Sweet Briar, a respected Virginia women’s college, is closing. You have to admire the board for recognizing that the school’s business model wasn’t working—even while it still has an endowment of $84 million.

What is that business model? Certainly, it included limiting admissions to women. The school simply could not get enough female students to attend (currently 523) to cover its costs.

But is there more to the business model that doesn’t work? Simply being small, rural, and expensive could be fatal if a school doesn’t have a strong enough reputation or distinctive enough appeal. Such schools simply can’t compete with lower-priced public universities. I’m sorry to see Sweet Briar go, and I expect others will follow.