(03-07-2015 12:23 AM)PhillyDuke Wrote:  political soapboxes are dangerous things on message boards like this, but i'll fire away. With all due respect to both Sweet Briar and SC State alums, I find both of these closures to be positive advancements for our 21st century culture. The fact is, HBCUs and all-women colleges are vestiges of the past. In 2015 we live in a fully integrated world where race and gender specific schools undermine years of civil rights progress. In so many ways the financial struggles of these schools indicate that race and gender equality does exist, and further, that our culture prefers it's existance. schools that embrace diversity are thriving - while those that cling to the past are not necessarily doing the same.

That is exactly my view as well. There is no doubt that some of these...I guess you could say "single-focused"....schools will survive, but it will basically take a consolidation of the existing schools within their type. (So while there will always be a market for an all-girls school, that market is shrinking every year - so the majority of those schools will have to adapt or die. The same is true for HBCUs.) Rather than the exclusionary policies of the past, most mainstream colleges nowadays will bend over backwards to attract females and minorities.

And, of course, JMU - being originally founded as a female-only school - is a great example of how a school can thrive when it opens its doors.

(03-06-2015 04:08 PM)JMU Wrote:  I really don't understand a school like Sweet Briar College in the first place. They only have 700 students. Total. That is about a $31-$32 million dollar budget to maintain a 3,500 acre campus in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful country but still in the middle of nowhere. How could they reasonably expect to survive? They should have merged with Liberty or had Liberty flat out buy them.

Sweet Briar was known for years a an upscale, women's only school with a top flight equestrian center. In other words, a school for young women with well to do families. Also in Lynchburg, less than 20 miles from from Sweet Briar, is Randolph College. Randolph College became co-ed a few years when it had been, since it's inception a woman's college, Randolph Macon Women's College, or locally known as "Randy Mac".

RM saw their model as a women's college was fading 5+/- years ago and they made the change to co-ed. Sweet Briar did not. RM has continued to attract male students (duhhh) and make strides in increasing enrollment. RM has also sold some of their donated art collection to keep the school afloat. They have taken lots of heat in the local press with the sales with the last being sold to a British museum. Purist are highly offended, realists say it must be done to survive until the school makes enough head way to achieve self sufficiency.

It's a tough decision all the way around for RM and now Sweet Briar. Sweet Brian was the cultural center in a very conservative area bring challenging programs to the region, offering an in-residence program for artists and writers and much more. We Amherst County natives were proud that we had this jewel of a school that we could brag upon with little else to point to in the area with culture and progressive thinking.

Just a hunch, but I hope Liberty discusses possible involvement. Jr. certainly knows the value and importance of the school. It would go a long way in many eyes to see them assist a once proud and successful college continue. With 3500 acres, maybe there is hope. I hope so.

(03-06-2015 04:18 PM)DolleyMadison Wrote:  

(03-06-2015 04:14 PM)Potomac Wrote:  

(03-06-2015 04:08 PM)JMU Wrote:  I really don't understand a school like Sweet Briar College in the first place. They only have 700 students. Total. That is about a $31-$32 million dollar budget to maintain a 3,500 acre campus in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful country but still in the middle of nowhere. How could they reasonably expect to survive? They should have merged with Liberty or had Liberty flat out buy them.

According to some of the facebook posts I was reading, some of them were saying the Sweet Briar founder detested Liberty.

Maybe I'm reading your post incorrectly but how does the founder of a school founded in 1901 detest a school founded 70 years later? Was the founder of Sweet Briar even alive when Liberty was founded?

Could be if one is quoting FaceBook as a credible source. No validity.

(03-06-2015 04:18 PM)DolleyMadison Wrote:  

(03-06-2015 04:14 PM)Potomac Wrote:  

(03-06-2015 04:08 PM)JMU Wrote:  I really don't understand a school like Sweet Briar College in the first place. They only have 700 students. Total. That is about a $31-$32 million dollar budget to maintain a 3,500 acre campus in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful country but still in the middle of nowhere. How could they reasonably expect to survive? They should have merged with Liberty or had Liberty flat out buy them.

According to some of the facebook posts I was reading, some of them were saying the Sweet Briar founder detested Liberty.

Maybe I'm reading your post incorrectly but how does the founder of a school founded in 1901 detest a school founded 70 years later? Was the founder of Sweet Briar even alive when Liberty was founded?

Could be if one is quoting FaceBook as a credible source. No validity.

Looks like selling the land to pay debts isn't an option...

http://www.businessinsider.com/sweet-bri...ent-2015-3

(03-10-2015 04:37 PM)lingerba Wrote:  Looks like selling the land to pay debts isn't an option...

http://www.businessinsider.com/sweet-bri...ent-2015-3

Another position for the sale could be that school was unable to meet it's financial obligations, not due to neglect, fraud or incompetence, but rather the changing landscape of collegiate education in the surge of online interest, social change in the loss of all women school's appeal and more. It boils down to is the deed restriction going to be interpreted by the letter of the law or the intent. If it's intent, it stand a much better chance of being challenged. If it's the letter of the law, then the debt holders may be hosed. If debt holders and the school are on the same page and there is no way out but to sell all or a part, that raises other issues that may be favorable to a sale. A division of some of the property and retention of the residue for a woman's usage is another possibility.