Sweet Briar College’s tentative reopening is a victory for its supporters, who refused to quit on the 114-year-old women’s college after the Board of Directors voted in February to shut it down.
That victory is tempered, however, by uncertainty about what will happen next. The college, on a 3,000-acre campus near Lynchburg, Va., now plans to reopen in the fall, but the extent of the trauma caused by the decision to close it — and the subsequent fight to keep it open — is not yet clear. Meanwhile, the college still faces the same enrollment and revenue challenges that prompted the decision to shut down.
Many of the administrators who made that decision will not be part of Sweet Briar’s attempted rebirth. Under the terms of an agreement announced on Saturday by Virginia’s attorney general, at least 13 members of the Board of Directors will step down. Phillip C. Stone, a former president of Bridgewater College, in Virginia, is expected to take over the reins from Sweet Briar’s current president, James F. Jones Jr.
“Whoever becomes the new president will have a very, very fast turnaround in deciding what programs continue, and at what staffing levels,” said Cathy N. Gutierrez, who taught religion and classics at Sweet Briar for 18 years.
Ms. Gutierrez is glad about the reopening, but she said it offered cold comfort to Sweet Briar’s teaching force. “We are still terminated,” she said, adding that those who want to try to stick around under the new regime will not know if they have jobs until August.
Many have moved on, including Ms. Gutierrez. She plans to move to New York City, where her husband, Eric S. Casey, another refugee from Sweet Briar, has taken a job at a preparatory school. She said she expected to wait until the next hiring cycle, then apply for jobs.
By Ms. Gutierrez’s accounting, the faculty members who taught mathematics, engineering, and environmental science at Sweet Briar have all made plans to leave. “They need to staff those positions,” she said.
Some professors would jump at the chance to get rehired at Sweet Briar, she added, but the atmosphere probably will be different.
Creating that new atmosphere could be a challenge, and Sweet Briar’s new leadership may not have much margin for error. “Whoever is named president, that person needs to have a vision and position us in a way that no one has managed to do before,” Ms. Gutierrez said. “We need incoming students, we’re going to need new ideas. What really concerns me the most is that we’re going to need this so fast.”
In the meantime, key questions — about Sweet Briar’s ability to raise more money, bring departed students and faculty members back, and recruit new ones — are unanswered. “This is information that will be in discussions in the days ahead and not something we can answer right now,” Christy Jackson, a spokeswoman for the college, said in an email on Saturday.
‘Keep Your Promise’
Saving Sweet Briar Inc., the nonprofit group that led the push to keep the college open, now faces a new challenge: wrangling the millions of dollars that alumnae pledged to the effort.
The group’s website flashed an exultant banner, “SWEET BRIAR SAVED,” followed by a caveat, “TIME TO KEEP YOUR PROMI$E.”
Saving Sweet Briar has raised more than $21 million in pledges, but less than 5 percent of that money has actually been collected, according to Eric Cote, a spokesman for the group.
Under the new agreement, Saving Sweet Briar must pay $12 million toward the “ongoing operations of the college.” The first payment, of $2.5 million, is due on July 2. The rest will be due 60 days after a judge signs off on the agreement, which is expected to happen on Monday, according to Mr. Cote.
Saving Sweet Briar now must make sure alumnae pony up more than half of the cash by late August.
“Understandably, a number of those who pledged support were waiting to see the outcome of this case,” said Mr. Cote. Now that the initial battle has been won, “we know that those pledges are going to rapidly be converted to contributions,” he said.
Students who had made plans for life after Sweet Briar now must decide whether to return to a college that remains in limbo.
Reba Gagne, who just finished her junior year at Sweet Briar, was planning to go to Guilford College in the fall. Guilford, in North Carolina, had offered her all the financial aid she needed, along with assurances that her credits would transfer and that she could play lacrosse there.
Then she got a text from a Sweet Briar alumna, a day before the attorney general’s announcement, saying the Virginia college was going to reopen. The news was good, but also disorienting.
“I am overjoyed Sweet Briar is able to reopen, but this does leave us with many questions,” she wrote in an email on Sunday. “We have yet to hear answers concerning financial aid, if our professors and coaches will be returning, and if it will be possible to graduate.”
Ms. Gagne said she had been on the phone with friends “nonstop” since the announcement. Many of them had not found a viable option after Sweet Briar announced its closure, she said, so they will probably return in the fall.
For Ms. Gagne, the decision is harder. She still loves Sweet Briar, but she is wary of the uncertainty hanging over the news of its reopening.
“If Sweet Briar is not able to pull through with my needs,” she said, “I cannot afford to gamble with my future and will not be able to come home.”
Steve Kolowich writes about how colleges are changing, and staying the same, in the digital age. Follow him on Twitter @stevekolowich, or write to him at steve.kolowich@chronicle.com.
