Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Cleary University and Siena Heights University announced an agreement to transition three accredited nursing programs from Siena Heights University in Adrian, to Livingston County. The initiative, which will transition to Cleary as soon as Spring 2027, and will be named the “Siena Heights School of Nursing at Cleary University.”

SHU announced last year that it would be closing the university at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.

Pending approvals from regulatory agencies, the following programs are planned for transition to Cleary:

· BSN Pre-Licensure
· RN to BSN degree
· MSN degree

Upon approval, the goal is to roll out the RN to BSN degree program first; the BSN pre-licensure and MSN programs would follow within the year.

“We are committed to preserving what Siena Heights built to ensure the programs continue to serve students with consistency,” says Dr. Alan Drimmer, president of Cleary. “With community growth, Livingston County deserves access to high-quality nursing education close to home.”

According to Cleary, Livingston County’s population has grown to nearly 200,000 people and the median age of its residents is 43.8 years, which exceeds the state average. “We anticipate an increased demand for health care in this area, yet, there are no local nursing programs,” Dr. Drimmer notes.

Michigan hospitals alone report some 23,000 open health care positions. And the challenge extends beyond the state, according to Cleary. Nationally, more than 80,000 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing programs in 2024 because of capacity constraints, including limited faculty and clinical placement availability.

Trinity Health Livingston is expected to serve as the anchor clinical partner, providing nursing students with hands-on training at one of the region’s leading hospital systems. This relationship addresses one of the greatest barriers in nursing education - access to clinical placements - while also creating a strong workforce pipeline for the region.

“The current gap in nursing education combined with a limited health care workforce requires universities like Cleary to invest in the future of students who will care for our community,” reports John O’Malley, president of Trinity Health Livingston. O’Malley recently launched a new $238 million hospital in Brighton. The four-story, 174,000-square-foot hospital features 56 acuity care beds, 18 short-stay beds, eight operating rooms, intensive cardiac rehab, imaging, a hospital-based medical and surgical specialty practice, a chapel and a cafeteria. The site also includes two future-build areas to support community needs in the future. The attached medical center also will undergo a full renovation.

According to O’Malley, “the opportunity in nursing education has real consequences for our patients, our hospital and for the health care workforce our community relies on. Trinity Health is excited about the prospects of serving as a clinical partner with Cleary.”

As part of the transition, Dr. Karen Howatt, assistant dean of the School of Nursing at Siena Heights University, has joined Cleary as Dean of the new school of nursing. She will oversee nursing faculty and the program’s curriculum, provide leadership continuity and steward the established academic excellence, faculty expertise, and student-centered approach that have defined the Siena Heights nursing programs.

“We are energized that Cleary has stepped forward to partner with Siena Heights to keep our nursing program alive,” announces Howatt. “Cleary’s philosophy matches what we instill in our students - strong and ethical leadership, dignity and respect for all people, cultural understanding, creativity and critical thinking. We are looking forward to working collaboratively with Cleary University to continue our nursing legacy and offer students a practical and relevant nursing degree that meets the needs of the health care community.”

For many local high school students interested in health care careers, the absence of a local nursing program has meant leaving Livingston County entirely, which adds cost, transportation, and persistence barriers that often derail those plans.

Jonathan Tobar, deputy superintendent of the Livingston Educational Service Agency, says the transition directly addresses that gap. “Local postsecondary pathways in high-demand fields matter,” Tobar notes, adding that “a locally accessible program at Cleary would strengthen the pipeline from secondary schools into health care careers for both traditional students and adult learners.”

The transition requires approval from these regulatory bodies: the Higher Learning Commission, the Michigan Board of Nursing, the State of Michigan, the Department of Education and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.

Photo courtesy of Cleary U.