Rollan Mattson didn’t expect to make history when he lined up for Siena Heights University’s commencement on Saturday.
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The future of a beloved dog statue on a New York warehouse is up in the airHot dogs and steaks and bacon, oh my! Meat raffles keep a beloved Midwest tradition alivePCOS is now called PMOS. What the name change means for careA photo captures President Trump and first lady awaiting British royals from rare White House angleThe World in PicturesDisease outbreak cuts Wyoming, Yellowstone wolf numbers to lowest level since reintroduction eraPCOS is now called PMOS.
What the name change means for careUS overdose deaths fell again in 2025, but some worry about policy and drug supply changesAdults relive the musical camaraderie of their youth at band camps reprised for grown-upsUnderwater memorial to wrecked slave ship draws pilgrims seeking to connect with their rootsXi advierte a Trump que las diferencias sobre Taiwán podrían desencadenar un conflictoRollan Mattson didn’t expect to make history when he lined up for Siena Heights University’s commencement on Saturday.
But about three hours in, the 22-year-old nursing major walked across the school’s fieldhouse stage with a rare distinction: He was the final graduate of the 107-year-old private Catholic university, which is Siena Heights, founded by the Adrian Dominican Sisters in 1919, is the latest in a wave of smaller private and faith-based colleges to close in Michigan amid declining enrollment and financial strain. When he learned of Siena Heights’ pending closure heading into his senior year, Mattson said his first thought was, “Oh hell, am I going to graduate?
” The June 2025 closure announcement led staffers to try to find other jobs in a scramble, Mattson said, telling Bridge Michigan the university’s nursing department was reduced to three faculty members by the end of the semester, down from at least seven. But Mattson persevered. On Saturday, after 440 fellow graduates crossed the stage before him, Mattson heard his name called and received his diploma for a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing.
“The school is still technically there, even if it is closed,” he said after the ceremony. “I think it will take a month or two for it to set in. ” Hundreds of family members and friends packed the Siena Heights Fieldhouse in Adrian for the graduation ceremony, which doubled as a farewell marking the end of an era for faculty, students and alumni.
In a moment of levity, actor and comedian Bill Murray delivered a surprise commencement speech, saying he’d be ready to “rumble” with students in the parking lot as a new member of the “family” — his sister is a member of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, and both received honorary degrees on Saturday.
“You don’t need a building to be who you already have become or who you will become,” Murray told the graduates. Siena Heights is the latest in a series of small, private and faith-based Michigan colleges to close their doors or significantly scale back operations, including Finlandia University in Hancock, Marygrove College in Detroit and Concordia University in Ann Arbor.
Officials have described a perfect storm of factors, including steep enrollment declines, increased operational costs, competition with trade schools and resulting financial strain that larger universities are better positioned to weather because of public funding and endowments.
“It’s unfortunate that it seems to be the small, private institutions that have a faith-based affiliation that have been impacted, whereas if you’re a state school or a state institution, you have different funding pools to pull from than a small, private institution,” Cheri Betz, president of Siena Heights, told Bridge Michigan.tuition alone for the 2025-26 academic year was $30,500, up from $28,500 for the 2023-24 academic year. At Eastern Michigan University, about an hour northeast of Siena Heights, tuition“The common pressure in higher education today is the fact that there are fewer people … who are entering and going to postsecondary education,” she said.
“You cannot recruit students who were never born. ” As part of its “honorable closing” plan, Siena Heights added a “J-term,” or an accelerated academic session, between the fall and spring semesters for students to take additional classes so they could graduate before closure.
“I wouldn’t say that it necessarily impacted my education, because I was a senior,” said Mattson, the last graduate. “I would say it impacted the younger groups because their education was pivoted to trying to transfer them out. ”Finlandia University, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, shut down in 2023, arranging teach-out agreements so students could transfer. The 126-year-old university had experienced financial challenges for more than a decade, Timothy Pinnow, then-president of the university, previously told Bridge.
“When you have those things that happen and you have increasing expenses, then you have to find the money to keep going somewhere and many times that involves increasing your debt load,” he said.. “The high school population dwindled such that all colleges and universities were competing for the same smaller number of students.
”will be offered at its Ann Arbor campus: a Doctor of Occupational Therapy, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies. The university will also offer eight education degree programs online, including a Bachelor of Arts in Lower and Upper Elementary Education, a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education – Mathematics and a Master of Science in Curriculum & Instruction with Teacher Certification in Secondary Education.
Siena Heights announced its closure last summer, with officials saying they had assessed the university’s finances, operational challenges and long-term sustainability and determined it was “no longer feasible” to stay open.
“The spirit of Siena Heights will continue long after the institution itself closes its doors because it lives in every graduate, faculty member and staff person who has been on campus – whether in-person or online,” said then-President Douglas B. Palmer, who departed the school in September. After he crossed the stage Saturday at Siena Heights, Mattson said it had not really hit him yet that his alma mater was closing.
Next fall, “when all of the kids are leaving to go to college again, and when you see the place still empty, it will set in more,” he said.
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