Dive Brief:
- Anna Maria College, in Massachusetts, plans to sell its nursing program for $1.1 million to nearby Assumption University next month, according to court documents filed Monday.
- Anna Maria closed this year following its spring term due to financial duress and filed for bankruptcy in late June to pay off its debts and liquidate its assets.
- Anna Maria requested court permission to sell the nursing program assets to Assumption via a private, noncompetitive sale on Sept. 30. The college is also looking to sell its real estate while in bankruptcy, which it hopes will cover its $17.7 million in secured debt.
Dive Insight:
In court papers, Anna Maria’s bankruptcy attorneys pointed to the “exigency involved” in transferring the college’s 45 nursing program seats to Assumption “at the earliest possible opportunity so that past enrollees at the College’s Nursing Program have the option to continue their studies at Assumption this Fall.”
Attorneys argued this justified a speedy private sale without further bids or an auction, both of which are common when organizations sell assets in bankruptcy.
The actual assets in the sale include all of Anna Maria’s “curricular materials, other files, plans, documents, correspondence, lists, notebooks, creative materials, studies, reports, or records” related to its nursing program, per court documents.
In May, shortly after Anna Maria’s closure announcement, the two institutions unveiled a plan to transfer the shuttering college’s nursing program to Assumption. They also submitted a proposal to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing for review, which has since approved the transfer.
“We are prepared to provide a home for Anna Maria nursing students and to support them in continuing their studies with clarity, stability, and purpose,” Assumption President Greg Weiner said in May.
Founded in 1949 by the Sisters of Saint Anne, Anna Maria suffered years of declining enrollment and revenue before closing.
In June court papers, Anna Maria President Sean Ryan pointed to net tuition and fee revenue that fell from $19.2 million in fiscal 2021 to $14.3 million in fiscal 2025. During that same period, total enrollment dropped 18% to 1,520 students. The dry-up of pandemic emergency funds from the federal government further hurt finances.
An auditor warning in June 2025 that the liberal arts college might not be able to survive financially triggered regulatory consequences, Ryan said in the court documents. That included heightened scrutiny from the federal government over financial aid compliance and from Anna Maria’s accreditor over the body’s standards.
In April, the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education issued a notice that Anna Maria was a potential closure risk, further heightening scrutiny on the college and its travails.
After the public learned of those issues, Anna Maria received $5.3 million in new donations to keep it afloat, and it eliminated a handful of programs to save money. Moreover, enrollment for the spring term was up 7.5% from last year, with fall semester deposits pacing ahead of past years.
But the college’s trustee board nonetheless concluded that Anna Maria faced “an imminent and severe financial crisis” and that the most responsible move was to “implement an orderly teach-out of enrolled students [and] cease academic operations” once its spring semester wrapped up, Ryan said.
Some students at the time described to local media feeling blindsided by the closure announcement. However, faculty had long been worried about financial mismanagement, MassLive reported.
Along with agreeing to take on Anna Maria’s nursing program, Assumption — also a Catholic college — launched social work programs this year to absorb Anna Maria students and faculty in those fields as well.
Meanwhile, Anna Maria still has debts to pay. Aside from its secured debt, it has unsecured liabilities of $5.5 million consisting of overpayments owed back to the U.S. Department of Education, as well as unpaid vendor bills and refunds to students for overpayments.
The college expects its real estate assets to yield a big chunk of money. Its campus and other holdings include roughly 262 acres and 17 buildings. Attorneys for Anna Maria said in June court papers that an outside appraisal showed the property had “substantial value” above the college’s secured debt.