Listicle: 6 Insane Things You Learn When Your College Goes Bankrupt
I think this is the first time College Insurrection has linked an article at Cracked.com but the subject matter is appropriate.
Writers Mark Hill and Kate Dobson did a great job of documenting the higher ed bubble.
6 Insane Things You Learn When Your College Goes Bankrupt
Unless your college advertises on TV at 2 a.m., you’ve probably never thought of it as a place that could up and vanish one day. Colleges are institutions — they’re not supposed to just disappear like the sketchy taco joint down the street. But sometimes they do, and the implications are staggering. Sweet Briar College, a women’s liberal arts school in Virginia, recently announced that it would be shutting down after its 114th year. Cracked talked to senior Kate Dobson to learn what happens when your school goes to that great NCAA division in the sky.
#6. The Process Is Super Sketchy
We learned about the closure when our president sent out a brief email requesting our presence at a meeting. I wasn’t going to bother attending, because he made it sound like a mundane matter. But I started hearing rumors, and then we saw staff crying. So either someone was conducting some very mild school terrorism — not a shooting, but maybe a systematic insulting of haircuts — or else some other bad news was afoot.
The board of directors cited “insurmountable financial challenges” as their motivation to shut down. I’d love to elaborate, but I can’t because they didn’t. We have an $94 million endowment, and we have no idea where it’s going. Our president claimed that his board would be as transparent as possible, but they’re not exactly cosplaying The Hollow Man here — unless you mean that they left us with our metaphorical dicks in the breeze.
I’m not going to shotgun a bunch of numbers here, because talking about college is no excuse for inflicting math on you. But I will point out the media has a healthy sense of skepticism about the board’s claims. Oh, and did I mention that our president was involved in a misappropriated donor funds scandal at Trinity College?
Read the rest at the link below.
Comments
She is quite sexist when she says as part of the #1 reason: “In 1960 there were 230 women’s colleges in the United States and Canada — now there are 47.” Suppose that a male was writing the same thing and said: “In the mid 60s there were 250 men’s colleges in the United States and Canada — now there are 4.” Think he would get away with it? I doubt it for the same reason there is not an “American Association of University Men” to encourage more men to go to college.