Students at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York are grappling with the 103-year-old private institution’s upcoming closure in June. WAMC spoke to students who are facing some tough decisions in the final weeks of their enrollment.
The decision to close the college by the institution’s Board of Trustees was announced in December. Saint Rose says it has struggled to stay afloat, faced with declining enrollment worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The closure comes after the private college shed several academic programs in a cost-cutting move in 2020, but it wasn’t enough. According to the institution’s website, Saint Rose’s financial gap totaled over $11 million by the end of 2023.
Molly Foote is a first-year education major. She doesn’t understand why she was admitted if the college was struggling. Now, she’s deciding where she’ll go next.
“They've shared information, college is closing, we're doing teach-out plans. But I feel they could have given us the news sooner or at least given us more time to prepare,” Foote said.
Asiarae Rivera is a freshman business administration major, and is frustrated with the way the school communicated about its financial situation.
“I felt like, ‘OK, so you guys welcomed me into this school, you gave me a scholarship, you promised me all this in my financial aid, and we’re broke,” Rivera said.
Rivera says she found out about the closure on social media.
“They decided that they wanted to deny it, and then the way that they tried to throw it under the rug…,” Rivera said.
She says the news dropping during fall finals week compounded her stress and made her feel betrayed.
“We’re still here, they have one more semester, but they said they’ve been in a decline for years now,” Rivera said.
Saint Rose President Marcia White held a campus meeting after news of the closure broke a day earlier. White, who has not responded to interview requests since the closure, targeted the media, saying students should have found out from the college, not the press. Here’s White speaking with reporters immediately following that campus meeting:
"I am so angry at the fact that our students, our faculty, our employees, their parents, the parents of our students had to hear this news in the press, rather than from us today, which is the time we had put aside to do a personal message to them and have a conversation. That's the way we do it at Saint Rose,” White said.
White said she had hoped to save the college. One idea was to merge Saint Rose into another institution.
But those plans did not come to fruition. White pledged to develop teach-out plans with other colleges, and agreements were developed with more than a dozen other institutions.
As for financial aid, the college says students can either contact their new school or work out a plan with Saint Rose.
Now, it’s up to the students to decide where and how they will complete their programs. And for some, it won’t be their first time transferring.
Justin Morehouse, a psychology major, transferred from Hudson Valley Community College in nearby Troy.
Morehouse says he found out the college was closing after it was too late to adjust his plans. As the end of the spring semester nears, Morehouse says it’s been difficult to balance his studies and his academic future.
“It’s been a struggle doing school and work and trying to get everything done, like FAFSA and getting accepted into other schools, so that’s where I’m at,” Morehouse said.
Morehouse is planning on continuing his studies at the University at Albany, but he’s worried about all of his credits transferring.
“You find out that not everyone accepts credits from certain other schools, so having transfer credits from two different colleges makes it even more difficult and I’ll probably have to do more school because of it,” Morehouse said.
Genevieve LoBaido, who is studying education, transferred from Siena, another private college, in neighboring Loudonville. Faced with another move, LoBaido says she wants to transfer to SUNY Cortland, nearly three hours away and not a Saint Rose teach-out partner.
LoBaido feels the college is trying to pressure students into attending one of the teach-out schools.
“I definitely think that they’re trying to have as much control as possible, and keeping their students in the dark as far as their options,” LoBaido said.
Dr. Barbara Chepaitis is an adjunct professor who has taught Public Speaking at Saint Rose for nine years. She says she’s taking complaints high as she can, including to the New York state Attorney General.
“I have been in touch with the AG’s office, sent them some of the students’ concerns and aggravations, what they’re enraged about,” Chepaitis said.
Like many students, Chepaitis feels the college deceived her about its financial health. She says Saint Rose hasn’t explained what will happen to its $44 million endowment after the closure.
“Our students don’t know what’s going to happen to their tuition when the school closes. Why should they give tuition to a school that isn’t going to serve them? Why shouldn’t they get their student loans forgiven?” Chepaitis asked.
Saint Rose says it has made its human resources department available to “assist faculty, administrators and staff with their career transition.”
SEIU Local 200 represents more than 150 adjunct faculty at Saint Rose. Union rep Sean Collins says the college is not committing to providing severance pay or benefits for employees losing their jobs.
“They've largely shot down the concept of severance, not just for our members, but also for all faculty and staff at the college, and basically, that there’s no money to pay such severance,” Collins said.
Collins says President White has refused to meet with the union.
“We meet with the head of HR, and a Dean from Academic Affairs, one of the school deans. And they're the ones who are conveying that the college has no intention to pay severance to us or any other faculty or staff member, you know, so we haven't heard that directly from Marcia,” Collins said.
Collins says the union will keep pushing for full severance for all faculty and staff.
After the campus closes its doors, Saint Rose says it plans to maintain buildings until at least the end of the year. Saint Rose Board of Trustees Chair Jeffrey Stone says decisions on what to do with the dozens of buildings throughout Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood have not yet been made.
With about $50 million owed in bondholder debt, Stone says the college has hired a real estate advisor. Stone says there are a variety of potential reuses for the campus.
“We expect the property to be marketed to educational institutions, local and national developers, senior living operators, nonprofit and government agencies, religious organizations, and the like. Right now, the sale of the campus as a whole is preferred, versus selling the properties piecemeal,” Stone said.
Saint Rose’s final commencement ceremony is May 11th, with the end of the summer session on June 21st.
An "Honoring Saint Rose Day" is scheduled for May 18th, offering students, faculty, and alumni the chance to say goodbye.
