.
ALBANY – After news organizations broke the news Thursday afternoon that The College of Saint Rose will close next year, President Marcia White was met Friday with boos, and angry students and staff while explaining why the school will permanently close in May.
The announcement with students and staff was held at the Massry Center for the Arts, but ahead of the speech, some would-be attendees were told they could not enter as the 405-seat hall was at maximum capacity. One staff member said they were not expecting so many people to show up. They scrambled to set up speakers outside in the hall for the leftover people who were not allowed in, as they did, one student commented, “They couldn’t even get this right.”
The College of Saint Rose’s Board of Trustees voted to close the school on Thursday. The college’s Board of Trustees Chair Jeffrey Stone kicked off the announcement on Friday, saying cost-cutting and fundraising efforts by the college were not enough to bridge the financial gap the institution faces.
“As it became more clear that the college would be unable to continue as a standalone institution, we sought financial support from the legislature and other elected officials and, behind the scenes, actively sought to partner with a like-minded institution of higher learning to continue our 103 years. But, those efforts were unsuccessful. The board's decision to close The College of Saint Rose was not an easy one," Stone said.
Only a few minutes into his speech, he was met with booing from the crowd. When White interjected to tell students to be more respectful, the crowd both inside and outside the hall only voiced their anger louder.
White spoke after and said she wanted to address what she called factual errors and misinformation in media reports of the closure. Earlier last week, the Albany Times Union reported that the school was facing mounting debt and had lobbied state officials for emergency funds.
“It was reported that we recently reached out to various political leaders for a financial bailout. That is not true. We never asked for a bailout. That was not a request for immediate funding,” White said. “It was a request for bridge funding to support operations through the 2024-2025 academic year to give us time to work towards a continuation of the college's critical programs to a potential partnership with another institution and to the programs that significantly increase the professional workforce in fields that are facing a shortage of crisis proportion in New York State.”
Speaking to reporters following the community gathering, White criticized reporters for breaking the news of the college's closing.
“The only reason that I'm not a wreck and in tears is 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 a time we had put aside to do a personal message to them and have a conversation,” she said.
She also reiterated that the request for state funding was not a “bailout,” but a request for “bridge funding.”
White said the college had been in financial trouble for about 10 years and there was a decline in enrollment that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. She said, during that time, the school cut $9 million in administrative costs and $6 million in academic programs, while also looking for potential partnerships. She said the school signed non-disclosure agreements, so she could not share which institutions were approached. It is also unclear how big a budget gap the school faces.
Another question is what will happen to the college’s 48-acre campus in the city’s Pine Hills neighborhood. In a joint statement, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and Albany County Executive Dan McCoy expressed their sadness for the students and staff.
“We are in close communication with City and County stakeholders, state and local government leaders, academia, and developers to ensure that we are all working together to reimagine the CSR campus to minimize the impact of the College’s closure,” the statement read. “In the coming weeks and months, we will also work with the College’s staff to connect them to job opportunities with the City, County, and other local employers through job fairs and other events.”
After Friday’s announcement, several students expressed their frustration and anger with the college. McKayla Ganci is a junior at the college and said it was hard to think about leaving.
“I'm a transfer student, so I just started this semester. And, you know, we're already attached to so many friends and clubs and our professors and everything,” she said. “And I can't imagine how our professors feel. I mean, they're all losing their jobs. We're losing our friends.”
Keisha Aliza, also a transfer student and a sophomore, said she wished the college had been more transparent with students.
“It just sucks overall. They should have been more transparent with us, especially transfer students. I feel like they should have said, like, ‘This is what's going on. This is the reality. And this might happen,’ just so we could have been more prepared and maybe even gone somewhere else. But, they probably didn't want that, to try and keep the college open.”
Both students said they had seen the college continuing campus tours this week for prospective students. Aliza said she was angry that she went into debt to attend this college, when she could have chosen another school.
“Now, if I go somewhere else, I’m going to still be in debt, but I’m going to have this debt to pay off -- and what if not all of my credits transfer? And it’s just a bunch of questions and we don’t know what’s going on," Aliza said.
White said the college will have a series of Zoom meetings with staff and students going forward to provide more information.