Lincoln College Closes Permanently After 157 Years

LINCOLN, IL — Lincoln College, a predominantly Black college located in rural Lincoln and named after President Abraham Lincoln, will close permanently on Friday after school officials said the college never recovered from a cyberattack last year.

The school announced in March it would close at the end of the school year after the Board of Trustees voted to cease all academic programming at the end of the year, school officials announced on the school’s website.

Lincoln, which opened in 1865, held its final commencement ceremony on Sunday.

School officials said that the college had survived a number of “challenging times” over the years including the economic crisis of 1887, a major campus fire in 1912, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the Great Depression, World War II, the 2008 global economic crisis and more.

“But this is different,” school officials said in the announcement.

In 2019, the college announced a robust enrollment with its residence halls at maximum capacities. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed things, officials said. The pandemic dramatically affected student recruitment and enrollment, fundraising efforts and sporting events, as well as all campus life activities.

“The economic burdens initiated by the pandemic required large investments in technology and campus safety measures, as well as a significant drop in enrollment with students choosing to postpone college or take a leave of absence, which impacted the institution’s financial position,” officials wrote.

In 2021, a cyberattack “thwarted” enrollment efforts and hindered access to school data and records, school officials said. The attack also limited access to 2022 enrollment projections and the systems the school uses for institutional data involving student recruitment, fundraising, and other operations were deemed unusable, the school said.

NBC News reported that Lincoln College is the first institution of higher learning in the United States to close permanently because of a ransomware attack.

By the time systems were fixed this year, the damage had already been done, school officials said, and projections showed serious economic shortfalls, which required a “transformational” donation or financial partnership that would allow the school to continue operating.

The school attempted numerous fundraising efforts, attempted to sell off assets and consolidate staff positions as well as exploring lease alternatives for building space used by the college in Normal. But school officials said that none of the efforts provided a long-term solution to keeping the college sustainable.

“Lincoln College has been serving students from across the globe for more than 157 years,” David Gerlach, president of Lincoln College, said in a statement issued by the school. “The loss of history, careers and a community of students and alumni is immense.”