Posted on 03/04/2015 6:59:59 AM PST by C19fan
For more than a century, Sweet Briar College has offered women a liberal arts education in a pastoral setting near Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Equestrian programs, a tight-knit residential community and, lately, an engineering science degree, have been its hallmarks.
On Tuesday, the college’s leadership abruptly announced its closure to stunned and tearful audiences of faculty and students. Officials cited “insurmountable financial challenges,” saying the 700-student college, founded in 1901, would shut down permanently in August. An $84 million endowment, officials said, was not enough to offset ebbing demand for their school in a tumultuous market.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It really is.
My niece texted me that Sweet Briar alums are angry and organizing to see what can be done. The decision to close came without any warning and didn’t give the alums any chance to see what they can do to keep the college alive.
The decision to close could all be on the up and up but from the outside I’d want to be sure that someone doesn’t have development plans for the property and needs the college out of the way.
Interesting.
I agree that the closing could be perfectly valid. I just find it odd, when Randolph-Macon’s money problems were a fixture on our local news for what seemed like months.
Freshman year: Liberal arts stuff out of the way -- Composition, grammar, American History, art (music, painting, theater, etc.). Foundation classes for math, physics, computer science, chemistry.
Sophomore year: No electives. All engineering courses and math.
Junior year: No electives. Second-tier engineering courses, physics. Depending on discipline, additional chemistry, comp sci, aeronatics, material sciences.
Senior year: Advanced-tier studies in engineering speciality; electives sufficient to earn minor.
C average minimum for all classes. B average required for all engineering classes beyond sophomore year.
No booze on campus. Dorms only. Dorms close at 10:30 weeknights, midnight on weekends. No mixed-sex dorms. No fraternities, sororities, athletics, student theatricals, Model UN, or any of that claptrap.
You come to this school to study, not to socialize or party. There are hundreds of other institutions that will take your money and feed you mai-tai's till you puke. This is an instituion of learning, not a bacchanal. If you're not grown up enough to have that idiocy out of your system, you don't belong here.
Not going to happen. Kids go to school to party. You need to find the right mix. Fraternities are actually good because they have a higher GPA standard than campus and you can easily threaten them to pulling their charter.
Engineering is a VERY expensive curriculum to fund. You mostly end up with non-English speaking professors.
Not this school.
You need to find the right mix.
No, I don't. THEY do.
Fraternities are actually good
... if you want to get wasted. Leave the social crap to someone else. You're here to learn.
Engineering is a VERY expensive curriculum to fund.
Probably. Which is why the students should not waste their money on ridiculous classes and brainless activities.
You mostly end up with non-English speaking professors.
I don't care if they speak Klingon, as long as they can teach.
The caliber of students graduating from such a rigorous institution would so vastly exceed that of similar colleges that I could eventually charge whatever I wanted and I'd be turning students away.
The Sweet Briar alums are a close bunch and they aren’t going to just stand aside and let the demise of their school be a fait accompli.
The fact that this was announced as a done deal without the alums even being made aware that the school is in jeopardy is a red flag.
Again it may all be legitimate, but this is also a method that could hide the personal enrichment of some board members at the expense of the school’s survival. If it was my college I’d want some outside opinion before the current board kills the school.
It was reported last night that SB just received an endowment of $84 million! The president of the school just shrugged and said, “Doesn’t matter, it’s too late.”
Somebody with accounting and legal skills definitely needs to get a look at what the board is doing.
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