I don’t know anything about the school, so everything I say is speculation. But I want to express how very, very difficult it is for small schools to operate in the current environment. Government (over)regulation, worries about lawsuits, increasing expectations of students in terms of what should be provided to them as part of their college experience, rising costs to do business in education … all of these factors (and many others) contribute to stretching a small school to its limits. Where larger schools are more able to spread things across a number of people/departments, small schools do not have this luxury. I work at a small school, and every new thing that gets piled on us, be it a new enrollment reporting regulation or an increased in mental health issues, just adds to a load that is harder and harder to bear.
Schools are seeing a steady loss of students. It is harder and harder to find and admit students whose families can afford to pay the costs of a private school. Students are demanding tuition discounts and going elsewhere when they don’t materialize. At some point, I can see a school realizing that it just cannot sustain its model and packing it in. I doubt it will be a trend, because it is not just difficult on students/alums … it is also very difficult on staff to close a school. It’s not a decision made lightly. I can only imagine how difficult it was for Sweet Briar to come to the conclusion it did.
I was just able to get to the information for students on the SBC web page. The processes are explained in great detail. This cannot have been an overnight decision. The college appears to have been developing transition plans for some time.
As bad as I feel for the students, I’m thinking more of the staff and faculty there. Many have families and are far more rooted in the community than the undergrads. There certainly aren’t jobs in the area to absorb all the workers; people are going to have to move or starve.
Good for them. Developing transition plans carefully, over time, and having them ready to go when the final decision is made and announced, was exactly the right thing to do.
There’s a conference call for alumnae starting now. Parent call is at 8. I don’t envy the president right now, aside from the fact that he’s out of a job.
Current president is an interim, there less than a year. Would guess he inherited the financial problems from former SBC president Jo Ellen Parker (who, it appears, inherited them from an earlier administration).
Maybe the endowment could be used to sweeten the deal (continuing FA, for example) for transferring students, and might encourage some schools to open up for freshman & sophomore transfers as well.
Along with the problems for current students, current faculty are in a dreadful spot from the timing of this announcement—tenure-track faculty hiring is an annual market, and so everyone who’s losing their job in May as a result of this is now completely shut out of the tenure-stream faculty ranks for better than a year.
My guess is that the current president was hired specifically to deal with this decision. Clearly, the board has been contemplating this for months. That there are agreements in place that can accommodate students in every major also indicates that there have been advance conversations with the potential receiving institutions.
This is really sad. I went to a nearby college and knew many young ladies from Sweet Briar. They absolutely loved their school, and I can only imagine their anguish and shock now, even with foreknowledge of financial turmoil and declining attendance.
I’m listening to the alumnae call. It’s sad and fascinating, like an autopsy. I’m coming away with a lot of respect for the SBC community and its commitment and intellect.
" I doubt it will be a trend, because it is not just difficult on students/alums … it is also very difficult on staff to close a school"
@kelsmom, I actually do think it will be a “trend.” There are too many $50K+/year schools in a country where the working/middle class is simply treading water, economically. In this climate, the fancy LAC for twice the price of the state U starts looking like a dinosaur.
I agree completely. This isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last. There are a lot of small, rural LACs in the northeastern and midwestern regions (I’ll include Virginia in that). The college-bound population there is declining, and of the potential students remaining fewer and fewer are willing to pay Harvard or Amherst prices for a liberal arts education someplace that isn’t top-something, even though the quality is objectively very good. Add to that the vogue for urban schools, the specialized appeal of single-sex education (even with great facilities for horses), and endowment restrictions, and you have a perfect storm that Sweet Briar wasn’t going to weather. I am sure there are other colleges with similar issues. Many of them may be able to merge rather than just shut their doors, but the effect on students and faculty won’t be much different.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the endowment. The bulk of it will probably have to go somewhere that supports women’s education in the region.
I am personally very sad. I wanted to apply there back in the day, but my mom talked me out o it. My own women’s college experience was very different, but I liked how they tried to identify a diverse student body in the last few years. I don’t know that co-education would have helped the school.
I agree that co-education would be an uphill battle and likely not helpful for this college. The name, mascot, colors, everything would be a tough sell. Plus, it’s not Vassar, and rural Virginia isn’t Massachusetts or upstate New York. The country around Lynchburg is a part of the world where old-fashioned tradition has a lot of traction. In my experience, it’s hard enough to get young men to apply to a Davidson or a Haverford. They’re not going to Sweet Briar.
I graduated from SBC, and I can tell you my fellow classmates are in total shock. As late as last years reunion and even a few weeks ago the school was actively asking for donations. Other than an email sent to us 30 minutes before the rest of the world found out, we were told nothing! I bet they use the $94 million for the “generous severance packages” the 300+ workers and professors will receive.
I don’t understand how an almost $10 million library upgrade project was done. I believe Hollins, our rival has just over a $116k endowment. Why are they not in such “dire financial trouble”?
Many women’s’ and men’s’ colleges have adapted over the years to stay viable. Sounds like SBC didn’t. I am highly disappointed. I wondered why we were going thru Presidents thru a revolving door. Now it makes more sense.