Marlboro College won’t be merging with the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut after all.
The schools in July announced they had signed a letter of intent, and hoped to be operational as a consolidated entity by July 2020. But in a statement released Saturday morning, Marlboro said merger talks had been suspended because of “insurmountable barriers to developing a compelling financial and academic model that supported both institutional missions.”
The statement goes on to say that the small, southern Vermont private school had been “especially determined to protect the integrity of its rigorous, self-directed academic model and self-governed community,” and that it sought “assurances on UB’s enduring commitment to the Vermont campus.”
Officials from both schools in July had said the tentative plan was that the Vermont school become the Marlboro College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Bridgeport. The merged school would have a single board – with five members from Marlboro – and existing tenure agreements with Marlboro faculty would have been honored.
Marlboro’s statement on Saturday notes that it also wanted “guarantees that the wishes of Marlboro’s generous donors, who established the College’s sizable endowment, would be maintained.”
The school’s endowment stands at “a little north of $35 million,” Marlboro president Kevin Quigley said in an interview Saturday, and its debts only total about $2 million.
The college had set out to find a potential college to merge with about a year ago. It ultimately received four written proposals, including from UB. Quigley said Marlboro, which is once again looking for a partner, would be returning to those potential merger partners.
“They’ve all expressed a willingness to pick up the conversation,” he said, adding that the school was also willing to talk to other interested institutions.
“I remain very optimistic,” Quigley said. “We’re very fortunate that we have these gifts and our assets, that give us some ability to try and navigate toward an enduring Marlboro.”
Officials from UB were not immediately available for comment Saturday.
Marlboro’s failed merger comes at a time of rapid change in higher education. Nationwide, but particularly in the Northeast and Midwest, small colleges with meager endowments are struggling to survive, merging or shuttering entirely as they compete for a shrinking pool of applicants.
The crisis has hit Vermont particularly hard. Three schools – Southern Vermont College in Bennington, Green Mountain College in Poultney and the College of St. Joseph in Rutland – have closed this year. A fourth, Goddard College in Plainfield, was put on probation by its accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education.
The state’s public colleges, meanwhile, are contemplating systemwide reform to confront their demographic challenges.
In an interview in July, UB President Laura Skandera Trombley told VTDigger she hoped the merger between the two schools might become a “collaborative model that is replicable for other institutions.”
But in a message sent to UB students sent Friday, according to the Connecticut Post, Trombley suggested that might be too difficult a task.
“While we hold Marlboro in great esteem, we have concluded that their challenges are too great for us to proceed,” she wrote.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct an error in a quotation from Kevin Quigley. He said other potential merger partners have “expressed” an interest in resuming discussions.
