Johnson And Wales University To Close Miami And Denver Campuses

PROVIDENCE, RI — Johnson and Wales University will not admit any students to its North Miami and Denver campuses this fall and will cease operations there in summer of 2021, Chancellor Mim L. Runey announced in a Twitter video Thursday. It comes as part of a move to bolster the Charlotte and flagship Providence campuses, Runey said, and to ensure that they can succeed.

The two remaining JWU campuses will add engineering, design, and health and wellness programs at the two remaining locations. Runey said that the university will expand offerings in the arts and sciences, as well as the new college of food innovation and technology.

“This was not a decision arrived at lightly,” Runey said in the video. “It was deliberate, thoughtful, with the intended outcome to ensure that every JWU graduate, past and future, would see the value of their education increase. The major guiding principle of our previous and current strategic plan has been positioning the university for a sustainable future.”

The North Miami and Denver campuses were not self-sustaining, Runey said, despite the best efforts of the leadership there to increase enrollment and fundraise. She acknowledged the hardship that students and staff from those campuses could face, and said the university shares the sense of loss they might feel.

“As we prepare to close those campuses, we will be forever grateful to all of the North Miami and Denver students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have and will continue to proudly call themselves Wildcats,” Runey said. “Our community spirit will bring us together in the coming months, as we began to close one chapter in our university's history and start a new one.”