Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan, staged a farewell commencement Saturday that marked the end of the final academic year for the 107-year-old Catholic institution, according to reporting distributed by The Associated Press. Nursing student Rollan Mattson walked the fieldhouse stage as the last graduate of the school, following a closure announcement made last June.
More than 440 graduates crossed the stage before him, with hundreds of family members and friends filling the Siena Heights Fieldhouse. The ceremony served as both a graduation celebration and a closing moment for faculty, students, and alumni connected to the university.
Mattson said that learning of the pending closure as he approached his senior year left him questioning whether he would still be able to graduate. He later described how the June 2025 closure decision prompted staff to scramble for work and how, in the nursing program, faculty reductions narrowed course support over the final stretch.
In a separate context, the commencement speaker added levity to a day centered on closure: actor and comedian Bill Murray delivered a surprise speech. Murray told graduates that he would be ready to “rumble” with them in the parking lot as a new member of the “family,” explaining that his sister is part of the Adrian Dominican Sisters and that both received honorary degrees during the ceremony.
During the briefing about the closure, Siena Heights President Cheri Betz described what she called a set of pressures facing higher education, including enrollment declines and higher operating costs. Betz told Bridge Michigan that small private institutions with faith-based affiliations can face different funding challenges than state schools, while also pointing to lower birth rates in Michigan shrinking the pool of 18-year-olds entering postsecondary education.
Betz also cited a constraint that has affected recruiting across the college sector, saying “You cannot recruit students who were never born.” She framed the demographic shift as a common pressure that, in her view, hits small schools that depend heavily on traditional enrollment pipelines.
As part of its plan to end operations, Siena Heights added a “J-term,” an accelerated academic session between the fall and spring semesters, intended to help students take additional classes so they could graduate before closure. The university also worked with younger students to help them line up transfers to other colleges as the institution wound down.
The closure places Siena Heights within a broader pattern of strain among small private and faith-based colleges in Michigan and beyond, according to the Associated Press report. The story cited Finlandia University, which closed in 2023, and Marygrove College, which ended its undergraduate degree programs in 2017 and its graduate programs in 2019, as examples of institutions that scaled back or shut down after prolonged financial difficulties.
It also pointed to Concordia University in Ann Arbor, which has scaled back most academic offerings amid enrollment challenges, leaving only three academic programs at its campus and additional education degree programs offered online. In Siena Heights’ case, officials said they assessed the university’s finances, operational challenges, and long-term sustainability and determined the institution was “no longer feasible” to stay open.
After crossing the stage Saturday, Mattson said the closure had not fully set in yet for him personally, but he expected it would become clearer when the campus remained empty after the next wave of students headed to college. The university’s farewell, including the final diploma and the concluding remarks by its commencement speaker, underscored the transition underway for both students and the broader community built around the school’s Catholic mission.