Ohio Valley sits at the nexus of several trends that are hitting small religious schools.

These schools have struggled to maintain and grow enrollment, said Michael Horn, a distinguished fellow and cofounder at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation. The number of traditional college-age students is expected to shrink in many U.S. regions this decade — a trend that some institutions are already beginning to feel. And nonselective schools have struggled to attract students during the pandemic.

“It sounds like it’s three things hitting them at once that caused them to not meet payroll for the last several months,” Horn said.