@UnsolicitedGuru, I agree with both of those, but even if those are the only problems (which I’m not convinced of, but accepting it for discussion), the key question: What were their current annual operating losses? If those were as bad as they said (needing multiple millions extra per year to keep going), then even if those were the only issues, they’ve run out of time—both of the things you listed take time to fix, particularly (2).
The academic model is not sufficient to draw from the competition. An 86% admit rate, the dip in standardized scoes, immense discounting and low grad rates can’t be blamed on lack of alum involvement. Frankly, they cut into their former academic might. The former rep was not all pearls and ponies. It had a tremendous amount to do with critical thinking and ambition. They lost their niche appeal.
And if the problem were the lack of either a major fundraising campaign or the size of the request, then why can’t SSB raise more than 12M? I say, because there was a sea change in what decisions they made, starting well more than a decade ago. It became a different place than its former strengths- and that alienated alums. Some say it runs back to Fry.
I understand many want to protect and perpetuate “what is.” I also say. as it is, it is not enough. Look at it holistically and historically.
"Their donation requests were for $250 across the board. If an alumna has a $50k/year job, they asked for $250. If an alumna was worth $12MM, they asked for $250. That is just dumb. "
How many of their alums were worth $12mm? Get real. This wasn’t a school that was producing movers and shakers.
You may add that maintaining a ratio of yearly graduates over faculty number that barely exceeds … ONE is not exactly sustainable on limited revenues.
Academia is a world that allows for economic fantasies, but it does not last forever and a day.
lookingforward,
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12M or so in pledges, some running to 2020. How the heck do they think they can raise enough money to sustain the school?<<
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Are you aware that many of the women involved with SavingSweetBriar.com are former board members, some of whom were driven off the board by Paul Rice and Elizabeth Wyatt? Are you aware that the current board (fondly dubbed as KillingSweetBriar or KSB for short) has not named either an admissions or a development director in TWO YEARS? Yet they whine and fret and complain that there are not enough students, not enough in the endowment…blah, blah, blah? NOT ONLY that, they complain that there are too many Pell Grant recipients and when given a study showing that more and more African American women interested in women’s colleges they GASP and decide to close the college. D-I-S-G-U-S-T-I-N-G.
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If the 80/20 rule holds, the 80% aren't giving (or are giving too small) and the 20% just aren't there.<<<
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Actually, over 35% of the alumnae give. The problem truly isn’t the alum, but the current board, KSB, that hasn’t appointed a development director in 2 years, or done ANY fundraising at all before calling it quits. Sweet Briar College hasn’t had a capital campaign in over 20 years!
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They started eliminating majors sometime ago, messed with faculty retirement contributions, looked to reduce the number of faculty, etc. Plus the article that a former president was investigating solutions back in 2003. How can anyone claim the state of the college was a complete surprise? The writing was on the wall, maybe folks didn't want to believe it- but some must not have had the capacity to process the signs.<<<
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I can’t think of ANY school that considers itself flush and isn’t trying to cut costs in some way or another. That is just a regular part of doing business. The writing WASN’T on the wall, as recently as September 2014, the financial director gave a glowing report about the endowment. It is hard to read writing that wasn’t there. As a SBC parent (daughter graduating next week, thank the maker) I would have expected that they would ask me for a donation, at least once. There were NO APPEALS of any kind or even a HINT there was a crunch of this kind.
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But are some saying this place should be Grey Gardens, just to be able to say it still exists?<<<
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Sweet Briar is not as manicured as some alumnae seem to be expect, but a recently drummed out board member shared her notes about how much is really required to ensure SBC’s historic buildings remain in good repair. I believe it was around $28 million over ten years, not the $250 million RIGHT AWAY the erstwhile president, Dr Jim Jones was sporting about. Calder Loth, an architectural historian and an authority on Virginia architecture, called the campus “remarkable” and noted that the buildings are in excellent condition. Princeton Review put SBC on it’s Most Beautiful Campuses in America. Gray Gardens!!! As if.
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(Just as SBC says it's working with the Va AG.) New donations are usually carefully worded, to work for both sides. You may hear some living donor is disputing something, but you likely only hear a small part.<<<
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A national philanthropy organization filed a brief in support of the Saving Sweet Briar case before the Virginia Supreme Court right now. Their concern is that Virginia legalizing the wholesale cancellation of donor intent will have a chilling effect on future giving in Virginia and perhaps nationally. The Washington Post has just done an article about how the Attorney General’s misstep by supporting the KSB (Killing Sweet Briar) side may have irreparably harmed the AG’s bid for the governorship of Virginia.
The Killing Sweet Briar peeps had the forethought to hire a good PR firm before announcing the closing. That is ALL that side has going for it aside from a rapid retreating Attorney General… On the Saving Sweet Briar side are law professors from 3 preeminent Virginia law schools, Amherst County Attorney Bowyer, 30 delegates to the Virginia state house, et cetera.
I am excited about what a new Sweet Briar College will become. Gray Gardens indeed!!
For different reasons, I’d say we all bemoan the loss of this college.
The 80/20 concept is that 80% yield 20% of revenue (here, donations) and 20% produce 80% of the dollar totals. Not the percentage who give.
None of this can be laid solely on individuals some refer to as killing a school. There were various mistakes along the way. And climate changes, giving many more options to young women.
“I believe it was around $28 million over ten years, not the $250 million RIGHT AWAY the erstwhile president, Dr Jim Jones was sporting about.”
The 250M was not claimed for immediate maintenance:
Sweet Briar College has approximately $28 million in maintenance needs, some of which- such as the need for a new heating system- are both urgent and costly. /i
…in order to operate the College going forward, Sweet Briar College would have needed to raise $10-12 million per year in unrestricted funds, in order to operate the College for the 2015-2016 academic year. The College would need to raise a similar amount each year of operation into the indefinite future, unless and until it could increase the endowment by an additional $200-250 million to fill the gap between operating revenues and expenses permanently.
Sweet Briar College has only 7001 alumnae who agree to be solicited for donations, and while an impressive 40% of them give each year, their average annual gift is $600. This donor base simply cannot give $10-12 million per year,much less do so while building the endowment to the required level.*
http://sbc.edu/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/SBC-Response-to-Troutman-Sanders1.pdf
Read the link. Any individual (or group) can dispute those numbers. I am well aware of the power of careful wording to shape reader opinions. And anyne can say, IF ONLY they had a major campaign. But SSB has only been able to raise 12M- and that’s through 2020. And with the wolf at the door.
Referring to one side as KSB doesn’t convince me. And, despite your enthusiasm for “a new Sweet Briar College,” beats the heck out of me what the vision is. I can’t find it. A few posters made some suggestions, but none of these (including mine for an all arts/all the time) is a plan.
But congrats to your daughter.
There are some exciting things being discussed by former board members and Sweet Briar alumnae groups going forward.
Obviously, having a trained, professional admissions staff and director is essential to turning Sweet Briar’s fortunes around. Too often, small colleges slot in any old who and that is unacceptable. Also, providing up-to-date tools like graphics designed to appeal to high school kids rather than their mothers (personally, I LOVE both Vera Bradley AND Sweet Briar’s graphic design…my daughter, not so much) and up-to-date recruiting software.
Adopting a tuition model similar to Converse College’s Tuition Reset which yielded students abundantly in the next class. Converse College, a women’s college in South Carolina, reduced their tuition 43% and dispensed with tuition discounting entirely. Reducing Sweet Briar’s tuition 43% from $38K to $22K would probably be a stretch, but they might be able to manage $25K a year, No Discounting!!!
Sweet Briar had a dairy until recently which provided Virginia with 12% of it’s dairy products. Reopening that dairy and improving the food in the cafeteria seems to high on everyone’s lists. For my part, when I was looking for a college for my daughter, Sweet Briar had a acceptable food service which was replaced with Aramark? right after my daughter got there. If we were looking today, Sweet Briar would have been instantly struck off the list because it’s food is unacceptable. I think the current admin doesn’t really understand just how concerned with healthy eating this generation of students and their parents are. Especially families who are quirky enough to consider a women’s SLAC.
Having a 3-Year-graduation track for students that could actually take 18 units a semester…this would NOT be my daughter.
Those are a few that come to mind right now.
BTW, I understand that Saving Sweet Briar hasn’t been concerned with trying to rack up even more pledges for a variety of reasons not the least of which is that they are waiting on their 501c3 status. The campaign itself only reached a small group of people, rather than all the alums. Working on the proposals for Sweet Briar 2.0 is actually taxing on a group of people who had no idea this would be necessary 74 days ago. They also need actual CASH to support the first lawsuit filed with the Amherst County Attorney so there have been a variety of fundraisers to that end. Hard to raise funds when you cannot offer a tax deduction.
The current board really has to go. The Chair, Paul Rice, graduated from University of Virginia and loves, loves, loves UVA and seems not to value Small Liberal Arts Colleges in general, Sweet Briar in particular. The interim president was recently chased out of Trinity College after an endowment fund scandal and was brought on board to close the college. 75% of the board are in their late 60s to late 70s and some don’t even use email. They have no idea about crowdfunding, or Twitter, or how most women’s colleges have up to 30% international student enrollment. The last president even canceled a Google advertising campaign because it yielded too many hits from India!
I am babbling…but I have a daughter graduating next Saturday from Sweet Briar and a 13-year-old STEM girl daughter I hope will also attend there. Good night! DAY 73–Sweet Briar, held hostage!!!
My daughter briefly considered Sweet Briar. She is now at another women’s college (Wellesley). For all of the previous poster’s talk about Vera Bradley and a beautiful campus and healthy eating, the fact remains that at the end of the day a college is for education and opportunity, and in the space of women’s colleges, SB simply couldn’t provide anything that matched up to what Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, etc had to offer.
It seems to me that the bottom line is that SB can’t be revived unless somebody comes up with a great deal of money, and the amount raised so far isn’t nearly enough. So unless some super-rich person appears, the only possible other option I can see is the state of Virginia. It could take over the college and make it part of the state system. In my mind, that’s the only solution that could possibly work, because it would be a political decision, not a financial one.
That. Exactly that.
For people like me who are sad to see the college die but don’t really have a dog in the fight, such rhetorical turns are more likely to drive us away than to make us sympathetic to your side.
the local paper (News and Advance) published that info May 3…
Maybe other people have mentioned it, but isn’t Liberty University right nearby? They’re already expanding, but maybe have been thinking of a satellite campus.
LU says not interested. There is a fast growing Mormon college not too far away that might be.
http://svu.edu/
Just saw a Sweet Briar ad on the side of cc page. Huh. I guess it’s all pre-paid and has to run?
It’s not just about money. A school closing is a death blow, much worse than bankruptcy in my opinion. Let’s say that the lawsuit works and a judge grants a permanent restraining order barring the school from closing. Would you send your kid off to a school whose very existence is the subject to tense litigation? Or to a school whose continued existence is entirely dependent on the whims of a single super-rich individual or group? I think some of the people behind this are underestimating the level of uncertainty that this news has created among future students. Money is necessary but more than that people need stability. They need to be able to believe that if they apply to SB and get accepted, they won’t have to transfer out in another year or two because of pending litigation or because a single donor changes her mind or dies and her heirs decide to cut back. If SB can figure out how to get around that issue, then they could be viable.
Being incorporated into the state university system might help, but I don’t see that as even a remote possibility unfortunately for alums. The state is pulling back on its funding for existing state universities; it might be hard politically to gain support for the complex and expensive task of rehabilitating a private school.
(I understand that the school has diehard fans who love it and will back it no matter what. But they need to be able to convince people who aren’t in love with Sweet Briar)
I think UVa already rejected the notion of using the campus. Agree about funding issues; from friends in VA, I hear the state post-secondary system is already stressed. But I also suspect we’re only at the very beginning of what will be a long and complicated story. I wouldn’t mind hearing some digest of where the remaining students will be this fall, with what financial support.
Seconded. The true tragedy of this wouldn’t be losing a college from the scene, it would be losing potentially well-educated citizens, and it’d be good to know whether that’s the result or not.
And good to know how much help the recently active and vocal Save Sweet Briar will offer to the current students after realizing what the inevitable outcome. It would be nice to see their purported war chest used for something more productive than lining the pockets of attorneys.
Post 913: I do some Internet advertising and I doubt the ad was prepaid. I’d guess sloppy controls. I can cut off ads within minutes.
@Mom22039, so you mean Sweet Briar will likely be getting a bill in the future for these post-closing-announcement adverts? If true, that right there might tell you something about how well the school manages its precious resources.