Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University Announce Takeover Deal

Pomona College will become Claremont Graduate University's parent institution, formalizing a “strategic partnership” the two schools began negotiating late last year. The deal, announced Monday, will require state and federal regulatory approval.

“With the affirmative decisions of both Boards, Pomona will become CGU’s parent institution, pending required regulatory approvals,” wrote Pomona President Gabrielle Starr in an email. “In the months and years to come, we are proud to help CGU chart a bold new path.”

After decades of rising deficits, CGU underwent multiple unsuccessful cost-cutting efforts before it began searching for potential partnerships last year, entering negotiations with Pomona in December. 

In a statement to The Chronicle of Higher Education, CGU president Michelle Bligh said that Pomona did not express interest in partnering with CGU until external institutions expressed “serious interest.” Starr expressed concern about an outside institution entering into the “delicate ecosystem” of the Claremont Colleges, stating: “that could really change the way the consortium works.”

A process of due diligence followed, with the two schools originally hoping to finalize the deal in Spring 2026. Starr thanked Pomona’s Partnership Initiative Working Group, whose work was the “foundation of [Pomona’s] review process.” 

In a statement released today, Pomona vowed to “preserve CGU’s distinct academic strengths,” while offering greater access to “graduate study, career development and new professional pathways” for undergraduates across the Claremont Colleges. 

Once regulators have approved the deal, Pomona will become CGU’s “sole corporate member,” effectively assuming ownership of the graduate school. While CGU will remain a nominally separate institution, Pomona would appoint a new slate of trustees to CGU and would have to sign off on “major changes,” according to the college's frequently asked questions page.

Pomona has been careful to lay out clear boundaries between the two institutions, and has vowed that “CGU will retain responsibility for its own operations, including decisions over academic programs, pedagogies, enrollments and student services.” 

Pomona also promised that there would be no reduction in its own faculty and staff as a result of the deal, and that “any opportunities faculty may have for collaboration with CGU will remain at the discretion of individual faculty.” Pomona’s faculty voted in favor of the deal last semester with a set of conditions including that no Pomona resources would be diverted to CGU.

While respecting both institutions’ autonomy, Pomona and CGU will together work towards “efficiency, including where appropriate through shared infrastructure; greater coordination of select administrative functions; and more effective use of common technologies.”

CGU president Michelle Bligh expressed the difficulty of sustaining graduate programs independent of an undergraduate college to the Chronicle, particularly when “it’s actually not what students want anymore.” CGU plans to “use the partnership to transform graduate education to really meet students where they are,” Bligh clarified. 

The schools expect the regulatory approval process to end as early as June 2027, and in the meantime “will begin integration planning, while continuing the discussions that have been underway about shared services and infrastructure that could reduce operating costs for both institutions,” wrote Starr.

CGU’s endowment will remain separate, but will be managed by Pomona’s Investments Office. Pomona Treasurer and COO Jeff Roth told the Chronicle that CGU would also benefit from lower borrowing costs. CGU’s Chief Financial Officer Karen Sisson previously held Roth’s role at Pomona.

At the beginning of the month, CGU president Bligh announced a set of austerity measures designed to reduce the school’s persistent budget deficit. Cost-cutting tools, including the reduction of faculty and staff positions, would lay the groundwork for a transformation of CGU’s academic structure from seven academic units to only three. Bligh said at the time that cuts would happen “regardless of the outcome of the potential partnership with Pomona College.”

Pomona President James Blaisdell founded CGU in 1925 as the second institution in the Claremont Colleges Consortium. Despite recent troubles, President Bligh expressed hope for CGU’s future: “There is nowhere else in the world where you are going to be able to sit—either online, hybrid, or in the Claremont classroom—and be intimidated, challenged, and really surprised in a good way … There is still a magic about that that we have.”