Dear Commons Community,

The Ohio institution that educated American businessmen John D. Rockefeller and Harvey Firestone is closing after 165 years of service.  The Huffington Post is reporting that Chancellor University announced yesterday that it will stop offering classes in late August. The school did not provide reasons for closing.

The university was founded in 1848. It began facing financial difficulties in the early 2000s.

The school closed between 2007 and 2008 before it was bought out of bankruptcy and turned into an online-only, for-profit institution. Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric Co., then founded his management institute at the university, but he severed ties with the institution in December 2011.

The school said in a release on its website that the university’s students will be transferred to Alliant International University, a California-based, not-for-profit school next month.

As the economy sputters and the cost of college operations rise, I think we will see more such closings and not just in the for-profit sector over the next few years.

Tony