This story was updated on Friday evening, March 22.
[T]he College of St. Joseph will cease classes at the end of this semester, its president announced in a notice to the college community on Thursday.
The Rutland college has activated its “teach-out” plan with Castleton University, as well as formalized plans with other colleges, which is essentially notice that it will cease instruction, President Jennifer Scott wrote.
The New England Commission of Higher Education in November decided to withdraw the Rutland college’s accreditation, effective this summer, over concerns about the school’s financial viability. At the time, school leaders had vowed to appeal the decision and stave off closure, and Scott had announced earlier this month that a potential partner institution could be CSJ’s savior.
But in an email, sent just a little after 5 p.m. on Wednesday to faculty, staff and students, Scott announced that that partner had “elected not to move forward with us.” The school had an April 1 deadline to submit any new evidence to NECHE that could prove it was on more solid financial ground, and Scott said that CSJ had needed that partnership to make a convincing case before accreditors.
“Unfortunately, our fight on this front has come to an end,” Scott said.
In the Thursday posting, Scott said that though the college has new financial information to present to NECHE, “including the sale of assets and a successful multi-year pledge campaign,” it would still not be enough to satisfy the accrediting commission.
She also said the college is focusing on transitioning students to their next learning institution, though it has “a lot of future decisions to make about the business of the college.”
Scott concluded her Wednesday email saying she remains committed to finding “opportunities for a ‘reimagined CSJ’ to continue to serve its mission and contribute to the economy of the Rutland region.”
She said that school employees will “work together over the coming weeks to ensure that all students are provided the necessary information, guidance and support to transfer their credits to another institution.”
The school has teach-out agreements in place, she said, with Castleton University, Vermont Technical College, Norwich University, Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Teach-outs allow students in schools that are closing to transfer to other schools into roughly equivalent programs for about the same rates, and they typically guarantee admission to students in good academic standing. The teach-out with VTC only applies to students in the Radiologic Sciences program.
Scott also said the Vermont Department of Labor would be on-site next week with their rapid response team.
Scott did not immediately return a request for comment.
CSJ is the third college in Vermont to announce it will close this year. As schools compete for a shrinking pool of potential students, those with meager endowments – and no financial cushion – are having difficulty keeping their doors open.
Southern Vermont College in Bennington announced earlier this month it would close at the end of the year. In January, Green Mountain College in Poultney said it, too, would shutter at the close of the semester. And meanwhile, in Plainfield, Goddard College was put on probation by NECHE in October. The school has up to two years to shore its finances and stabilize its leadership before its accreditation is withdrawn outright.
