Around New Jersey, and the nation, these colleges have dwindling income and that puts them at risk of becoming less competitive with bigger and better endowed private universities such as Princeton.
On bucolic campuses around New Jersey and the nation, many college administrators are dealing with a cold, hard economic reality that threatens their very survival as bastions of higher education.
Simply put, these colleges have dwindling income and that puts them at risk of becoming less competitive with bigger and better endowed private universities such as Princeton.
Several factors are at play here.
One of the biggest challenges for area colleges, particularly smaller private ones, is declining enrollment. As this paper pointed out in an article last Sunday, dwindling enrollment is causing serious concerns at some schools.
The College of Saint Elizabeth, a Catholic college in Morristown, saw its enrollment drop nearly 35 percent between 2009 and 2014, according to the state Office of the Secretary of Higher Education.
Other small and mid-size private colleges in New Jersey had similar reductions, the state reported: Georgian Court University in Lakewood, down 21 percent; Centenary College in Hackettstown, down 21 percent; Drew University in Madison, down 21 percent; Rider University in Lawrence, down 12 percent; Felician University in Lodi, down 8 percent.
"This is a national trend," said Gregory Dell'Omo, Rider University's new president. "There is no question about it. Schools are all going through this and trying to tighten their belts and really allocate their resources in the most efficient ways possible."
Rider recently announced plans to cut 13 majors and one minor and eliminate more than 20 jobs, including 14 full-time faculty members.
The cuts are expected to save more than $2 million a year as Rider tries to close its deficit, which is already at $7.6 million of this year's $216 million budget, according to the university.
Felician University cited a drop in enrollment for its decision to lay off 16 faculty members in 2014.
The drop in enrollment comes at a time when the number of college-age students is falling, making it harder for these institutions to compete with less expensive public colleges.
It's a struggle for these small private colleges to offer the financial aid packages, new majors and other perks that larger colleges offer. They also lack the name recognition and national rankings of their larger competitors.
On top of all these hurdles, colleges have to contend with less government aid.
New Jersey's spending on higher education was 23.5 percent below pre-recession levels, according to a 2014 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute based in Washington, D.C.
And when you factor in that fewer alumni are giving back to their alma maters, you see a bleak financial landscape for colleges that have not taken steps to adjust to the changed economic realities.
And change they must, but they have to be careful not to cut so much meat from the bone that they become emaciated institutions of higher learning.
The small liberal arts colleges have to play to their strengths, marketing themselves as places where education is more personalized. They have to offer value for the hard-earned education dollars students and their families are investing.
In Darwinian terms, it is the fittest who will survive.