Plunging enrollment, financial woes, trustee exodus. Whittier College confronts crisis

The grounds of Whittier College are lush and the buildings stately. But the once-bustling quad is often all but empty these days, students say, and inside the Wanberg Hall dormitory, carpets smell musty, the WiFi is spotty, and 25 students share two restrooms with toilets that frequently break down and take ages to fix.

The eerie quiet outside and fetid bathrooms inside are signs of the turmoil roiling one of California’s oldest liberal arts colleges, President Nixon’s alma mater and a higher education institution rooted in its Quaker heritage of social justice and respect for diversity.

Since 2018, enrollment has plummeted by about 35%, from 1,853 students to about 1,200, according to college figures. Annual revenue has plunged by 29% over roughly the same period, audited financial statements show.

Partly to save money, Whittier cut football and three other sports programs last year, and the college has said it plans to sell the president’s residence, Wardman House, a hilltop mansion with views to the ocean.


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More than 850 colleges have closed since 2004, according to the education news source Hechinger Report. Last year, Marymount California University, a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Rancho Palos Verdes, closed, and Mills College, a women’s school in Oakland, merged with Northeastern University to avoid closing altogether. Holy Names University in Oakland will close at the end of the spring semester, unable to recover from the double hit of pandemic challenges and the economic downturn.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-30/whittier-college-hit-with-low-enrollment-financial-woes