ADRIAN — Siena Heights University announced on June 30 that the school will close at the conclusion of the 2025-2026 academic year.
The decision was made with the full support of the Siena Heights board of trustees and General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, according to a news release. In the announcement, the university stated that senior leadership has assessed the school’s financial situation, operational challenges, and long-term sustainability, and determined that despite the dedication of SHU’s board, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and supporters, continuing operations beyond the coming academic year is no longer feasible.
“For 105 years, Siena Heights University has been a beacon of light in a world sometimes cast in darkness,” said Siena Heights president Douglas B. Palmer. “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.”
The university stated that its top priority will be students’ academic progress and working with partner institutions to establish transfer pathways that allow as little disruption as possible. Faculty and staff will be supported with transition assistance. The intent is to have as full and vibrant an academic year as possible, including academics, athletics, support services, and extracurriculars.
“We are deeply grateful to the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have worked hard decade after decade to make Siena Heights an incredibly special place,” Palmer said. “We look ahead to the next academic year planning all the activities one would normally get including athletics, residential life, and great events that we share with our alumni and entire community.”
Statement of the General Council of Adrian Dominican Sisters
The following statement was released by the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council (Sisters Elise D. García, OP, Prioress, and Bibiana Colasito, OP, Frances Nadolny, OP, Lorraine Réaume, OP, and Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilors):
It breaks our hearts to join in the wise but painful decision of the University Board of Trustees to close our beloved Siena Heights University at the end of the 2026 academic year.
Founded by our Congregation more than a century ago as a college for women, this Catholic Dominican institution has expanded over the years to give people of all faith traditions, socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicities, nationalities, racial identities and genders a top notch, values-based education. We are so proud of all the students, faculty, staff, leaders and trustees who are now or have been a part of the Siena community since 1919 and have lived competent, purposeful, ethical lives — contributing their God-given gifts for the common good of our world and Earth home.
We extend deep gratitude to President Douglas Palmer, PhD, and the members of his Cabinet – as well as Board Chairman Harry “Dusty” Steele, and the University Trustees — for their faithful and dedicated efforts to find a pathway forward through the formidable financial and demographic challenges that Siena Heights University, like many other small private higher education institutions in our country, has been facing for a number of years. These leaders, faculty and staff envisioned and began to pursue some promising ideas for the future of Siena Heights University that aimed to provide students with educational opportunities that would meet both current and anticipated needs of rural communities like our own. We are grateful to the benefactors who shared the vision. Sadly, the challenges Siena faced finally proved insurmountable.
We are painfully aware of and lament the profound impact that this closure has on Siena Heights students, faculty, and staff. We also lament the significant cultural and economic loss for our region of the closing of our century-old educational institution and its impact on our cherished Lenawee County community.
A high priority for us Adrian Dominican Sisters, as the religious sponsors of the institution, is that the University closes honorably — attending, especially, to the needs and concerns of all members of the Siena Heights community. It means providing students, faculty and staff with this yearlong notice of the closing and assurances that every effort will be made to support them in their transitions to other educational and employment opportunities. It also means providing a vibrant final academic year, especially for the Siena Class of 2026. The leaders of Siena Heights University intend to do just this, and we stand by them in prayerful support.
All Adrian Dominican Sisters — especially those who have dedicated years of their lives in loving service to the institution and the many proud graduates — join with us in extending our hands to offer with great love and gratitude our Dominican blessing on every member of the Siena Heights University community. We join with our Dominican Sister Catherine of Siena, patron saint of the University, in encouraging everyone at Siena Heights, as you step into the unknown future, to “be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”
