I remember reading that there were a lot of schools that were extending their application deadlines for Sweet Briar students. Hopefully these are schools that can provide at least comparable aid to what SB would have provided.
In response to posts #915, #916, #917 - Here is an article from The News & Advance that details how one SBC department, Engineering, is helping their students find places to continue their studies:
From the article:
According to the article, even if the college were ordered to remain open, there would no longer be a viable Engineering program due to the departure of the three professors who run the program:
@LucieTheLakie post 919: our credit card is charged in $500 increments for Google ads. Some account is being charged for those Sweet Briar ads.
I thought I would update because the initial PR on this may have been done to hide the true problem:http://watchdog.org/220701/sweet-briar-records/
The issue of donor intent is now being taken seriously by those who are watching this play out in the Virgina’s court.
Seems like admin put SBC into suicide dive. Meanwhile community is trying to help.
She could have hurled the bottle at one of the walls and started singing Celine Dion’s theme song of the Titanic. They are simply trying to rearrange the chairs in a futile effort that is long on emotions and short on common sense. Pretty much on par with the recent history of that school.
That turkey still has a fork in it, and no amount of legal wrangling will change much to the outcome. Safe and except for having made a couple of attorneys richer. Who in his or her right mind would allow children to enroll at such a school?
I cannot understand Xiggi’s enmity here. What did SBC ever do to you? Maybe the previous admin was just incompetent or had other motives. It happens. They will need the remaining faculty to work for cheap (as some have already indicated they will) until they can rebuild but the money being raised can carry it for the next year without touching the endowment and offer zero $$ tuition. But realistically this year is shot and maybe a soft re-opening for next Spring is possible and full opening Fall 2016.
That’s quite the longshot Barrons. Meanwhile, faculty are full of glee when the reality is that in all probability and free funds not legally bound to something are being sucked away in legal fees. Sounds like the gung-ho faculty are shooting themselves in the foot. Plus they have no plan, no projections about what tiny percentage of parents would take a chance of sending their Ds back to that school in August with no guarantees and an unknown cost. Sounds like a vocal minority trying to desperately to cling to something that pretty much is over and done. They have faculty who sound like they’ll work for free and buildings and grounds and encumbered endowment monies…but what about maintenance staff, administrative staff, legal fees, and no projected tuition dollars to offset any of that.
Why is there a need to call an opinion different from your own an expression of enmity. You’d like to see the school emerge from its decades of mismanagement and plummeting enrollment. Power to you … and I understand that a local resident might have a different opinion. This is not much different from the reaction to a Mom and Pop store closing in light of the competition of Walmart or Costco.
What you call enmity has been a reaction to the statements made by this --now-- active group of alumnae that alleged to have been kept in the dark of the looming problems until it was … too late, and their continuing indictment of their own Board of Directors, which happened to be mostly composed of people with deep connections. I find their grandstanding and posturing to be remarkably preposterous, but you might have a different opinion.
The reality – that some are disputing-- is that the school was facing two options: keep stumbling with an academic offering that is neither competitive nor attractive or closing the school orderly. One might find faults in deciding to “take of its own” as this had contributed to the problems in the past as the school maintained a faculty and staff ratio to FTE that only a few very wealthy and selective schools could afford. Actually, it might take a good dose of positive development for the school to be able to satisfy all their potential liabilities.
Here’s a different reality. We have already way too many schools and we do not need to artificially continue to prop up the walking dead ones that have failed to adapt to this century. We need fewer schools that only offer marginal education at a great cost to both students and government support.
Nobody likes to see older institutions close, but all of us better start getting used to the message that the “old model” of education that allows a glorified finishing school to survive to mostly allow a (too) large academic staff to extend their career is irrevocably a relic of the past.
The money purported pledged will not change much to the education landscape and even if collected (highly doubtful) if will be a band-aid on a cancerous leg.
But you are right about one thing. The school never did anything to me. Nor did it do anything for me except to provide a footnote to all what is wrong with tertiary education in our country.
The school has no change to survive without a wholesale takeover --which the school pursued without success-- and prolonging its agony will only make its orderly closure more difficult. Right now, only the precious horses are suffering, but let the battle linger and many might regret what they wished for!
The only winners in this conflict will be the lawyers. They get paid no matter what happens. So sad.
You do toss in a few barbed phrases, xiggi. No, I don’t believe nicey-nicey is efficient in getting to the point.
Over the decades, SB had many fine examples of educational opportunity and personal growth. It’s superficial to call out a riding program or assume those previous old money gals were ignorant and devoid of career interests. Or that the tradition was only wealthy debutantes in pearls and cashmere. But when the school added an education major, business, and that teeny engineering program, deflated other tradiitonal majors, when they started dipping low into SAT scores, then discounting costs to an unmanageable degree, they instituted a chemical change. The writing was on the wall.
I still find it hard to believe some of the savvy gals behind SSB didn’t see it coming. It was in writing. My friends who went to SB talked about it. And as I said, at some point, the phrase went out, “all options are on the table.” What did SSB think that meant?
I personally feel the school missed its opportunity to “build up, not out.”
Why should a new crop of gals be attracted to this school? It can’t be because it’s an ultimate safety and cheap. It would have to be that it becomes some sort of stellar destination. Not a default. I don’t see the plans for that. I see a desire return to the failing status quo. Not smart.
It wasn’t enmity, it was a simple statement of fact: Even if SBC has to stay open for next year, given the lack of students (and the fact—yes, fact)—that it’ll be seen by parents as a high-risk venture to send a child there), it’s hard to see a viable path for the short term, let alone the medium or long terms.
^Agreed. But some people are willing to undertake risk for sufficient incentives.
Xiggi–always playing the “who me” card. Whatever. Many towns now have a Wal-Mart and new mom & pop stores too. You just have to find the right niche.
I think it’s the caustic tone (tinged with glee) that accompanies the “simple statement of fact.” Not that his skewing isn’t terribly clever, but I would probably find it quite hurtful were I a Sweet Briar alumna or parent.
I am not sure what the “who me” comments means. I am not hiding my opinion on this. You’re right about the niche markets, but I hope to see the analogy with people both lamenting the closure of the Mom and Pop shop and the having to admit that they did not actively support the local stores through actual … purchases.
The current demise of the school did not happen behind curtains. Active and well-educated alumnae did not need a crystal ball to ascertain the past and looming problems. When you see the Mom and Pop stores running specials after specials with heavy discounts but the shelves remain empty of new offerings, one might start to worry about the survival. Was the problem the location? I’d have to say no as other colleges seem to be thriving and you picked the area as a retirement destination! In the end, it was the product mix offered and the lack of competitiveness that doomed the school. Just as it would have the Mom and Pop store.
As far as niche markets, I think that the prospects are much better when the niche exudes whiffs of selectivity and elitism. Unfortunately, there happen to be much better choices for the families with students who look for both those elements. Hence, the conclusion that the school tried to survive and could not come up with a workable plan in today’s market.
I also believe that the BOT of SBC weighed the possible alternatives and had to throw the towel when looking at the results of the Class of 2019 admission cycle. In the end, not enough patrons entered the Mom and Pop store to begin with, and based on the previous cycles, the school knew that the from the few who entered and were greeted warmly … an even fewer decided to spend dollars.
When I read this, it struck me that of all the speculation as to what the BOT was thinking, this is probably closest to the truth. They saw that they would not be able to make it another 4 years, so they just decided to hang it up. While I personally wish they had just stopped accepting students and let everyone graduate, I won’t second guess their actions. At this point, I don’t think the fork is in the turkey - it’s on the table already sliced.
FWIW - I consider myself a local to the area, even though I moved a few years ago. So I am not some outsider projecting my opinion on a community.
Rumor on the Disney boards is that it is the future site of Disney’s America theme park!
^^^I guess they need another place for all those H-1B visa holders! (http://nyti.ms/1M4Plu5)
ETA: Is this the source of the rumors, @mamabear1234?