US: The sale of Waldorf

Reached on the phone, Richard A Hanson isn't quite sure he's ready to give an interview about last week's sale of Waldorf College, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed. The college's president has talked quite a bit locally, trying to assure students, professors and the residents of Forest City, Iowa, that selling the liberal arts institution to a for-profit, online university is the best (in fact, only) option. What persuaded Hanson to talk about what's happening at Waldorf is the question of whether he thinks other colleges will soon be facing the same choice.

"You are going to be seeing a lot more of this from colleges like us," he said. So he agreed to describe why and how Waldorf decided to become a part of Columbia Southern University - and why he is hopeful for the college's future (even if he isn't at all sure he'll have a job). Many experts have been predicting, just like Hanson, that in the next few years more for-profit universities will buy financially struggling nonprofit colleges.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site