After 66 years, Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois, is due to close permanently.
At the end of the 2025-2026 academic year, the college will be shutting its doors for good. The private, non-profit college has been struggling financially because of low enrollment and other factors.
“Despite strategic efforts to adjust its growth model and eliminate its deficit, Trinity has faced fast-evolving economic and cultural realities: post-COVID financial losses, persistent operating deficits, a decline in college enrollment, increased competition for students, and shifting donor giving and financial circumstances,” Trinity told the Chicago Tribune.
The school plans to sell its buildings and land to pay off its debt.
In 2023, with a 40% drop in tuition rate, they had to cut six to eight of their 65 faculty members and 10 of their 150 staff members. During this time, President Aaron Kuecker resigned after 14 years at Trinity because of the tuition drop. He went on to find another job and left Acting President Jeanine Mozie in charge. In 2024, more than 75% of Trinity’s donations only came from three donors, according to the school’s most recent audit.
“Despite the graduate success, the school stated that there is no way for it to remain open after this academic year,” according to USA Today.
Acting President Jeanine Mozie says they are going to support their students to stay on track, provide teach-out plans and help with transfer opportunities. In a news release, officials from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois, said they are working with Trinity and “are welcoming students from the Palos Heights college with open arms, offering streamlined credit transfer processes and dedicated advising.”
Trinity offers their 1,000 students 70 different majors, a 98% graduate placement rate and an immersive Christian community. Full course schedules, housing, meal plans and athletics will continue until closing. Once the college closes, Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, will be the primary record holder. Faculty and staff of Trinity will also receive guidance in finding new jobs. “Our deepest commitment in this season is to care for our people, particularly our students, faculty and staff, as we mourn this ending,” Mozie said in a news release.
Students and staff are devastated by the news. In interviews with CBS Chicago, current student Sean Croften and current softball player Alexa Chapman shared their sadness. “We’re all like one little family, so it’s really sad to see what’s happening,” said Croften.
Chapman shared, “I went to class and no one was there except for my professor. I said, ‘It’s real?’ and then I started crying. I’ve been crying ever since.” Many current and past students are equally shocked and emotional. Alumni Kenneth Dryhout and chairperson for Trinity’s Board of Trustees said, “I grieve this ending. My parents attended Trinity and were married here on campus. This decision was not taken lightly.”
The issue of low enrollment is not specific to Trinity; many Bible schools have been closing recently. “According to 2024 analysis from the Hechinger Report, 79 nonprofit colleges and universities had either closed, merged, or announced plans to do so since the pandemic. Of that number, more than half were religiously affiliated,” according to World Sound Journalism.
This past May, St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina, closed because of financial problems. And after this 2025-2026 school year, Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan, is also closing due to the decline in enrollment. Many small Illinois Bible institutions are facing budget cuts and lower enrollment.
James Fraser, a professor emeritus at New York University who specializes in religion and higher education, told the Tribune that “across the country and, I’m sure, across Illinois, the percentage of kids who are choosing a Bible institute has dropped dramatically from 50 or 100 years ago.”
The Week reported that “more than 500 nonprofit private colleges have shut down in the last decade… three times what it was in the decade prior.” The rising cost of tuition is also leading students to question whether the value of a four-year degree is worth it. Due to the decline in birth rates following the 2008 Great Recession, there is also lower enrollment. This decline is called the “enrollment cliff,” and it affects many private, non-profit colleges.
Trinity Christian College is one of many private, non-profit colleges closing after years of building up a community. Students, faculty and staff can get their education or work anywhere, but Trinity was where they created a home. Just like Trinity, Quinnipiac is a private, non-profit college where many have found their place. It’s sad to see a similar loving community have to close. Think Academy says, “as students, faculty, and alumni mourn the end of an era, their stories illustrate why small colleges matter — and why sustaining them is a national challenge worth solving.”
