. The school I did my B. Sac. Mus. at, Northeastern Bible College was subsumed by Kings. I am an Alliance pastor and have my D. Min. from Alliance Theological Seminary. The conservative Protestant world sure has changed in NYC and Jersey since back in the day. But we can’t go back— only forward, seeking new and effective ways to manifest Christ’s Kingdom of love and grace in our region.