Anna Maria College Announces Closure

Anna Maria College is closing at the end of the spring semester due to insurmountable financial challenges, officials at the Catholic institution in rural Massachusetts announced Thursday.

“This conclusion was not reached quickly or easily,” President Sean J. Ryan and Board of Trustees chair David P. Trainor wrote in a statement posted online. “For months, the Board of Trustees, our leadership team, and the Sisters of Saint Anne walked a distressing road together, examining every option and hoping at each turn that something might change. The decision reflects years of financial pressure that we were ultimately unable to overcome, and the honest recognition that continuing would not be responsible to the students, faculty, and staff who depend on us.”

The closure announcement comes after recent warnings by both the college’s accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education, and the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. In March, NECHE warned that the college risked violating its standards on institutional resources and expressed concern about its financial stability and debt. On April 10 the Department of Higher Education warned that the college was a closure risk.

Anna Maria will halt academic offerings after the spring semester and close by the end of 2026.

Though college officials noted recently that deposits for fall 2026 were trending up, enrollment has been falling for years. The most recent federal data puts enrollment for Anna Maria College at 1,202 in fall 2024. Prior to 2020, the college typically enrolled more than 1,400 students.

As enrollment slipped, Anna Maria had little financial wiggle room. Its most recent audit shows that the college’s endowment was valued at just $1.5 million at the end of fiscal year 2025. The college also violated a bond covenant in FY25 but received a waiver of compliance from the bondholders, according to its latest audit. The audit did not specify how the college violated the covenant, but the combination of high debt levels and low liquidity often triggers such compliance issues.

Anna Maria is the second institution in Massachusetts to announce closure plans this month, following Hampshire College, which also faced enrollment issues and bond-covenant concerns.