An elite LAC (like Claremont) is a completely different animal than a “tuition dependent private” like Sweet Briar. They have almost nothing in common and are irrelevant to each other for comparison sake.
They are not even remotely playing the same game. Claremont is playing the highly selective game and uses almost entirely need based aid. SBC was playing the high sticker/high discount merit aid game.
Which is why the Bain report mentioned upthread those two schools in those two very different categories.
Okidoki. I’ll look for some Google maps and Zillow/Trulia guided tours of pastures and unpaved streets to add to the relevance of this thread, since the comparative analysis of LAC that transitioned from single sex schools to models of selectivity and efficient marketing is unimportant.
Being a “men’s” college on the same campus with several other colleges in Claremont, CA is hardly similar to SBC in any way. BTW my best friend from UW was from Claremont and I have actually been there several times. It’s no Amherst, Va
Now in real factual news on topic–a legal strategy takes shape.
^^ The point, Barrons, is not to make an exact comparison to a school that is an exact copy of SBC, but to compare to schools that have made changes over the past decade, include dropping the single-sex mantra. An additional comparison would be to Scripps. People have been discussing the LAC model in general, and presented the availability of forming consortia as an antidote to the financial issues plaguing SBC. Obviously, that is extremely hard to do for colleges that are located in remote areas and have few close counterparts. Comparisons have been made to the Smith, MHC, et al consortium, or the affiliation of schools such as Wellesley with MIT.
All in all, those elements are important when looking at the entire world of LAC. All female schools have dwindled by 80 percent to account for about 40 such schools left. The financial health of the schools is ranging from very good to very poor. In the end, it is pretty clear that the model will continue to erode without refocusing the model to affiliations with other schools. The amount of money that requires expansions and new curricula is staggering as the financial history at Amherst showed under the leadership of Marx.
What does this mean to SBC? It shows that the efforts that are now “starting” will amount to very little. Adding 20MM to the endowment or unrestricting a percentage of what is left will not ensure the long term stability of the school. Heck, doubling the endowment would only mean a continuation of the old model and a further drift in obsolescence.
Looking at schools that have been better than average in financial management among all LACs IS instructive to anyone who is willing to spend the time to learn about those issues. It beats hurling nasty sound bites!
Good luck with the legal strategy. I think an individual who believes that her gift was improperly solicited FOR THE ENDOWMENT has a stronger case getting the dough back from the endowment, than this group with some vague claims around lack of transparency.
Most annual gifts are made to operating expenses, not to the endowment, so most donors will have little standing here. (if you donated $100 to a scholarship fund and a Sweet Briar Student got a scholarship… you have no grounds to complain. )
I can’t imagine a scenario where Virginia forces an institution which claims it doesn’t have the financial wherewithal to continue operating, to continue to operate. That would risk leaving nothing for the creditors-- anyone who has supplied goods or services to the U but haven’t been paid, staff and faculty whose payroll taxes haven’t been paid yet or who have employment contracts, unpaid premiums on health insurance, etc.
It would be bizarre for the State to step in and force the institution to continue to operate, further eroding its finances.
You can just drive 20 minutes south to have a good comp for SBC–RMWC–now Randolph College. It was a major fight going coed that got very nasty and legal. Took 5 years to get over the trauma.Long-term still somewhat uncertain. And SBC is much less wealthy and has no valuable art that I know about. No need for distant non-comps.
SBC might need to adopt lower cost model similar to LU and work its way back. Also reachout more to locals as RC is doing much more now.
Barrons, they’ve already adopted a lower cost model. It’s called sending the students home after their finals, locking the doors to the dorms while shutting off the air conditioners, and waiting for the valuation/appraisal/ folks to figure out the value of various non-cash assets.
what about going out of business do you not understand?
B–thanks for your great insight. I think they have a better alternative. BTW a used campus in small town with deed restrictions–not worth spit. And that is my professional opinion with 35 years of commercial RE experience in finance and commercial appraisal work . And this woman obviously missed out on the horse and finishing school traditions.
Yada. Yada. They knew what to do but did not do a thing. They pretend they did not know or they would have done something. They coulda or shoulda. Nothing precluded those people to energize their own and raise money.
All talk and no doing for decades, and your school is forced to eat up the endowment. What a surprise! The board knew what to expect.
“middle-and-higher-income minority communities in Chicago.”
Yeah…kids from Kenwood and Beverly are NOT going to rural Virginia. Probably not even for UVA. Definitely not for Sweet Briar. I mean, not in a million years.
Kid arrested and cut at UVa by liquor agents was from Kenwood. I think some city kids want to getaway from all that city “offers” and go to school in safety and quiet without distractions. I know similar schools get inner city athletes to do just that. .
And SBC did do things–added engineering, business and other more job related majors for one.
Faculty has a plan
Hard to say rich when the finaid numbers approach 100%. If there were so many rich kids, SB’s endowment would be much healthier. Also, I have no idea how strong their engineering is/was, but if it were great, wouldn’t we expect it to have already been a lure?
I don’t know about making it all stem. Where’s the 62M come from? And does it consider the stem-related facilities upgrades? And attracting enough full pays? I can’t imagine a large pool of stem kids aiming for SB before a stem rep is solidified and that includes post-college job success.
And to an academic, there is no such thing as STEM. You want to beef up your math department? It will cost you in salaries- luring away top professors from somewhere else, maybe a named chair. But not a lot of capital costs.
You want to compete in neuroscience? A quarter of a billion could be table stakes if you aren’t next door to a teaching hospital which already has the footprint in place for labs, equipment, animal research, etc. Just building a lab to breed and engineer your own rodents which have the genetic qualities you are looking for costs serious money. And that’s without a single professor.
In contrast, to focus on a seriously expanded arts program is chump change. Music, theater, art, writing. The setting would be attractive and VCCA is across the street. And itinerant artist/teachers are far less expensive than Stem profs of the level to attract a student base.
I don’t know if that’s really accurate either. I don’t know the breakdown of Sweet Briar’s student body but I thought it was pretty well established that the school was using tuition discounts to attract students; it isn’t just poor kids who would take up an offer of discounted tuition especially from a school that has a lot to offer like this. Can we really say that Sweet Briar’s student body isn’t reasonably affluent just because of that factor?
It might be cheap relative to offering an engineering program, but is it cheap enough for a struggling school? And, more importantly, will it pull in more people?
If projectonstudentdebt.org is accurate, for 2013, 20% of Sweet Briar students received Pell Grants and 56% graduated with debt, with average debt at of $23,265.
blossom, I am sure you are aware of the academic glut. Even math and science profs can be had for less than $50K each. Not looking for research stars with big labs. Just ones that can teach some. And making $50K in Amherst VA is like $100K in DC or Boston or even Ann Arbor. And who is even talking about neuro–even many top school keep that for grad school only. They already have ABET engineering program too.