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Small College America – Transylvania University

October 4, 2026, by Dean Hoke: In 1775, Daniel Boone helped open the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap. Settlers followed that route into Kentucky, where Indigenous peoples had lived, traveled, and hunted for generations. The westward movement brought both new communities and dispossession. Among the newcomers’ ambitions was something that might seem improbable in a place still far from the nation’s established centers of learning: a college.

Five years later, in 1780, while the American Revolution was still being fought, Virginia’s legislature chartered Transylvania Seminary with Governor Thomas Jefferson’s support. Kentucky was still part of Virginia, the United States Constitution was seven years away, and yet here, west of the Allegheny Mountains, an institution of higher learning had been set in motion.

Today, Transylvania University enrolls 937 students on a downtown Lexington campus. It is among the oldest institutions of higher education in the country and one of the smallest universities to possess such a remarkable national history. That contrast makes Transylvania a particularly revealing subject for Small College America. Its past explains why the university matters historically; its teaching, students, and financial choices will determine what it means in the years ahead.

Transylvania’s History: The First College West of the Alleghenies

Classes began in 1785 near Danville in the home of Presbyterian minister David Rice. The school moved to Lexington in 1789, a settlement becoming a center of commerce and culture in the Bluegrass. In 1799, a new charter established Transylvania University. By the early nineteenth century, Lexington would be called the “Athens of the West,” and Transylvania helped give that nickname substance.

Under President Horace Holley, who arrived in 1818, the university assembled a formidable faculty and became known for its scientific instruction and professional education. Its medical and law schools trained the professionals a rapidly expanding nation needed. The medical department, which closed in 1859, educated thousands of students; institutional histories place the total at 4,385. Henry Clay taught law and served as a trustee. Transylvania was no provincial afterthought. It was a serious educational center in a region that much of the older country still regarded as frontier.

The Civil War disrupted that world. Collegiate instruction faltered, and Old Morrison, the Greek Revival landmark at the center of campus, served as a military hospital. In 1865, Transylvania merged with Kentucky University, formerly based in Harrodsburg, and used the Kentucky University name until restoring Transylvania in 1908. The complicated history of its departments also intersects with the origins of the modern University of Kentucky.

Over time, the institution abandoned the scale and professional ambitions of its nineteenth-century predecessor. What remained was a residential liberal arts university committed to undergraduate education. Transylvania’s history is not one of uninterrupted expansion; it is a history of reinvention. That pattern remains relevant as the university approaches its 250th anniversary in 2030.

Enrollment: A Kentucky University with National Ambitions

Transylvania’s enrollment tells a story of persistence rather than dramatic growth. In 1983, when Charles Shearer became president, the university enrolled approximately 655 students. Enrollment rose past 1,000 during the 1980s and reached roughly 1,150 in 2008. During the past decade, however, its student population has generally stayed close to 1,000. The historical series below shows 963 students in 2016, 1,022 in 2023, and 979 in 2025. Transylvania reports 937 students for fall 2026, a decline from the recent high.

The geography of recruitment is as revealing as the numbers. About 78 percent of students come from Kentucky; 22 percent are from other states, and international students make up less than one percent. Transylvania is a historic national institution whose contemporary student market is predominantly regional. For many Kentucky families, its appeal is precisely that it offers a small, residential private education within reach of home. But the limited geographic reach also narrows the recruiting pool at a time when competition for students is intense.

Transylvania’s strategic ambitions are larger than its current enrollment. An earlier plan envisioned 1,500 students. The Transylvania 2030 plan aims for at least 1,200 full-time students, including possible graduate enrollment. Today, the university remains principally an undergraduate institution. Its challenge is not to recover an imagined era of continuous growth, but to determine what combination of undergraduate recruitment and carefully chosen new offerings can sustain the education it wants to provide.

William T. Young: Rebuilding a University Through Scholarships

No modern benefactor shaped Transylvania more decisively than William T. Young. A Lexington entrepreneur and University of Kentucky graduate, Young built the Big Top peanut butter business that later became associated with Jif. He was also a prominent horse breeder and philanthropist. Although he never attended Transylvania, he served as a trustee beginning in the 1960s and eventually chaired its board for more than two decades.

Young believed a small college could compete for exceptional students if it offered an exceptional opportunity. In 1982—before Shearer became president—the first ten W. T. Young Scholars arrived with scholarships covering tuition, room, board, and a stipend. The program subsequently became central to the university’s recruitment strategy under Shearer. More than 800 students have benefited from it over four decades. The idea was straightforward: recruit outstanding students to a small university by removing the financial barrier for those selected on merit.

The Young legacy gained fresh importance in May 2026, when Transylvania announced the largest gift commitment in its history: $10 million from an anonymous donor. Of that amount, $9 million was committed to the Young Scholars endowment, with another $1 million available as a match dependent on gifts from former Young Scholars. The announcement tied an initiative born during the enrollment difficulties of the early 1980s directly to Transylvania’s ambitions for its next generation.

Young’s approach was not limited to scholarships. He believed attracting capable students required equally capable teachers. That conviction led to an investment that may be Transylvania’s clearest contemporary academic distinction.

The Bingham Fund: Making Undergraduate Teaching a Priority

In 1987, William T. Young joined Mary and Barry Bingham Sr. to establish a $5 million fund devoted to teaching excellence. That original commitment has become one of Transylvania’s defining academic resources. The separately governed Bingham Fund reports investing more than $30 million in teaching and faculty development since its founding. Its Form 990 reporting identifies $130.6 million in net assets as of June 2024. The fund’s central purpose is to sustain exceptional undergraduate teaching across generations.

The program is more than an annual teaching prize. It supports faculty growth, recognizes excellent instruction, and subjects teaching to review by educators from outside Transylvania. A $25 million commitment over fifteen years supports up to twelve Bingham Endowed Chairs for Teaching Excellence. Eight had been named by 2026. Each receives an additional $25,000 annually during a five-year appointment.

The range of disciplines is important. Among the chairs are biologist James Wagner, philosopher Peter Fosl, artist Kurt Gohde, historian Frank Russell, Chinese-language scholar Qian Gao, biologist Paul Duffin, political scientist Michael Cairo and psychologist Bethany Jurs. The program treats excellence in biology, the humanities, the arts and social sciences as equally central to the university’s mission. Cairo, for example, uses Socratic dialogue to challenge students to analyze international affairs rather than memorize simple answers. The selection committee’s external review gives that teaching philosophy practical institutional weight.

This is where Transylvania differs from colleges whose main academic selling point is simply small classes. Its 11-to-1 student–faculty ratio and average class size of fifteen are attractive, but not rare among selective liberal arts institutions. A dedicated teaching endowment, built over nearly forty years and used to reward and develop faculty across disciplines, is a more specific statement about institutional priorities. It does not guarantee that every class is exceptional. It does explain what Transylvania has chosen to invest in—and why.

Academics: Learning in Lexington and Beyond

Transylvania offers a broad undergraduate liberal arts curriculum, including biology, business, psychology, the humanities, and preprofessional preparation for medicine, law, and other fields. Its proximity to the University of Kentucky creates opportunities for academic pathways and professional connections without requiring Transylvania to operate a large graduate school of its own. For students considering health professions, the combination of close faculty advising and access to a major university and medical community can be valuable.

One of its most recognizable curricular features is May Term. After two conventional fourteen-week terms, students focus intensively on a single course, often taking learning into the city or farther afield. It is not Colorado College’s year-round Block Plan, but it offers a concentrated period for work that would be harder to arrange within a conventional semester.

In May 2026, accounting students visited Lexington’s local-government chambers to understand how public budgets are assembled. Students studying Kentucky history worked with archival records and helped preserve gravestones while exploring how communities remember their past. A sports facilities course took students behind the scenes of Lexington Legends Stadium and Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. Those experiences show the value of a university situated within a working city: government, public history, commerce and professional sports can become extensions of the classroom.

The university’s record also offers outcomes beyond anecdotes. Transylvania reports that 48.7 percent of its 2022 graduates entered graduate study within two years, following 48.3 percent for the 2021 class and 42.0 percent for the 2020 class. Its education graduates achieved a reported 100 percent Praxis pass rate in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Those results suggest meaningful preparation for further study and professional qualification, although outcomes differ by major and career path. The university also reports that 95 percent of graduates are employed or enrolled in graduate school within six months, a figure best read alongside its defined reporting methodology.

Transylvania’s downtown Lexington location broadens those opportunities. In a metropolitan area of approximately 344,000 people, hospitals, businesses, government offices, and nonprofit organizations offer settings for internships, service, and applied learning. What emerges is not a single signature major comparable to Spelman’s nationally visible STEM pipeline, but a teaching-centered model that connects a small undergraduate community to experiences beyond the classroom.

Student Success

Graduation rates offer a useful check on the promise of personal attention. Transylvania reports six-year graduation rates of 69.0 percent for the 2016 entering cohort, 70.4 percent for 2017 and 71.5 percent for 2018. It is nearing Transylvania’s own 75 percent goal. Among Pell-eligible students, six-year completion increased from 58.7 percent for the 2016 cohort to 64.2 percent for 2017 and 64.7 percent for 2018.

Four-year completion has been more challenging. The 2018, 2019, and 2020 entering cohorts posted rates of 56.6, 48.3, and 55.0 percent, all below Transylvania’s institutionally adopted 65 percent threshold. Transylvania attributes some delayed graduations to its Pioneer Plus pandemic-era program, which allowed affected students to return for a fifth year. The institution has responded with academic support initiatives, including Jumpstart, additional course-based learning support and a Pell Guarantee covering tuition and fees for eligible Kentucky students. The question now is whether those interventions produce sustained improvement.

Affordability and Access: Beyond the Published Price

For 2026–27, Transylvania lists tuition and fees of $50,640 and food and housing of $15,010, bringing direct charges to $65,650. Its estimated full cost of attendance, including books, transportation, and other expenses, approaches $70,000. That price places the university in direct competition with private colleges nationwide, even though its principal recruiting market is Kentucky.

Yet published tuition is only part of the picture. Transylvania reports that 99 percent of students receive financial aid. Merit awards such as the Young Scholars scholarships can transform the economics for selected students, while the Pell Guarantee targets eligible lower-income Kentuckians. These programs serve different purposes: one rewards exceptional achievement, while the other seeks to remove financial barriers for students with demonstrated need.

Net price, student borrowing, and graduation outcomes provide a clearer measure of access than the published price alone.

Athletics: An Important Enrollment Driver

Athletics plays a prominent role at Transylvania. The university sponsors 26 NCAA Division III intercollegiate teams, and student-athletes have represented nearly half its enrollment. At a university with fewer than 1,000 students, athletics influences recruitment, campus life, and institutional identity. The women’s basketball team brought national attention to Transylvania in 2023, completing a perfect 33–0 season with the NCAA Division III national championship, the first in university history. Athletics also attracts students who want to combine competitive sports with a liberal arts education.

Alumni: An Extraordinary Historical Reach

For an institution of its current size, Transylvania has an extraordinary alumni history. Its former students include two U.S. vice presidents, Richard Mentor Johnson and John C. Breckinridge, and two Supreme Court justices, Samuel Freeman Miller and John Marshall Harlan. Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson became an enduring argument against the constitutional acceptance of racial segregation. Stephen F. Austin played a central role in Anglo-American settlement in Texas; Cassius Marcellus Clay became an abolitionist and diplomat.

Those names also expose the contradictions of American history. Breckinridge later joined the Confederacy, while Harlan’s dissent challenged a legal order built on segregation. Jefferson Davis attended Transylvania before transferring to West Point and later becoming president of the Confederacy. He was not a Transylvania graduate. Henry Clay was associated with the university as a law teacher and trustee, not as an alumnus. The university’s influence extended into competing visions of the nation, not a single political or moral tradition.

More recent graduates have made their marks in business, media, and community life. Lance Tucker, class of 1991, became chief executive of Jack in the Box in 2025. Matt Jones, class of 2000, founded Kentucky Sports Radio and built a substantial audience around Kentucky athletics and public affairs. Actor and performer Ned Beatty attended Transylvania, although he did not complete a degree there. These figures illustrate a modern alumni network whose reach is different from that of nineteenth-century political leaders but remains visible in Kentucky and beyond.

The 100 Doors to Success mentoring program adds a practical, present-day dimension to the alumni story by connecting graduates with students seeking advice, professional exposure, and opportunities. For a small college, the personal accessibility of alumni may matter as much to students as the fame of a handful of names.

Financial Resources and the Question of Sustainable Scale

Transylvania has invested significantly in its campus over the past decade. Dalton-Voigt residence hall opened in 2015; Bassett and Pioneer halls followed in 2017. The William T. Young Campus Center, completed in 2021, added contemporary spaces for dining, wellness, and student activity. Those investments improve the residential experience, but they also reinforce the need to fill residence halls and support fixed operating costs with a relatively small enrollment base.

Philanthropy has helped Transylvania sustain an educational model that would be difficult to support from tuition alone. The university’s Form 990 for the year ended June 30, 2025 reports $157.4 million in endowment funds, up from $130.2 million four years earlier, despite a decline in fiscal 2022. The filing describes approximately 550 individual endowment funds supporting scholarships, academic programs, and enrichment. It also reports that just 4.4 percent of the endowment was board-designated or quasi-endowment, with the balance classified as permanent or term endowment. These resources provide long-term support but are not interchangeable with cash available for day-to-day expenses.

The Bingham Fund illustrates both Transylvania’s strength and the need to distinguish its resources carefully. It files a separate federal tax return, yet the university’s Schedule D reconciles consolidated audited financial statements by removing Bingham Fund activity from the university-only Form 990. Its assets should therefore not be added mechanically to university endowment figures. The university reported $216.8 million in net assets and $57.8 million in liabilities at June 30, 2025; these figures, like its endowment balance, describe financial position rather than an operating surplus.

Transylvania’s strategic plan calls for greater enrollment and investment resources as the university approaches its 250th anniversary. For its next president, the question is how to translate a substantial but largely purpose-restricted capital base into reliable scholarship support, strong teaching and a sustainable operating model. The university’s financial history gives it advantages many similarly sized colleges lack; enrollment and recurring tuition revenue will determine how effectively it can use them.

Transylvania 2030: The Next Leadership Test

President Brien Lewis took office in July 2020, just as the pandemic unsettled higher education. He has announced plans to depart in summer 2027, placing the university on the threshold of another leadership transition before its 250th anniversary. Board leadership includes Christopher Young, continuing a family association that has influenced Transylvania for generations.

The Transylvania 2030 strategy raises consequential questions. Can a university with 937 students reach a target of 1,200 full-time students, including potential graduate students, without weakening the personal academic experience it prizes? Can it broaden recruitment beyond Kentucky while remaining accessible to Kentucky families? And can it translate its unusually well-funded teaching commitment into student outcomes that distinguish it from other liberal arts colleges?

Those decisions will shape the next reinvention of a university that has already survived more than two centuries of change.

Beyond the Brochure: Pumpkins, a Naturalist and a Curse

Each autumn, hundreds of carved pumpkins glow on the steps of Old Morrison during PumpkinMania, a tradition launched in 2011. Families from Lexington join students and alumni in a setting where nineteenth-century architecture becomes a stage for a distinctly contemporary celebration. It is hard to imagine a more photogenic reminder that Transylvania belongs to its city.

The campus has an even stranger story. Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, a brilliant and famously quarrelsome naturalist, taught at Transylvania in the early nineteenth century. After an unhappy departure, stories circulated that he had cursed the institution. People believed his remains were brought back to Old Morrison in 1924, and questions about the bones only added to the mystery. Today the university embraces the eccentricity: its mascot, Raf, is a bat. Between a supposed curse, a naturalist’s tomb and a sea of Halloween pumpkins, Transylvania has more than enough material for an unforgettable campus tour.

Why Is Transylvania University Important?

Transylvania challenges the familiar geography of American higher education. A college emerged west of the Alleghenies before Kentucky became a state and before the United States adopted its Constitution. It educated physicians, lawyers, and political figures whose influence extended across a growing and divided nation. That history alone makes it worthy of attention.

But the more important question for small-college leaders is what Transylvania represents today. William T. Young and the Bingham family helped make undergraduate teaching an enduring philanthropic priority. The Bingham Fund, faculty chairs, and hands-on learning opportunities show how an institution can invest deliberately in the educational experience it wants to be known for. The university also illustrates the limitations of relying on reputation alone: respectable graduation rates coexist with gaps in completion, and generous philanthropic resources coexist with enrollment ambitions not yet realized.

The lesson is not that every small college needs a fund as large as Bingham’s, or a history stretching back to the Revolution. It is that an institution’s distinctive promise must be more than a slogan. It must be visible in faculty work, student opportunities, measurable results, and decisions about the future. Nearly 250 years after its founders imagined a college beyond the mountains, Transylvania faces another frontier: demonstrating why its intimate version of higher education remains compelling for the next generation.

Dean Hoke is Executive Producer and co-host of Small College America and Managing Partner of Edu Alliance Group, a higher education consulting firm based in Bloomington, Indiana, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He formerly served as President/CEO of the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA) and has worked with colleges and universities in the United States and internationally throughout his career.

Dean is also a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute in Indianapolis, where his research focuses on the economic and social impact of small colleges in rural communities. He is a co-author, with Chet Haskell and Barry Ryan, of the forthcoming book Small Colleges at the Crossroads: Strategic Paths to Growth, Partnership, Merger, or Responsible Closure, scheduled for publication in Fall 2026.

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Small College America – Spelman College

The Power of Sisterhood

September 28, 2026, by Dean Hoke: Over the years, I have spoken with many small college leaders searching for a clearer sense of what distinguishes their institutions. Some have developed new academic programs, expanded athletics, or reconsidered traditional missions to attract students. Spelman College offers a different perspective, having built its national reputation around an identity that has remained remarkably consistent since its founding in 1881.

Located in Atlanta, Spelman is a historically Black liberal arts college dedicated to the education of women. It enrolls approximately 2,600 undergraduates, attracts more than 11,000 applications for its entering class, and retains approximately 95 percent of first-year students. Its reputation extends well beyond the HBCU community, but those measures tell only part of the story.

Central to understanding Spelman is the Sisterhood, a connection that begins when students arrive and continues long after graduation. Through traditions, faculty relationships, mentoring, and an alumnae community of more than 21,000 women, the College has developed a culture in which the student–institution relationship is intended to last a lifetime. Graduates contribute professional networks, leadership, and a continuing sense of belonging.

For small colleges confronting questions about enrollment and identity, Spelman offers a useful example. Rather than redefining its mission to appeal to a broader market, it has built upon the purpose established by its founders 145 years ago. Sometimes a college’s greatest strength lies in understanding what has made it distinctive all along.

The Origins of Spelman College

Spelman’s history begins in the years following the Civil War, when educational opportunities for Black women in the South were severely limited. On April 11, 1881, Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles opened the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in the basement of Friendship Baptist Church. With just 11 students and $100, they established an institution dedicated to providing Black women and girls with educational opportunities largely denied to them.

Financial support from John D. Rockefeller helped the school expand and acquire property. In 1883, it moved to its present site; in 1884 it was renamed Spelman Seminary for Laura Spelman Rockefeller and her parents, Harvey Buel and Lucy Henry Spelman, who had been active in the antislavery movement. It became Spelman College in 1924.

From its earliest years, Spelman combined liberal education with professional preparation. Teacher education developed early, nursing instruction began in 1886, and the college awarded its first degrees in 1901. Those milestones are worth remembering because the founders did more than open another school. They were creating opportunities for Black women to enter professions, support their families, and exercise influence in communities where such opportunities had long been restricted.

That purpose remains evident 145 years later. Spelman has expanded into science and technology while retaining its commitment to preparing Black women for leadership and professional achievement.

A Small College with Considerable Demand

Spelman’s enrollment experience differs from that of many small private colleges. For the Class of 2029, entering in fall 2025, the College received more than 11,500 first-year applications, admitted fewer than one-quarter of applicants, and enrolled approximately 650 new students. The entering class represented 37 states and U.S. territories and three foreign countries, with only about 22 percent coming from Georgia.

Spelman’s appeal is national rather than primarily regional. While many small colleges depend upon nearby populations, its mission, reputation, and alumnae network attract students from well beyond Atlanta.

Enrollment Trend

Spelman enrolled 2,125 undergraduates in fall 2016 and 2,597 in fall 2025, an increase of approximately 22.2 percent. Growth was not perfectly linear: enrollment reached 2,417 in 2021, slipped to 2,374 the following year, and then rose to 2,712 in 2024 before declining to 2,597 in 2025. A one-year decline warrants attention, but it does not erase the larger pattern. Over the decade, Spelman added nearly 500 students while continuing to receive many more applications than it could accommodate.

Spelman and the Changing Landscape of Women’s Colleges

In the mid-20th century, more than 200 women’s colleges existed in the United States. By fall 2022, 31 remained. Some institutions closed or merged, while others became coeducational in response to changing student preferences, enrollment pressures, and financial circumstances.

Enrollment across the sector has also contracted. Between 1998 and 2022, total enrollment at women’s colleges declined 40 percent, from approximately 112,500 students to 67,300. The decline was 18 percent during the final decade of that period alone. Spelman’s documented fall enrollment increased between 2020 and 2024, although this shorter period should not be treated as directly comparable with the sector-wide 1998–2022 trend.

Spelman is one of only two remaining women’s colleges that are also historically Black colleges, the other being Bennett College in North Carolina. Nevertheless, some of its useful academic peers are institutions such as Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, and Scripps. These colleges share longstanding commitments to undergraduate liberal arts education, selective admissions, and influential alumnae communities, although their histories, student populations, and financial resources differ considerably.

Spelman has not responded to the contraction of women’s colleges by abandoning its identity. Its experience suggests that a specialized mission need not limit demand when students understand the community and education it offers.

Student Success Beyond Admission

Application numbers tell only part of the story. Spelman’s second-year retention rate is approximately 95 percent, and its six-year graduation rate has generally remained in the mid-to-upper 70s in recent cohorts.

For students who entered in 2018, Spelman reported a six-year graduation rate of 78 percent, compared with 58 percent nationally and 39 percent among four-year HBCUs. That result substantially exceeded the four-year HBCU average, although several of its selective women’s-college peers report higher rates.

Those outcomes reflect a strong record of student persistence, although important differences remain. For the 2019 entering cohort, the six-year graduation rate for Pell Grant recipients was 67 percent, below the rate for students who did not receive Pell Grants. Affordability is therefore a question of degree completion as well as admission.

STEM Within a Liberal Arts Education

One of the more interesting aspects of Spelman is its record in science and technology. The College is not a technical institute, nor does it operate an engineering or medical school. Its mission instead describes an institution dedicated to “academic excellence in the liberal arts and sciences and the intellectual, creative, ethical, and leadership development of its students.” It also emphasizes educating the whole person, while its formal Statement of Purpose encompasses the fine arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Spelman reports that, over a five-year period described on its STEM webpage, an average of 34 percent of students pursued STEM majors and approximately one-quarter of graduates earned STEM degrees. The webpage does not specify the reporting years.

Spelman has developed STEM strength without replacing its liberal arts environment. Students preparing for scientific careers also study writing, communication, and disciplines concerned with human behavior, culture, and ethics. It reflects the College’s longstanding expectation that a graduate should be able to bring several ways of thinking to bear on a problem, whether she is working in a laboratory, a classroom, a business, or public life.

That breadth may become increasingly important as artificial intelligence changes professional work. AI can already assist with tasks in software development, research, and analysis, but technical expertise remains essential. What may become more distinctive is the ability to apply that expertise with judgment.

Scientists and engineers who assume broader responsibilities must decide which problems deserve attention, assess incomplete information, communicate across specialties, and understand the human consequences of their work. Creativity, ethical reasoning, and leadership complement rather than replace technical skills.

A Spelman student may become a biologist, mathematician, or computer scientist while also studying history, philosophy, literature, and the arts. That breadth does not guarantee professional success, but it may help graduates adapt as technologies and occupations change.

Spelman’s current institutional priorities suggest that the College recognizes this opportunity. Its Spelman Forward campaign calls for integrating AI literacy, computational reasoning, and ethical leadership across the curriculum while modernizing its liberal arts foundation. The emphasis is not on replacing the liberal arts with technology, but on preparing students to understand and use technology within a broader intellectual and human context.

The Faculty and Research Behind the Results

Spelman’s STEM accomplishments also depend upon faculty and research opportunities. The College reports 54 full-time faculty members in its STEM departments and programs, 83 percent of whom are members of racial or ethnic minority groups and 52 percent of whom are women. Nearly two-thirds of the women on its STEM faculty are African American.

Students can work with faculty engaged in research rather than encounter science only in the classroom. In a smaller undergraduate setting, the relationship between a professor and a student can extend from introductory coursework to laboratory work, mentoring, and conversations about graduate study. Spelman also participates in externally supported research and undergraduate research programs.

Spelman has also attracted federal research support, including participation in grants that expand research opportunities for its students and faculty. In 2024, it led an Atlanta University Center consortium awarded $14 million through the National Science Foundation’s GRANTED program, an initiative intended to strengthen research infrastructure and competitiveness at participating HBCUs. The award was made to the consortium, not to Spelman alone, but it illustrates how the College uses collaboration to expand what its faculty and students can undertake.

Faculty, external support, and partnerships extend research opportunities beyond Spelman’s own campus.

An Engineering Program Built Through Partnership

Spelman’s approach to engineering offers another example of expanding educational opportunities without attempting to become a larger institution. Through the Atlanta University Center’s Dual Degree Engineering Program, students generally complete at least three years at Spelman and two years at a partner engineering institution. Those who satisfy both institutions’ requirements receive a bachelor’s degree from Spelman and an engineering degree from the partner.

The program includes 15 engineering partners, among them Georgia Tech, Columbia University, Purdue University, and the University of Michigan. Students can therefore begin their undergraduate education within Spelman’s liberal arts environment and complete specialized engineering study at institutions with established programs and facilities.

The arrangement illustrates a practical distinction between the size of an institution and the range of opportunities available to its students. An engineering school requires specialized faculty, laboratories, equipment, and continuing investment. By working with established partners, Spelman can preserve its own undergraduate educational model while offering students a route into a field that would otherwise require resources beyond its campus.

The Spelman Sisterhood

The College’s academic record explains only part of its influence. Spelman’s alumnae community, which the institution reports numbers 21,785 women, has become another important source of professional opportunity, philanthropy, and institutional continuity.

Its graduates include Marian Wright Edelman, Class of 1960, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund; Audrey Forbes Manley, Class of 1955, a physician and former Acting Surgeon General who later became Spelman’s first alumna president; and Rosalind Brewer, Class of 1984, whose corporate leadership career included serving as CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Brewer subsequently returned to Spelman as a trustee leader and interim president.

Other graduates include economist Lisa D. Cook, Class of 1986, who became a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Evelynn Hammonds, Class of 1976, a historian of science and medicine who served as Dean of Harvard College. Their careers span public service, medicine, business, economics, and higher education, reflecting the breadth of opportunities Spelman graduates pursue.

The alumnae network extends beyond prominent names. Graduates mentor students, provide professional contacts, contribute financially, and help lead the College, connecting current students with women who followed similar paths. The presence of alumnae in campus life gives undergraduates examples of what a Spelman education can lead to, while shared traditions encourage graduates to see themselves as continuing participants in the College’s story rather than former customers of an educational institution.

Rosalind Brewer’s return as interim president offers a particularly tangible example. When Spelman needed leadership during a presidential transition, it turned to a graduate who understood the institution and had accumulated extensive experience elsewhere. The Sisterhood, in that instance, became more than a tradition or professional network; it became an institutional resource.

Beyond the Brochure

One of Spelman’s most recognizable traditions is wearing white. Dating to around 1900, the practice began when students were expected to have a conservative white dress for formal occasions. Spelman describes the tradition as creating a uniform appearance and marking the importance of formal occasions.

The tradition has endured for more than a century. First-year students wear white during their induction into the Spelman Sisterhood, while white attire also appears at Founders Day and major commencement-related events. Alumnae returning for Reunion participate in the March Through the Alumnae Arch, maintaining a connection with customs observed by generations before them. Students encounter its history in ways that are visible, shared, and repeated across generations.

These traditions make the idea of Sisterhood tangible.

Atlanta and the Atlanta University Center

Spelman’s location provides educational opportunities that would be difficult to duplicate in a more isolated setting. The College belongs to the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of historically Black institutions that includes Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. Cross-registration and institutional cooperation expand the academic and social opportunities available to students while allowing Spelman to maintain its own identity and relatively small enrollment.

Atlanta itself offers access to major corporations, health systems, cultural institutions, research organizations, and an extensive Black professional community. The city’s history also provides an important educational context. Spelman students participated in the Atlanta Student Movement during the 1960s, linking the College to the broader struggle for civil rights and the development of the city.

Students thus experience a small college within a much larger educational and metropolitan community.

Financial Strength and the Challenge of Access

Spelman possesses financial resources that distinguish it from many small private colleges. At June 30, 2025, it reported more than $1 billion in total assets, approximately $964 million in net assets, and an endowment of roughly $609 million. According to the Hechinger Report’s Financial Fitness Tracker, net tuition represented 19 percent of its 2024 revenue, versus a 45 percent median among private nonprofit colleges. That lower dependence on tuition provides context for assessing its financial position.

Financial Trends

Spelman’s operating revenue increased substantially between FY2021 and FY2024 before declining in FY2025. Operating expenses also rose over the five-year period, narrowing the positive operating margin considerably in FY2025.

Restricted gifts, endowment activity, and capital projects can affect annual results, so a single year should not be mistaken for a sustained trend.

Spelman’s recent fundraising has been substantial. In January 2024, trustee Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, announced a $100 million gift, including $75 million for endowed scholarships. MacKenzie Scott contributed $38 million in unrestricted support in 2025, following a $20 million gift in 2020. The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has also committed $16.5 million over ten years to support scholarships for Spelman juniors and seniors with significant financial need.

Among Spelman’s 2024 graduates, 62 percent borrowed, with average cumulative student debt of $34,425 among borrowers. For 2023–24 graduates of private nonprofit four-year institutions nationally, the College Board reports an almost identical average of $34,420 among borrowers, but only 49 percent of graduates borrowed.

In April 2026, Spelman launched its $500 million *Spelman Forward* campaign. Approximately $325 million—65 percent—is designated for access and affordability, with another $100 million for academic transformation, including AI literacy and ethical leadership.

Despite strong demand and philanthropy, affordability remains central to Spelman’s strategy, alongside investment in a liberal arts curriculum suited to technological change.

A New President and the Next Chapter

Spelman enters this period of academic and financial investment under new leadership. Mary Schmidt Campbell served as president from 2015 until her retirement in 2022. Her successor, Helene Gayle, left the presidency in 2024, after which Rosalind Brewer served as interim president. Brewer’s appointment brought an experienced corporate leader and Spelman graduate back to the institution during an important transition.

On August 1, 2026, Ayanna Howard became Spelman’s 12th president. A roboticist and artificial intelligence researcher, Howard previously worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, held a faculty position at Georgia Tech, co-founded the robotics company Zyrobotics, and served as dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University.

Howard inherits established STEM programs, research partnerships, and an ambition to integrate AI literacy into a liberal arts education; she is not creating a scientific identity from scratch.

It is too early to evaluate her presidency, but her background makes the relationship between scientific education and Spelman’s broader mission especially interesting. Her appointment brings the story back to a question that has shaped Spelman since its founding: how to prepare women for emerging opportunities without losing the educational purpose that distinguishes the College.

Why Is Spelman College Important?

Spelman’s experience offers several lessons for small private colleges, particularly those confronting questions about enrollment, academic identity, financial resources, and the future of liberal arts education.

Distinctiveness Is More Powerful When It Is Authentic. Spelman’s mission has remained remarkably consistent while the number of women’s colleges has declined dramatically. Its history, academic programs, student experience, and alumnae community reinforce an identity that prospective students can readily understand. The College’s experience suggests that differentiation is most effective when it reflects an institution’s actual educational purpose rather than a marketing response to changing circumstances.

Liberal Arts and STEM Can Strengthen One Another. Spelman demonstrates that a small liberal arts college can prepare substantial numbers of students for scientific careers without abandoning a broader education. As artificial intelligence changes professional work, the combination of technical knowledge with communication, creativity, ethical reasoning, adaptability, and leadership may become increasingly valuable. Spelman’s commitment to bringing AI literacy into its liberal arts curriculum makes this an especially relevant part of its story.

Partnership Can Substitute for Scale. The dual-degree engineering program, Atlanta University Center, and external research relationships allow Spelman to offer educational opportunities that would be difficult to provide entirely on its own. These arrangements suggest that a small institution need not become a comprehensive university to give students access to specialized fields and facilities.

Alumnae Can Be Part of the Educational Model. The Sisterhood extends the relationship between student and institution beyond graduation. Through mentoring, professional connections, philanthropy, and leadership, alumnae contribute to the experience of current students and the continuing development of the College. Rosalind Brewer’s service as interim president demonstrates how those connections can become particularly valuable during institutional transitions.

Financial Strength Creates Choices, Not Immunity. Spelman’s assets, endowment, and recent philanthropic support give it options that many small colleges do not possess. Yet its decision to direct nearly two-thirds of a $500 million campaign toward access and affordability shows that financial resources must still align with students’ needs and the institution’s mission.

What makes Spelman interesting is the coherence of its mission, academic programs, traditions, and alumnae relationships.

A student can enter the Sisterhood, study across disciplines, conduct research, and pursue engineering through a partner institution. Along the way, she encounters an academic community that expects both professional preparation and broader intellectual development. At graduation, she passes through the Alumnae Arch into a network that may shape her life for decades.

The college that began with 11 students in an Atlanta church basement remains relatively small 145 years later, but its influence reaches far beyond campus.

Additional sources: Spelman College, 2025–26 Common Data Set, Section H5 (student debt); FY26 Student Achievement Report (Pell graduation); The Hechinger Report, Financial Fitness Tracker (2024 net-tuition share); College Board, Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2025, Figure SA-14A (national debt comparison).

Dean Hoke is Executive Producer and co-host of Small College America and Managing Partner of Edu Alliance Group, a higher education consulting firm based in Bloomington, Indiana, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He formerly served as President/CEO of the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA) and has worked with colleges and universities in the United States and internationally throughout his career.

Dean is also a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute in Indianapolis, where his research focuses on the economic and social impact of small colleges in rural communities. He is co-author, with Chet Haskell and Barry Ryan, of the forthcoming book Small Colleges at the Crossroads: Strategic Paths to Growth, Partnership, Merger, or Responsible Closure, scheduled for publication in Fall 2026.