Pomona College to Become Parent of Claremont Graduate University

Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University (CGU) have signed an affiliation agreement that makes Pomona the parent institution of CGU. Both boards ratified the deal after more than a year of due diligence.

CGU will remain a distinct graduate school, led by its own board and senior leadership. It keeps responsibility for its operations, including academic programs, pedagogies, enrollments and student services. Pomona becomes its sole corporate member and takes on governance authority over major institutional decisions.

The deal is pending regulatory and accreditor approval. The Claremont Colleges must also sign off on CGU continuing as a member of the consortium.

A deficit and a restructuring

CGU projects a $7.8 million budget deficit for this fiscal year. Earlier this month it announced voluntary buyouts for faculty and staff. Its broader plan aims to balance the budget by 2032.

The graduate university also plans to merge its five schools, one institute and one center into three academic units. They would cover management and technology; education, health and psychology; and arts, humanities and mathematics. More than 92% of CGU faculty endorsed the new model earlier this fall. Both institutions must accept the final overhaul plan before the deal closes.

CGU has struggled with enrollment. It had 1,771 students in fall 2024, down 18% from a decade earlier, according to federal data. Pomona enrolled 1,700 students that fall, a 3% increase over ten years.

What Pomona brings

According to a Pomona FAQ on the deal, the college will offer "financial and strategic" expertise and has made outside advisers available to CGU. CGU will gain access to "favorable terms" for financing through the affiliation, and it will pay for administrative services from Pomona. The two institutions will also look at shared infrastructure and more coordination of some administrative functions.

Pomona is not taking on CGU's debts and liabilities. It does not plan to use its operating budget to fund the graduate university, the FAQ says.

Pomona has the stronger finances of the two. It logged a $16.9 million operating surplus on $258.5 million of revenue in fiscal 2025 and ended the year with $3.8 billion in assets. CGU posted a $4.6 million operating surplus on $68.8 million in revenue and held $290 million in assets.

"Pomona and CGU share a special relationship that goes back more than a century to the origins of The Claremont Colleges, and this partnership gives us an opportunity to build on that history together," said Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr. The two schools sit on adjoining campuses in Southern California. Then-Pomona President James Blaisdell founded what is now CGU in 1925, the year the consortium was founded.

Source: Pomona College