The announcement Wednesday afternoon said the university needs $6 million in immediate financial support to stabilize.
GAFFNEY, S.C. — A small university in the upstate of South Carolina said it needs immediate financial support as it faces the possibility of permanently closing soon.
Limestone University, a non-denominational Christian campus in the town of Gaffney, shared the announcement online on Wednesday. The university said the announcement came from its board of trustees and that it needed $6 million to stabilize operations and maintain its campus presence. Without it, Limestone said it could pivot to online-only classes or, possibly, begin looking at fully closing down. The board is set to convene on Tuesday, April 22, to discuss next steps.
“Limestone remains committed to our students and we will work directly with current students to help them identify the best path to successfully complete their educational journey,” said Randall Richardson, Chair of the Limestone University Board of Trustees, in a statement. “We are reaching out separately to students with information regarding options to continue their education.”
“The Board’s priority is to preserve the Limestone mission of education and service on our campus in addition to online. But without this financial lifeline, we will have no choice but to move all operations online, which means closing our physical campus,” Richardson continued.
Limestone notes it has seen strong growth with online coursework and that could help sustain the university.
The announcement claims Limestone’s challenges “stem from a combination of nationwide enrollment declines, rising costs, and long-standing structural pressures facing small, private institutions.”
Reporting from Anna Mitchell with the Post and Courier newspaper, however, suggests that the financial issues Limestone faces go beyond just what those cited challenges present. Mitchell reports that university president Nathan Copeland reportedly told students and staff during meetings with students and staff Wednesday that unless the $6 million is raised or gifted, the campus would be sold and roughly 300 employees would lose their jobs. Copeland also said the school is $30 million in debt and won’t get a cash infusion until September.
Mitchell also notes Limestone faced a series of federal lawsuits over allegations that a former employee secretly recorded female student-athletes in a locker room and posted the videos to porn websites. While some lawsuits were settled, Mitchell reports another one with nine plaintiffs is set to go to trial in October 2025. Copeland told the Post and Courier the lawsuits were only a small piece of the university’s overall financial picture.
University tax documents shared by nonprofit news outlet ProPublica in its Nonprofit Explorer tool found that Limestone operated on a deficit of roughly $12.6 million in the 2022-2023 tax year while also receiving about $9 million less in donations and grants than from 2021. Mitchell’s report Thursday also noted the university endowment went down from $31.5 million in July 2021 to $12.7 million in June 2023.
Copeland also told the Post and Courier the mix of students paying full tuition versus those on heavy scholarship is part of the issue, along with the previous administration dipping too much into Limestone’s endowment to balance budgets.
Limestone noted in its press release it contributes roughly $150 million in economic impact annually to the small town of Gaffney and Cherokee County. Town mayor Lyman Dawkins III, an alum of Limestone, shared his thoughts in a Facebook post.
“The economic impact will be substantial. Limestone has provided countless jobs, brought in students and families who supported local businesses and served as a catalyst for growth. In our current efforts to revitalize downtown Gaffney, Limestone students have played a vital role. Their energy, involvement, and contributions have breathed life into our city and helped us build momentum for the future,” part of his post read.
Limestone, which was founded in 1845, said a move to a fully online model would mean ending all in-person operations and activities, including its athletic program. Limestone’s athletics teams compete in the NCAA Division II Southern Atlantic Conference. Copeland also told the Post and Courier it can continue as a public school chartering organization through its Limestone Charter Association if it continues as an online university, still sponsoring its 13 K-12 public charter schools.
WCNC Charlotte has reached out to Limestone for more information, including how this could impact current students and upcoming graduates along with student athletes. A university spokesperson replied with an exact copy of the news release posted online and promised that a series of questions WCNC Charlotte had sent in had been forwarded to the president’s office.
We’ve also reached out to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which provides Limestone with its academic accreditation, to see how this could impact the university’s standing immediately and if Limestone had faced any investigative action prior to this announcement.
WCNC Charlotte has also reached out to the NCAA to see what support could be offered to student-athletes impacted by the announcement and possible closures of Limestone. Copeland, the university president, told the Post and Courier the university has opened the transfer portal to help student-athletes start the transfer process immediately.
Limestone University is located in Gaffney, South Carolina, which is roughly 54 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.
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