Oakland City Doesn't Have to Die

Oakland City University in Indiana suspended all undergraduate programs this week. 170 employees face layoff by June 1. Staff haven't been paid since May 8. The university is pinning its survival on the sale of a carbon capture patent and a vague "strategic partnership" with undisclosed terms.

I offered the university pro bono consulting this week. Whether they take me up on it or not, the situation at Oakland City illustrates something important about the crisis in American higher education: the campus is almost always worth more than the college.

What everyone sees: a small Baptist university in rural Indiana, enrollment declining, unable to make payroll. Another casualty.

What I see: a 34-acre campus with five residence halls (two brand new), a science building, a 1,000-seat arena, classrooms, and a library. A campus that has been the anchor of a town of 2,259 people for 141 years. And ten miles down the road, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana, 7,300 employees, $200 million in fresh investment this March, over $800 million total, 1,400 new jobs, and a workforce training gap they're already partnering with Purdue and Ivy Tech to fill.

The gap between what Oakland City has and what Gibson County needs is not money. It's not technology. It's imagination.

There are programs that could launch on that campus within months using existing WIOA workforce funding, existing employer partnerships, and the skills of the 170 people who just lost their jobs. There are residence halls built in 2019 and 2023 that could house workforce trainees this fall.

The question isn't whether Oakland City University can survive as a traditional college. The question is what that campus can become if someone is willing to ask a bigger question than "how do we get back to where we were?"

A town of 2,259 people shouldn't lose its anchor without someone at least trying.

jeff@transformlearning.ai