Elon University President Connie Book announced a proposed merger between Elon and Queens University of Charlotte. If the merger is approved by the end of 2025 and work between both universities goes well through spring, Senior Vice President of Advancement and External Affairs Jim Piatt said Elon would look to begin operating at Queens by Aug. 1, 2026. Piatt is co-chair of the “sprint team” that is planning the merger.
The merger was announced Sept. 16 during College Coffee and was pitched to the Elon community as a step to expand graduate study opportunities for current and future students.
“I want to be clear: Your Elon experience will only be enhanced by this merger as the university becomes more deeply invested in Charlotte, creating new graduate pathways and expanding opportunities for all students,” Book wrote in an email sent to Elon students from the President’s Office on Sept. 16.
Elon first expanded into Charlotte in 2023 with the opening of its regional center in South End. The Charlotte campus is currently home to Elon’s Law Flex program and “Sport and Community Experience” academic program for students interested in sport management. In March, the physician assistant program announced they would be heading to Charlotte, and the first class is set to start in January 2027.
According to Rick Seltzer, a reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, universities may look into merging or acquiring another institution for a number of reasons, such as financial position or enrollment numbers.
“What’s happening is these institutions are often struggling to raise additional revenue,” Seltzer said. “They cannot get more net tuition revenue, or if they can get it, it’s not keeping up with the expenses that they are, expense increases they’re facing, and we’ve seen some pretty high increases in certain inflationary measures recently.”
Initial reactions
The announcement of the merger shocked Elon sophomore Sophie Willen, who transferred from Queens this past spring and attended College Coffee for the first time Sept. 16.
“My jaw dropped, actually, and my roommate was standing right next to me,” Willen said. “I remember when I was at Queens, there was a lot of talk about financial issues.”
Willen said she decided to transfer to Elon from Queens because she was looking for more community in her college experience.
“You don’t really have that community unless you’re an athlete or unless you know someone in the Myers Park area,” Willen said.
Queens senior Emily Wouterse said she chose Queens because of the feeling she had when first walking around the campus.
“Everyone was waving at each other, smiling at each other, as well as just the opportunities that are available here,” Wouterse said. “I’ve already done my internship, and I’m doing another internship, so I feel like things have really helped position me correctly, both personally and professionally.”
When the news about the planned merger was announced to students at Queens, Wouterse said that it was a surprise to most, but she’s looking on the bright side.
“They position it as a way of Queens becoming stronger,” Wouterse said. “That’s how I want to look at it. I feel like change is something you don’t have to resist. Accept, go with the flow.”
Queens junior Oli Kneer, who is originally from Alabama, was recruited to play soccer for the school. He said he and many other students don’t yet know what the merger means.
“It is exciting,” Kneer said. “We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what comes of it.”
Major questions
The announcement of the potential merger has brought up many questions across Elon and Queens communities, including students, staff, faculty, alumni and families.
Piatt spoke at a “listening session” about the merger on Sept. 27 as part of Family Weekend. Some parents at the session were concerned about how the Elon name and brand may change or be influenced by a merger. Elon parent Rocco Impreveduto said that Elon graduates are perceived highly by many companies, and he worries that may decrease if the school merges with a less well-known university.
“One thing I feel very strongly about is that the Elon brand should not change in any way, shape or form,” Impreveduto said in an interview with Elon News Network. “It’s got great value, I would say, in the marketplace — the kids are well regarded when they graduate. From a parent’s perspective, it’s a good return on our investment, and I want to make sure that that doesn’t get diminished or changed.”
Piatt assured attendees that both schools would retain their identities.
During a Student Government Association meeting with Book, class of 2029 senator Christopher Guider asked her about the merger’s impact on sports, since both Elon and Queens have Division I athletics programs. Book said both universities plan to ask the National Collegiate Athletic Association to keep their programs separate.
“We are going to ask the NCAA to allow us to operate two D1 programs,” Book said during the SGA meeting Sept. 18. “The NCAA has in the last three years been much more flexible in this regard as universities merge. Our plan is to ask for permission from the NCAA to continue to be one program.”
Book and members of the team involved with the potential merger also hosted a town hall for faculty and staff in Alumni Gym on Sept. 19.
At the town hall event, Book said the decision to pursue a merger came from ensuring Elon remains successful through enrollment decreases, mainly caused by the impending demographic cliff, and national discussions around return on investment for college. Elon is also looking to expand its graduate programs while allowing the main campus to focus on undergraduate education.
Queens and Elon also plan to merge their endowments, which are $170 million and $420 million respectively, according to Book.
Book said the two boards of trustees have been discussing the potential merger since the summer.
“They started the conversations around partnerships, but then it began to grow more into a conversation around merger,” Book said. “By signing this letter of intent to merge, it allows now a transparent and inclusive process where we can talk about what that might look like, where we can get community input. This period is of conversation, of designing and thinking about, if you do merge, what would it look like?”
The “sprint team” is working in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group and includes six Elon faculty members, each of whom have a counterpart at Queens.
Todd Lee, an Elon mathematics professor, asked the sprint team about potential cuts in departments such as Information Technology or Teaching and Learning Technologies once Queens and Elon merge their online systems. Book said the board and sprint team are still working on how to combine the schools’ staff and faculty, but cuts are more likely to be at the administrative level.
Stacie Dooley, assistant dean of Career and Student Development at Elon’s law school in Greensboro, told Elon News Network she wants to ensure that students in the Law Flex program in Charlotte continue to receive education comparable to the law program in Greensboro.
“We are one law school — we have a Greensboro campus and we have a Charlotte campus,” Dooley said at the Sept. 19 town hall. “We want to just make sure that whatever our students are experiencing down in Charlotte is going to be on par with the quality of the education that our graduate students are getting.”
Moving forward
During the Family Weekend listening session, Piatt told attendees that the merger shows shared values between Elon and Queens.
“In all of these conversations that have been happening, conversations about balance sheets and money, this is about serving students and serving our communities in the best ways that we can,” Piatt said. “We want to be nationally competitive and locally rooted.”
Several parents inquired about why Elon would expand when the landscape of higher education is shifting and the demographic cliff is set to hit next year. Piatt said the decision to merge came from years of expansion and studying the markets in Charlotte.
According to Piatt, more than 3,000 Elon alums are located in the Charlotte metropolitan area, and it has become a prominent destination for college graduates both from North Carolina and other states.
Lee said during his time at Elon, the school has continued to grow and push for more student opportunities.
“This is my 31st year, and when I got to Elon, this school was in the middle of this revolution,” Lee said. “It was a regional, small college, and I have been on that ride, and to me, this just seems part of it.”
Nia Bedard, Monika Jurevicius, Anjolina Fantaroni, Fiona McAllister, Kate Gray, Sarah T. Moore and Trista Panagakos contributed to the reporting of this story.