The University of St. Thomas sounded a budget alarm in April as it announced staff layoffs and other belt-tightening measures. At the same time, St. Thomas welcomed visitors to the Schoenecker Center, a new arts and sciences building on the St. Paul campus, which sits opposite a future 5,000-seat, Division I hockey and basketball arena under construction off Cretin Avenue.

Also planned in the same location is dedicated space for the university’s Center for Microgrid Research, which will soon adjoin the Owens Science Hall, not far from two new residence halls and three other residential buildings that were recently renovated.

“Our engineering school has been bursting at the seams for many years, and they needed new space,” said St. Thomas President Rob Vischer, noting “almost every nook and cranny” of the Schoenecker Center is already filled with active labs, classrooms and performance areas. As for the residential buildings, “we have more students living on campus than ever before, and that’s something neighbors had been asking for.”

Like St. Thomas, Macalester College in St. Paul and Bethel University in Arden Hills faced years of steady or declining enrollment during the pandemic, as well as rising labor costs and other factors unsettling college campuses across the country. But they, too, have embarked on capital campaigns with the goal, in part, of erecting new buildings or renovating existing ones, even as low unemployment and a declining national birth rate suggest continued tough times ahead.

‘Winner takes most’ market

Nationally, college enrollment has dropped by about 14% since peaking in 2010 — a loss of some 2.7 million students in 2022 alone — with most of the drop occurring after the start of the pandemic in 2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics and BestColleges.com.

In fact, from 2010 through 2022, national college enrollment fell or stayed flat each year for a dozen years. There’s been some enrollment growth in the past two years, but the numbers are still below where they were before the pandemic.

Case in point: Hamline University in St. Paul. Undergraduate enrollment increased by 3.6% this fall semester, topping off at 1,734 students. That adds up to a 22% increase in first-year students over last year, and Hamline’s largest class since 2019, but still short of the 2,045 undergraduates enrolled five years ago.

So why keep building structures on campus?

Vischer said St. Thomas has not cut faculty or academic programs since right-sizing its budget this spring and is “not currently engaged in any budget reductions.” Still, “for strong institutions to retain their strength, there’s going to have to be some tough budget decisions,” he said. “We’re entering what’s called a ‘winner takes most’ market, where the strong schools win the students. In a brutally competitive marketplace, schools that can build on their strengths are going to thrive.”

During the last 20 years, colleges also have had to provide a wider variety of support for students, including social services, housing resources for unhoused students and campus food pantries while also modernizing existing space for the information age.

“We know, from an educational perspective, that those needs have to be met before they can actually learn,” said St. Paul College President Deidra Peaslee, who is asking the state Legislature for nearly $32 million to renovate and modernize existing buildings on campus.

In addition, the college made an offer on a Marshall Avenue rooming house last April that was turned down, but could have been converted into student housing. Otherwise, “I don’t think necessarily that … a lot of institutions are looking or have the need for additional square footage,” Peaslee said. “We have a need for making sure that the square footage we have is actually serving the students that we have.”

Another reason to keep building? Loneliness. Vischer said studies show a majority of Generation Z — the post-millennial generation ages 12-27 — report not having a sense of purpose or meaning in their lives, and feeling that no one in the world knows them well. Then came COVID, which showed many educators the limits of remote learning. The new Division I sports stadium under construction at St. Thomas, hotly opposed by some neighbors, will face a new campus quad, both of which are designed to reinforce a sense of community and improve campus life.

Campus projects

Despite enrollment ups and downs, several colleges and universities in the east metro have fundraised for new buildings, structures and renovations, largely within the existing footprint of their campuses. Here’s a look at what they’ve been building, how they’re funding it, and why at a challenging time for enrollment growth, they’re forging ahead anyway.

Concordia University

COMPLETED: Concordia University, St. Paul recently finished a $1 million renovation to its music auditorium to further bolster its humanities programs, said Eric LaMott, the school’s provost and chief operating officer. The university also completed a $2 million renovation to the Gangelhoff Center athletics facility. The improvements took place over three years and included new floors, video boards and bleachers, as well as updated locker rooms.

UNDERWAY: Concordia also has multiple renovation projects in the works, including the entrance to the Lutheran Memorial Center, where the admissions and financial aid departments are housed, and the women’s dormitory, Luther Hall, LaMott said. The work on Luther Hall includes a tunnel connector between two other buildings, which has been completed. The projects, which carry a price tag of $2.5 million, will improve accessibility to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards. They were scheduled to be completed around the end of November, with an additional $5 million being put toward phase two of renovations for the admissions center that will start up in the next six to nine months.

Also on the docket for Concordia: the multimillion-dollar renovation of the Central Midway Building, a former health care facility now named Ries Tower. Concordia purchased the entire building for just under $10 million and has, over the last four years, put several million dollars toward converting it into a health center that will host the school’s physician assistant, doctorate in physical therapy and nursing programs, according to LaMott. The facility is about a year from completion.

ENROLLMENT: Unlike other colleges that have seen declining enrollment rates, Concordia has seen strong growth over the past decade. According to the university’s enrollment data, 2,941 students attended Concordia in 2013, a number that has doubled to 5,928 students this academic year. This substantial increase is largely due to Concordia’s measures to reduce tuition and focus on making their degree programs relevant to workforce needs, according to LaMott. Concordia has implemented two major tuition actions in recent years — a tuition “reset” that took place in fall of 2013 and cut costs by 30%, and the other being the CSP Pell Commitment, which covers the remaining amount of tuition for recipients of the Federal Pell Grant and other state aid.

HERE’S MORE: While some donors have pitched in to the athletics department and other spending, the projects have been mostly funded through Concordia’s own cash resources, LaMott said.

Macalester College

COMPLETED: A year of outreach to students and alumni led Macalester College to create a new comprehensive campus plan about three years ago. It also led to the complete renovation of the second and third floors of the Lampert Building on Snelling Avenue, which houses the offices of alumni engagement, the Macalester Fund, communications and marketing. A major renovation of the campus center at 1600 Grand Ave. was completed this summer, as were some light touches on other buildings.

UNDERWAY: Macalester offers housing to its first-year and second-year students, but limited options beyond that. That will change by the spring of 2026, when the school plans to throw open the doors to a new residence hall, welcome center and admissions office at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Macalester Street. The building, which may be four or five stories high, would span some 225 beds geared primarily toward older students. It will take the place of a vacant surface lot, a parking lot and the Cultural House, said Nathan Lief, assistant vice president of facility services for Macalester. No cost estimates yet.

ENROLLMENT: Lief said the college has no plans to grow its campus boundaries or enrollment, which has held fairly steady at 2,200 students even through the dog days of the pandemic. “We’re one of the lucky colleges,” he said. “We’re not having any issues there. Hopefully that remains the case into the future.”

HERE’S MORE: “A lot of our competitors can offer a four-year, on-campus living situation, and right now we can’t do that,” Lief said. “We can offer two years, and this will get us to three. We’re envisioning this being a little more upper classmen. It’s a little different style of living as they’re moving up and into the ‘real world,’ so to speak. The welcome center piece is a similar story. Most of our competitors have created a space that really showcases what they’re about, and we would like to do the same. It’s where people arrive and you have that Macalester moment, the Instagram moment, that introduces the potential student and their family to your college and hopefully to what you’re all about.”

University of St. Thomas

COMPLETED: The Iversen Center for Faith, an expansion of the 100-year-old Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, opened on Cleveland Avenue in 2020. Since then, St. Thomas has opened two new residence halls and renovated three more, making room for all first- and second-year students to live on campus. A former law school building, the Summit Classroom Building, was renovated in 2022 for the school of nursing. Largely backed by philanthropy, the $110 million Schoenecker Center — a science, technology, engineering, arts and math building — opened this year on Summit Avenue.

UNDERWAY: The University of St. Thomas received a record $75 million donation from billionaire philanthropists Lee and Penny Anderson last year toward design and construction of a shared Division I hockey and basketball facility near Cretin and Grand avenues. Currently under construction, the 4,000- to 5,500-seat arena replaces the 1890s-era Cretin Hall dormitory, the 1960s-era McCarthy Gym and an 1890s-era service center. The university also plans a new testing facility, large enough to drive a vehicle into, for the Center for Microgrid Research, to replace a greenhouse and be installed at the loading area by the Owens Science Hall.

ENROLLMENT: Fall enrollment at the university has climbed 3% overall compared to last year, and undergraduate enrollment is up 4%, for a total of more than 9,400 students, a four-year high. About one-third of students are graduate students. Enrollment in the fall of 2020 was 9,792.

HERE’S MORE: Vischer, the university president, pointed out that 140 years in the same location lends itself to some physical upgrades, as does a growing focus on campus life. “It’s not a case of ‘if you build it, they will come.’ It’s us recognizing the needs we already have and looking far into the future to address those needs.”

University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus

COMPLETED: The university’s most recent large construction project on the St. Paul campus was the Microbial Cell Production Facility, located near the agricultural buildings. The project, which cost roughly $92 million, was completed in May. MCPF was constructed to support research in the College of Biological Sciences, which is paying about 65% of the cost of construction using internally generated funds, said Mike Volna, the university’s interim vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer.

The university is paying for the other 35% using institutional funding, Volna said. “Many capital projects support and benefit the $1.1 billion of research that is conducted by the university every year,” he said, “while other capital projects benefit the outreach mission, such as Minnesota Extension and the clinical activities conducted in the Health Science colleges.”

UNDERWAY: No major projects currently underway.

ENROLLMENT: Enrollment across the U’s Twin Cities campuses dipped slightly in the 2018-19 academic year but has gradually increased since, according to institutional enrollment data. Since the 2020-21 academic year, enrollment has increased from 51,300 students to 56,600 students this academic year.

HERE’S MORE: McNeal Hall on the St. Paul campus was reconfigured in 2022. The project, intended to showcase undergraduate programs, cost $1.8 million, with the College of Design covering the construction cost using various sources of funding. The university is also currently planning a 15-year development project on the Minneapolis campus called the Mix. It would add more businesses, housing, research spaces and offices between Washington and University avenues, near Huron, Ontario and Delaware streets.

St. Paul College

COMPLETED: St. Paul College caught up on some deferred maintenance in 2023, including a $1 million project to replace its cooling tower, but has not had a major capital project since 2020, according to college spokesperson Austin Calhoun. Plans call for campus-wide renovations that will redesign more than 100,000 square feet of existing classroom, laboratory and student service spaces in the East and West towers.

The $31.8 million project would not add any square footage but it would allow the college to reduce its deferred maintenance needs. Gov. Tim Walz prioritized the school’s bonding request, though the last bonding bill was not funded by the state Legislature. St. Paul College was recently awarded $1.6 million in design funding.

The school submitted a letter of intent to Catholic Charities in April with the hopes of acquiring St. Christopher’s Place, a 70-unit rooming house on Marshall Avenue, and converting into student residences, but the nonprofit did not agree to a sale. Had the college been successful, it would have been the only metro-area member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system with student housing.

UNDERWAY: No major projects currently underway.

ENROLLMENT: The college enrolls about 5,156 students, more than a third of which attend full time. President Peaslee said the college has not reached pre-pandemic enrollment numbers — which was about 5,800 students — but is seeing enrollment increase each semester.

HERE’S MORE: “Our focus is on modernization and sustainability — aligned with our mission, vision and values,” said Calhoun, in an email. “This means creating better learning environments for our students with updated technology, improved accessibility and more efficient use of space. We believe these upgrades are essential to attract and retain students and provide them with the best possible education.”

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Metropolitan State University

COMPLETED: Metropolitan State University completed a handful of small renovations to its St. Paul campus in the past few years, including relocating its Dayton’s Bluff bookstore, student parent center, food pantry and student center to create more of a central hub for student services and basic needs. It also shifted services within the library on East Seventh Street, moving its Gordon Parks Art Gallery, Community Engagement Office and Career Center to the first floor, creating a hub for academic support services. At the same time, it reduced its physical footprint in St. Paul’s Midway.

UNDERWAY: A $24 million renovation of the school’s Minneapolis campus is nearing completion, focused on the 1300 Harmon Place building — built in 1927 — that houses Metro State’s College of Business and Management. The combined business school with Minneapolis College will reopen for the spring semester. Funding is provided through a capital budget request to the Legislature through the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. An “Entrepreneurship Center” is designed to give applied learning experiences to students, and support new and existing small businesses in the Twin Cities.

ENROLLMENT: Metro State experienced enrollment growth this fall after several years of enrollment decline. That’s a 12% increase this year compared to last year’s overall enrollment, and new student enrollment is up about 30%. School officials attributed that growth to multiple factors, including the new North Star Promise scholarship.

HERE’S MORE: Carrie Carroll, associate vice president of strategic enrollment with the university, said Metro State’s capital improvement projects have been focused on renovations and providing a better use of existing space. “The pandemic provided us valuable insights into how courses, student support and student services can be delivered through multiple modes — in person, online, hybrid — and into how our students want to access them,” said Carroll, in an email. “At Metro, most of our students are working part or full-time, balancing school on top of other responsibilities. They need convenient and efficient ways of connecting with resources. Students can jump on a tutoring session on Zoom over their lunch hour without having to drive to campus. These insights have changed our way of thinking about space.”

Bethel University

COMPLETED: Dubbed “Called to More,” Bethel University’s 6½-year capital campaign exceeded its goal and raised more than $174 million toward university buildings and programs, including an eight-figure gift from a longtime donor in 2020 that helped complete the Nelson-Larson Science Center. The center provides modern new lab and classroom spaces for the university’s growing science programs. A year later, the school broke ground on upgrades to Royal Stadium, including a new outdoor track and multi-use artificial turf on the football field.

UNDERWAY: No major projects currently underway.

ENROLLMENT: Bethel’s undergraduate enrollment numbers fell 5% from fall 2020 to fall 2023 and have not yet risen back to pre-pandemic levels. That said, from fall 2022 to fall 2023, the school’s undergraduate enrollment numbers grew 1.4%.

HERE’S MORE: A $28 million gift — the largest in university history — recently helped grow Bethel’s endowment to almost $90 million, and planned gifts have provided more funding for scholarships. A $20 million donation from a Minnesota couple is allowing the university to launch the Anderson Family College of Health Sciences, named after donors Barb and Rollie Anderson. Starting in fall 2025, listed tuition for all new and continuing undergraduate Bethel University students will decrease from $44,050 to $25,990.

St. Catherine University

COMPLETED: St. Catherine University in St. Paul just finished remodeling its Mendel Science Building and preserving Our Lady of Victory Chapel, priority projects of the university’s capital campaign, dubbed “Lead and Influence: the Campaign for the Next Level of Excellence,” said Sarah Voigt, director of communications. Planning for both projects began in March 2020 and work got underway last year. The Mendel project cost $4.5 million, and the chapel project was $6.2 million, with funding from various donors.

UNDERWAY: No major projects currently underway.

ENROLLMENT: The number of students at St. Kate’s increased by 6.5% in its College for Women, College for Adults and Graduate College for the current academic year. Overall enrollment increased by 4% compared to last year.

HERE’S MORE: St. Kate’s has not added any new buildings to its campus, Voigt said, and focused instead on renovating existing buildings to accommodate the changing needs of students. “This ultimately costs less money, and is a much more environmentally sustainable solution than a new construction plan,” Voigt said.

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