Buyer to Turn Small Neb. College Into For-Profit Institution

Dana College, a 125-year-old Nebraska institution that had been urged by a major benefactor to merge with another financially strapped college, is the latest nonprofit university to be purchased by a for-profit entity, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

Raj Kaji, head of the newly formed Dana Education Corporation and a veteran of the commercial university operator Laureate Education, will be the institution’s new president.

As of mid-2008, the most recent date for which figures are available, Dana College was running a $2.5-million deficit on its $19-million budget and had debts of $14-million.

The previous year, a leading donor, the energy executive Howard L. Hawks, had threatened to cut off support for major projects unless Dana combined some operations with another Nebraska school, Midland Lutheran College, but the union never occurred.