I don’t think “deserves” is a meaningful term in this context. Sweet Briar College didn’t go down because of a moral or ethical failure on the part of faculty or students. My point was more about the fact that there are many schools like Sweet Briar that actually do have the resources and intent to continue operating indefinitely.
Previous arguments have been about whether or not Lynchburg is a nice neighborhood, or whether or not Sweet Briar has qualities that large schools do not, but honestly I don’t think either of those things are the problem. Adding a new academic program isn’t going to make a prospective student feel secure about their school’s future. Sweet Briar isn’t even the only college in that part of Virginia.
So is it a rant against SB or colleges/faculty/administrations in general, xiggi? What do you really know about how the system of abuses you identify applies to this particular school? Clearly, this school is going under, but we do not have a whole picture yet. Not enough for me to accept one or more posters claiming to have the full and true explanation.
The letter, btw, was strong, but an example of the best defense being a good offense. Still much we do not yet know.
LF, I do not really need to know the details. I have full faith that the administrators who came in to save this educational Titanic reached the most “doable” conclusion and worked to ensure an orderly disposition of the soon to be corpse.
As far as SBC, I have nothing against the school or its members, including the faculty. The rant might be in general and is as you said directed at the type of administrators and “systems” that are functioning on the illusion that more money will always come if you ask for it, and that the market forces will always be forgiving. The term abuses should really be a proxy for the type of unfettered and rampant escalation in the cost of providing and education and preserving the lifestyle that educators/scholars/researchers believe to be a right.
Most discussions on this issue invariably turn into an “overworked and underpaid” rebuttal and debate about “outsiders” not really knowing what the duties of professors are. In the meantime, any objective observers of budgets, bond proposals, and the like can easily measure out of whack with the world our broad education system had become. Yes, you do have a college that was hoping to survive an economic downturn and could not do it. And, you also have a world of superintendents who find it bizarre that they have to pay the interests on their mortgages, justify their expenses for car and travel, and remain generally accountable to their districts. And you have districts a la Syosset that seem happy to pay their dilettante chief a $500,000 salary and offer a chauffeured limousine…
The world of education surely plays by its own set of rules. At least, for as long at it can get away with it.
That’s like when the NCAA puts Cleveland State on probation but ignores UNC. Cooper Union barely matters. Maybe start a bit higher–say Yale or at least Williams.
If, by any chance, by “higher” you mean higher acceptance rate, that would include Williams, but not Yale. Yale’s acceptance rate is lower than Cooper Union’s by a percentage point.
Will take a reboot of their business model. But could be doable I think. Free tuition to all new students for a year. Then ramp up to sustainable net number around $15-20K. Explore going coed ASAP. .
The conventional wisdom would conclude that all the publicity about SBC closing its doors would discourage students from applying. But didn’t Tulane have a record number of applicants after Katrina, when Tulane pledged it was resolved to rebuild in New Orleans?
I agree w @barrrans, that w the right marketing pitch, SWC could leverage all the publicity-- and it received a hella lot of it! It’s on the radar now.
The county judge issued a 60 day injunction against the college spending money to close. The judge refused to order the removal of college officials or the establishment of an independent receiver.
I can understand the college did not have a long-term future as an independent college. However, I don’t see why they couldn’t have stayed open at least another year, to provide a reasonable transition for students and staff. Instead, they accepted incoming students, who had to quickly find new schools after the application period for many schools expired. Many other colleges had already finished their hiring of teaching staff for the next academic year. Also, it is usually hard for a student to transfer for their senior year, because many colleges require a minimum number of credits at their institution before they will grant you a degree. If they had announced the decision of closing in May of next year, it would have been much more reasonable.
Although they had tens of millions of debt and some buildings in need of upgrade, they also had an endowment of somewhere between 100 and 200 million, and an enormous amount of land. They should have tried harder to merge with another college.
The college said they didn't have the money to go co-educational. I don't know if that is true or not. They said they would have needed millions to fund new programs, new facilities and new financial aid to attract males. I assume they also would have lost some female students who didn't want to attend a co-ed school. However, many colleges have made this transition without huge endowments.
In the case of Tulane, everyone knew the university would continue to exist - they would just have to suffer through reconstruction of facilities for a couple years. I assume the University was insured and received FEMA funds, so the public also knew that there were not financial problems in paying for the reconstruction.
This is a very interesting case. Many people had wondered why a college was closing so quickly when it still had a large endowment. The County Attorney has joined in the challenge, claiming that the college administration deceived donors by continuing to seek large donations while they laid plans to close. The State Attorney General has intervened to try to stop this legal process.
There is a claim that $10 million has been pledged if the college does not close. However, you wonder if you can save a college long-term after you announced it will close - because you will not have any incoming students and many of the current students will have already made transfer decisions.
Here’s your chance to read about the case with more attention to details, and perhaps understand why wishful thinking and facts do not always coincide. The school need more than some upgrade with close to 30 million in deferred maintenance. They did not have an endowment of between 100 and 200 million dollars. The endowment was much smaller and, as usual, quite restricted. The enormous amount of land with its restrictions is more a liability than a marketable asset. You could bet a few dollars that they tried very, very hard to find a Prince Charming with whom to merge, and help their facuty and staff find a new home or system.
The reality is that this school no longer had the money to stay afloat as a college, and little hope to redress a situation that has deteriorated for a long time.
This turkey of a school is done. Put a fork in it.
PS There are zero parallels between Tulane and SBC. Tulane fills a need in the community and is extremely popular among swaths of applicants, and especially in the South. Take a look at their applications numbers.
“There is a claim that $10 million has been pledged if the college does not close. However, you wonder if you can save a college long-term after you announced it will close - because you will not have any incoming students and many of the current students will have already made transfer decisions.”
Independent of the publicity about the closure, the president of the college said they’d need $10-$12 million in additional donations PER YEAR to stay open for the foreseeable future. Raising $10 million in an emergency – which I don’t believe they have done – wouldn’t tell you that they could raise that amount every year going forward. They could not.
A better analogy than Tulane post-Katrina is Xavier University of New Orleans post-Katrina. Niche appeal (Catholic HBCU), challenging location, lower endowment, major infrastructure work needed after flooding. Now they’ve got a high admit rate, low yield, and fairly low tuition with significant tuition discounting. They’re co-ed but 70% women. Looks more like Sweet Briar.