SALEM — Oregon’s oldest university is taking over the region’s oldest arts college in a move designed to strengthen both schools, at a time of intense difficulty and financial strain for higher education institutions.

Willamette University endured declining enrollment for several years, while the Pacific Northwest College of Art has struggled to remain afloat, enduring leadership changes and layoffs over the last year or so.

Much of that was before COVID-19 forced residential colleges into difficult decisions about whether to open campuses, how to run classes and how to deal with uncertainties around admission, enrollment and families’ capacity to pay for college.

Neither college is a stranger to exploring alliances.

Willamette University has connections to a theology school in California and the Tokyo International University of America (though the latter program has been curtailed due to the pandemic).

PNCA had attempted a previous merger with the Oregon College of Art and Craft, but it fell through, and OCAC later closed.

In its announcement, Willamette pointed to financial benefits of the agreement, including “shared administrative support, as well as to create cost-controlling efficiencies.”

But Willamette is also touting opportunities for academic enrichment to serve students.

Willamette University leaders characterized

the move as an attempt to “deepen the connection of art and design with the liberal arts and sciences, establishing a catalyst for new thought and expression in critical subjects like climate change, racial and social justice, and health.”

With the acquisition, PNCA becomes Willamette’s fourth college, in addition to the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Law and the Atkinson Graduate School of Management. It’s the second time Willamette has partnered with a small college with a specific academic focus, after Willamette’s alliance with the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California, last year. College leaders say the agreement had been a topic of private discussion for months, and included analyses of finances at both institutions.

The agreement is subject to approval by the universities’ accreditors, which is expected next year.