Adrian College’s adoption of a course-sharing consortium offers a fiscal lifeline and program expansion model for tuition-dependent small colleges. The Michigan liberal-arts institution subscribed to Rize — a network of more than 130 schools — to provide over 600 majors to 10,000 students, reducing its academic budget by 13% while launching 38 new programs and avoiding layoffs. Shared-course models let campuses offer niche or low-enrollment majors by consolidating demand and controlling costs. Policy pieces and campus leaders highlight course-sharing as a tool to preserve curricular breadth, accelerate time-to-degree, and potentially lower tuition; the approach requires coordinated credit transfer, advising, and revenue-sharing agreements.