Quick hits
- LGBTQ+ pride flag’s relocation roils Catholic institution: St. Edward’s University, in Austin, Tex., blocked its student newspaper from reporting on a student-government meeting last week where its president and another top administrator discussed the flag’s removal from a campus coffeehouse that had been remodeled. Unhappy students say the flag’s former spot in a well-traveled part of campus made them feel welcome, and its new location, in a hall displaying other identity flags, isn’t as visible. (Austin American-Statesman)
- Follow the U. of Phoenix acquisition money: The University of Idaho has spent more than $10 million on consulting as it moves to buy the for-profit University of Phoenix. Most of that money, at least $7.3 million, went to the law firm Hogan Lovells, a former employer of C. Scott Green, the University of Idaho’s president. The university said there is no reason to question whether its decision to hire the firm is in the university’s best interest. (Idaho Education News)
- Ohio U. pauses race-based scholarships: The public institution won’t make any new awards as it reviews admissions and scholarship criteria after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions last summer, and after the state’s attorney general pledged not to defend employees against lawsuits challenging their use of race in the admissions process. But some faculty members say the university is interpreting the Supreme Court’s decision too broadly, as the legal question of whether it applies to scholarships remains unsettled. (Ohio Capital Journal, The Chronicle)
- Aspiring vets get accidental acceptance letters: The University of Illinois’s College of Veterinary Medicine is apologizing for sending 44 erroneous acceptance letters to applicants who were in fact wait-listed. Such errors are surprisingly common in higher ed. (WCIA, The Chronicle)
Closures and mergers churn on
It’s been a busy week for college closures and mergers. Catch up on the big developments:
In Mississippi, a state senator proposed closing three public universities. Sen. John Polk, a Republican, has introduced a bill that would direct the state’s higher-ed oversight board to choose which colleges to shut down in 2028. It calls for the decision to be based on factors including enrollment, degrees offered, economic impact, and research. The campuses would then be sold or donated to other state agencies, while state-sponsored research laboratories could be shuttered or transferred to other institutions. Polk termed his own proposal a conversation starter that is “pretty out there,” but said it would save the state money. Key lawmakers have indicated they don’t plan to advance the bill. (The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi Today, Associated Press)
In North Carolina, a historically Black institution promised to sue to keep its accreditation. The interim president of Saint Augustine’s University said it’s time to “appeal to a higher authority” with evidence that the private HBCU had progressed toward fixing financial problems that prompted the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges to try to strip its accreditation. Saint Augustine’s had appealed, but the accreditor upheld the revocation on Tuesday and said the university should go to arbitration.
Saint Augustine’s faces a barrage of problems, including a lien for unpaid taxes, and has had trouble paying employees on time in recent weeks. Accreditation is required for a college to receive federal financial aid, making its loss a death rattle for most institutions. (The News & Observer, The Chronicle)
In Massachusetts, Bay Path University agreed to acquire Cambridge College. Bay Path is a private institution near the Connecticut border that has all-women undergraduate programs and coed graduate programs. Cambridge is a private, adult-focused college based in Boston. The deal would roughly double Bay Path’s enrollment, to more than 5,000 students, and build an institution around career-focused education for diverse student populations, according to Bay Path. The two institutions started talking in 2023 and anticipate closing the deal this June, but full integration isn’t expected before the summer of 2025.
In Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph’s University wants to sell a campus it picked up when it acquired the University of the Sciences. The 24-acre West Philadelphia campus, acquired with USciences in 2022, faces an uncertain future that could include all operations moving about four miles to the main Saint Joseph’s campus, or the university keeping some graduate-student and research facilities there. The university would like to sell the whole property to a single developer. (Axios Philadelphia)
The bigger picture: Financial troubles and political interests continue to push consolidations among colleges — and for those that carry on to monetize the assets they acquire.
Comings and goings
- Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, president of William Jewell College, in Missouri, has been named president of Washington & Jefferson College, in Pennsylvania.
- Lisa B. Lewis has been named provost of Albion College, in Michigan, after serving as interim provost since the fall of 2022.
- Scott R. Irelan, an associate dean in the College of Fine Arts at Western Michigan University, has been named dean of the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts at Illinois State University.
- Joseph Trainor, deputy dean and professor of public policy and administration in the Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware, has been named interim dean of the school.
To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.
Footnote
Happy Leap Day! As you will no doubt be reminded many times throughout the day, we add this date every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the Earth’s orbit around the sun, which actually takes 365 days, six hours, and nine minutes.
This is the rare time we can say a “traditional-age” college student is turning five. The Chronicle has featured such leap babies, or “leaplings,” in the past. Back in 2012, Washington and Lee University had five sophomores who were all born on February 29, 1992.
I wonder what they’re up to now that they’ve reached the ripe old age of eight.