It has been almost a year since word came that the College of Saint Rose in Albany would close after more than a century. A former professor there is marking the anniversary with two public readings.
In November 2023, facing a projected $11 million deficit, the Board of Trustees of the College of Saint Rose voted to cease academic instruction after the end of the academic year.
Suddenly, students halfway through a degree and tenured professors were scrambling.
“Just putting things down to paper. Memories of being a teacher really is a part of the, I would say, the grieving process of not only the end of a job, at the end of a career, and just thinking about all the connections I had made with my students and colleagues. And what had happened was that started to take some sort of shape,” said Daniel Nester, who taught writing at Saint Rose. His work-in-progress, “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” reflects on his 19 years right up until the bitter end.
“I started to think, well, maybe with the year, first year anniversary coming up of the college announcing it would be closed, we might want to put together a couple of readings where I could read some of my memories of the college and as a professor, but also get the band back together again with some of my students from over the years,” Nester said.
Nestor plans to read from his memoirs and essays at two events: November 7th at the MopCo Improv Theatre in Schenectady November 23rd The Woman’s Club of Albany.
Former student Sarah Michelle Sherman is a personal essayist and professional copywriter who lives in Albany.
"This reading came at sort of a bizarre time in my life," said Sherman. "Not only did Saint Rose close its doors this year, but I'm also getting divorced. So when Dan told me he was doing a reading about endings and, you know, an evening of closures, it felt, you know, like the exact reading I needed to be doing at this point in my life."
Sherman will read from her own work when she joins Nester in Schenectady. She recalls he helped her get into Saint Rose, where she thrived and became an adjunct after graduating.
"He took a chance on me by giving me. I took over a class that he was teaching to developmentally disabled adults in Troy. That experience changed my life. It was the most rewarding thing I've ever done," Sherman said.
Another former student, Abbey Barker, formerly Governor Andrew Cuomo's Deputy Press Secretary, says she and Nester maintained a "creative collaboration" over the years, exchanging work and fostering a creative environment. She'll be reading at the Albany event.
"Post college, Dan and I have, you know, gone back over the years. You know, with me sending him my work, him sending me his work, and, you know, just keeping that relationship that we fostered when I was an undergrad, just creative collaboration. And, you know, with the reading, and in November, I think it's just really wonderful. I think it really just speaks to the creative environment that Dan created in his classes," said Barker.
Nester says the faculty at Saint Rose walked on eggshells for more than a decade, enduring cuts and layoffs and COVID, which he believes "threw gas on the fire" as the college moved closer to the brink, with dropping enrollment as potential students across the nation began questioning the worth of a college degree. He's found writing about it "therapeutic."
"All across, certainly the Northeast and probably the rest of the country higher ed is having a hard reset," Nester said. "So I do know lots of colleagues, for example, who teach at other colleges, who are going through similar situations. I have friends and colleagues who are who have been laid off, or they've been at other colleges that have closed. So this is for better for worse, a theme that's running through lots of stories."
Nester says both events are free and open to the public, funded through an Arts Thrive and Grow grant from New York state.
