Facing financial challenges, board votes to close St. Catharine College July 31
St. Catharine College in Springfield announced Wednesday it will close at the end of July.
NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT
Wednesday, June 1, 2016 — The St. Catharine College board of trustees voted Tuesday to approve the closure of the college effective July 31.
Despite the Washington County college’s efforts to resolve its issues with the U.S. Department of Education in regard to the withholding of federal student aid money, the board decided the college could not remain open with substantially reduced enrollment and also maintain its current debt payments.
The debt service is for recently built campus facilities that include residence halls, a health-sciences building, and most recently, a state-of-the-art library.
The U.S. Department of Education withheld student aid due to concerns over accreditation of some programs, forcing the college to use its own resources to cover the federal dollars it was denied.
“Without the enrollment and with the DOE’s chokehold on our cashflow, the debt is simply not manageable,” board of trustees chairman John Turner stated.
The department of education’s sanctions against SCC damaged the college’s ability to attract students. After the sanctions were in place, enrollment dropped from more than 600 students to fewer than 475 students projected for the Fall 2016 semester.
SCC administrators also tried unsuccessfully to move forward with possible alliances with other institutions.
Agreements are being put together to ensure students’ academic credits will transfer easily to other colleges and universities.
Summer camps and summer classes on the SCC campus will proceed as already scheduled, but no classes will begin in the Fall.
SCC employed 118 full-time faculty and staff employees, as well as numerous part-time staff and adjunct instructors.
“What started as a school in a “still house” in the early 1800s and grew to a four-year college in the heart of bourbon country will be shuttered before a new semester starts in the Fall – forever silencing the legacy of its pioneering, founding Dominican Sisters,” the statement read.
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