Reflections on the closing

Unless you live far from Rensselaer and do not follow any social media, you probably have heard that the Board of Trustees of Saint Joseph's College has decided to suspend operations at the close the school year. In the words of their press release, "[T]he Saint Joseph’s College Board of Trustees voted to suspend all academic activities located on our Rensselaer campus. This will be effective following May 2017 graduation. The College will retain the Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing program in Lafayette, and potentially other programs as long as they are delivered at a location other than the Rensselaer campus."

Naturally students, employees, and alumni are upset and concerned. One alumna staged a one-woman protest on Saturday in front of Halleck Center.

To help students SJC will arrange "teach-out" agreements with other colleges to allow students to easily transfer. Marian College in Indianapolis is already seeking to enroll SJC students.  (I followed a link earlier but cannot find it now.) I suspect students will find it easier to make the transition than some of the faculty and staff. Ability to move from job to job declines as one gets older.

For some perspective on what is involved in closing a college, see this article. The article explains some of what the Board must have been considering in deciding how to present the shut down.

The enrollment statistics for SJC undoubtedly had a lot to do with the decision to close. For the second semester there were 904 students enrolled. 265 of those were seniors, and the senior class was by far the largest, more than twice as large as the junior class at 123. I have not heard any information about how recruiting for the freshman class was going, but if it was another small class as this year's class was, the College would have seen a large drop in enrollment.  The trend in undergraduate enrollment for the past four years has been a decline, from 1060 in the second semester of 2013 (which was the highest since at least 2007) to 988 to 946 to 890. (There were also 14 graduate students, which is why the number is not 904.) With a very large senior class leaving, the forecast for next year was probably low 800s or high 700s for the second semester.

The letter from the Higher Learning Commission explaining why the College was being put on probation noted: "Operational losses increased from $1.2 million in FY 2015 to a projected loss of slightly under $4 million for FY 2016; the College anticipates there will be a deficit in operating losses for the next five years ranging from $3,833,314 in FY 2018 to $4,440,328 in FY 2019 to $4,220,905 in FY 2021."

At this point an interesting question is what will happen to the campus. The buildings were designed for use as a residential college and there are few other uses that can be made of them without major changes. Dividing up the campus and selling the buildings separately would be very difficult because all are heated from the central power plant and all get their water from the SJC water system. Time will tell.

Finally, for those caught in the transition, it is useful to realize that sometimes in life what seems to be a major misfortune turns out in the long run to be something that is in fact very good. Some of the people will find new paths in life that will lead to good things that they otherwise would not have found. (And alternatively, sometimes what seem be be great good fortune ends up being something we wish had never happened.)