obtain the necessary approvals to offer full, four-year bachelor's degree programs. The first two years of these four-year programs would supplant the associate degree programs which SCI offered. In keeping with the affiliation of the two institutions, SCI amended its corporate by-laws such that the authority to make the most significant decisions was reserved to the Benedictine Board of Trustees. Therefore, in October 2009, the SCI Board of Trustees approved a recommendation to Benedictine's board to close SCI's academic programs and complete SCI's business affairs as a junior college. The SCI board's action recognized that the interests of SCI's “students, faculty and staff” would “best be accommodated” by these steps and that “winding down of the College’s programs in an orderly closure process” should be “coordinated with the development and expansion of the University’s educational programs and administrative activities in Springfield.” Also in 2009, the Illinois Board of Higher Education granted approval to Benedictine to offer six new bachelor's degree programs in Springfield. Then in early 2010, the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools granted recognition to Benedictine's overall presence in Springfield as a branch campus of the university to be known as “Benedictine University at Springfield.” Springfield College in Illinois had many challenges over the years including increasing competition for a finite market of students, a history of low enrollments and a crumbling physical infrastructure. When Benedictine entered the market, junior, senior and graduate programs were added and enrollment began to climb. However, enrollment did not continue to rise, and it was estimated that $40 million in major capital improvements would be needed to make the buildings competitive with other institutions. The Benedictine Board of Trustees deemed that number was untenable and continued operation was unsustainable, and on October 23, 2014, the university announced that it would discontinue its undergraduate program for traditional students ages 18–22 at the end of May 2015 and transition to exclusively serving the area's adult undergraduate and graduate student population. Benedictine worked with the Illinois Board of Higher Education to develop a “completion program” to ensure junior and senior students would be able to earn their bachelor's degree at Benedictine University in Springfield. Benedictine also assisted freshman and sophomores as they explored opportunities to continue their education elsewhere. The final Benedictine University in Springfield traditional undergraduate students earned their degrees in August 2016. Campus Since announcing that the