The financially struggling University of Bridgeport will dissolve and be taken over by three other colleges, it announced Tuesday.

Sacred Heart University, Goodwin University in East Hartford and the Paier College of Art in Hamden will take over the campus, which has been around since 1927, as early as a year and a half from now.

"This collaboration is not a salvage operation," says Sacred Heart University President Dr. John Petillo.

All three schools will look at how they want to utilize the current University of Bridgeport campus. The new name for this campus is likely to be Bridgeport University Park.

"We see it, at Goodwin, as the University of Bridgeport location being a branch; a full branch, not just a satellite; a full branch of Goodwin University," says Goodwin University President Mark Scheinberg.

Students will be able to take classes at all three schools. The UB engineering school and health sciences would remain, but the future of sports is uncertain.

"It's not the end. It's a new beginning," says University of Bridgeport President Dr. Stephen Healey.

Under the plan, the new Bridgeport University Park would still have approximately 4,500 students. However, Healey could not say how many staff or academic programs might be cut or transferred to other schools.

Healey says the alternative was the school possibly closing altogether.

Mayor Joe Ganim, a Bridgeport alumnus himself, says he thinks this could launch an innovation campus to attract desperately needed tech jobs.

Gov. Ned Lamont agrees.

"Give them a little time to figure out exactly what this is. UB could be like the holding company, and you've got a lot of different academic groups underneath that umbrella," says Lamont.

The University of Bridgeport expected to keeps its dorms, but other details still need to be worked out. Various college accrediting agencies have to sign off on the takeover.