Hartford Business Journal

FOCUS | NONPROFITS 16 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 13, 2026 University of Bridgeport President Danielle Wilken has led the institution's turnaround following its 2021 merger with Goodwin University. HBJ Photo | Steve Laschever Course Correction Five years after a rescue merger, Univ. of Bridgeport has regained its footing despite enrollment challenges been Danielle Wilken, who became the school's president when the merger was finalized. She brought nearly 25 years of academic and administrative leadership experience to the role, including two decades at Goodwin University, where she rose from program director to provost. Wilken inherited an institution with a larger budget and slightly higher enroll- ment than Goodwin, underscoring the scale of the challenge she faced. "This was not just plug-and-play," she said. "This was a turnaround leadership opportunity." As part of the merger, Goodwin reor- ganized UB as a nonprofit under its holding company and required faculty and staff to reapply for their jobs, elim- inating faculty tenure and reducing costs. The state of Connecticut also provided a 10-year, $7.5 million fixed- rate loan to support the deal. Wilken said her first priority was to stop the financial bleeding by overhauling the university's business model, finding efficiencies and elimi- nating programs and practices that no longer made sense. "We don't often talk about academics as a business but we need to think about it as a business because the money is not magical," she said. UB initially kept tuition flat but reduced its discount rate — the average amount students receive off the published tuition price. Early on, it also benefited from outside factors, including federal pandemic By Harriet Jones hjones@hartfordbusiness.com H igher education's financial squeeze is only getting tighter. A recent report forecast that, driven by changing demographics, nearly a quarter of the nation's 1,700 private, nonprofit four-year colleges and universities are at risk of closing or having to merge within the next decade. Against that backdrop, one formerly threatened Connecticut institution is marking the fifth year of a turnaround effort following the merger that helped save the school. In 2020, the University of Bridge- port's future appeared uncertain. After years of operating deficits, the private, nonprofit university was struggling to find a partner that could keep it afloat. Initially, the university appeared headed for a breakup, with Goodwin University, Paier College and Sacred Heart University in talks to divide its academic programs. Instead, East Hartford-based Goodwin acquired most of UB in May 2021 in a deal valued at about $32 million. "Here was an organization that was losing — $15 million a year was the number that was quoted to me – that had eaten through almost all of its endowment," Goodwin University President Mark Scheinberg said in a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal. "When we looked at it closer, my own take on it was that they had been living with faulty leadership for years and years. They just made a lot of bad decisions." Since the merger, the university has retained its brand and its own board of trustees while returning to profitability, overhauling its academic offerings, investing in campus facilities and repositioning itself for a changing higher education market. But persistent enrollment challenges — particularly a sharp decline in international grad - uate students, once a major source of tuition revenue — underscore that the turnaround remains a work in progress. Making adjustments Overseeing UB's turnaround has UNIVERSITY OF BRIDGEPORT'S FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE Fiscal year Total revenue Operating surplus Net assets 2022 $113.5M $4M $22.7M 2023 $127.2M $13.6M $36.3M 2024 $124M $4.9M $41M 2025 $127.6M $8.9M $50.1M Source: Univ. of Bridgeport 990 tax forms

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