The merger between Ursuline College in Pepper Pike and Gannon University in Erie, Pa., into one educational system is moving along ahead of schedule, with the process between the two now expected to go fully into effect by July 1, 2026, five months before the original anticipated date of Dec. 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s going to be better because it\u2019s at the end of a fiscal and academic year,\u201d Kathy LaFontana, Senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at Ursuline College, told the Cleveland Jewish News. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice clean break for the merger.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July, Ursuline filed all materials with the U.S. Department of Education ahead of schedule, allowing the timeline to possibly move up. Five finalized shared services agreements, which allow certain departments to share and centralize educational services, have been formalized between Ursuline and Gannon since July.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe merger creates an unprecedented opportunity to leverage the combined strengths of both institutions across a three-state system spanning Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio,\u201d David King, president of Ursuline College, said in a statement to the CJN. \u201cThis geographic diversity, combined with a shared commitment to student success, positions the integrated institutions as a regional leader in higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gannon opened a doctoral branch campus for health care majors in Ruskin, Fla., in 2015.<\/p>\n
On June 30, the Higher Learning Commission approved the change of control in the merger of the two schools, replacing the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland with Gannon University as the sole member of Ursuline College Corp., a leadership role to accompany Gannon\u2019s ownership and financial oversight of Ursuline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest hurdle has been the accreditors,\u201d LaFontana said. \u201cWe have several levels of accreditation: the U.S. The Department of Education, the Higher Learning Commission and Middle States Commission, which are our regional accreditors, and then there are the state accreditors, we\u2019re in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Then, we also have the programmatic accreditors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Accreditation is a peer-review process that ensures educational institutions meet certain criteria of quality that make the degrees and credits offered by the place of learning valid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all of those accreditors, it\u2019s been a Herculean process to get it done,\u201d LaFontana said.<\/p>\n
Now, the next big step to moving the merger along and keeping the timeline on track is ensuring that Gannon University has a certificate of authorization to operate in Ohio.<\/p>\n
\u201cGannon just submitted the application,\u201d LaFontana said. \u201cEver since September of 2024 (when the two schools signed a letter of intent to enter into a strategic partnership), we\u2019ve been working really hard to start on integration of everything: services, policies, procedures and programs. We\u2019ve been going nonstop, and we have 13 integration teams that are working on various areas, like athletics, student services and academic programs. It\u2019s been a really nice collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that it\u2019s been a \u201crewarding process\u201d for workers from both schools to get to know their new colleagues.<\/p>\n
The merger was initiated to help Ursuline obtain a more sustainable business model, LaFontana explained. While the school was recently rated number one in Ohio by the U.S. News & World Report for upward social mobility and has always been rated highly on the nationwide level, the college wants to ensure it keeps that up.<\/p>\n
\u201cGannon came into this looking for growth and expansion,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll be able to grow, having more programs and activities to offer our students. Gannon is expanding into Ohio and we\u2019re expanding into Pennsylvania and beyond. It\u2019s a nice partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some smaller programs will be combined with those from Gannon, such as merging a major with the same from Gannon to provide a better use of resources, Ursuline does not plan to take away or drastically alter their programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo or three years down the road we expect to have more academic programs on our campus,\u201d LaFontana said. \u201cWe are keeping our Ursuline Arrows\u2019 athletic teams, they\u2019ll still be competing separately. We\u2019ll still have that small campus feel, that personal attention and the wraparound support services, the things that students really need and the reason they come here.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that Gannon has a \u201cgreat\u201d study abroad program that is bigger than what Urusline offers, allowing students to take advantage of that. Gannon also has a lecture series with the Jefferson Educational Society that Ursuline will have links to attend virtually or have an opportunity to attend in Erie in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis opens up more opportunities for our students in co-curricular activities,\u201d LaFontana said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be able to expand the campus, the athletic facilities, the residence halls and be able to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The merger between Ursuline College in Pepper Pike and Gannon University in Erie, Pa., into one educational system…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[76,61,227,136,138,137,9677,9681,9679,293,9680,9678],"class_list":["post-12446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-cleveland","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-gannon-university","tag-higher-education-accreditation-in-the-united-states","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-ohio","tag-provost-education","tag-ursuline-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}