The sector closed at least 15 nonprofit institutions in 2025 as enrollment shortfalls and fiscal stress forced consolidations, program wind-downs and governance shakeups. At the same time, The New School launched an institutional overhaul as leaders seek a path to sustainability amid complaints that changes threaten liberal-arts identity and faculty governance. Higher-education leaders and trustees should view this as a systemic reckoning: demographic shifts, declining international enrollments and strained public funding are accelerating consolidation. Boards must prioritize contingency planning, enrollment diversification, and transparent stakeholder engagement as institutions confront existential operating decisions.