Three days after announcing St. Joseph's college in Rensselaer would suspend operations for the 2017-2018 academic year, Board of Trustees Chairman Ben Sponseller Monday met with students, faculty and staff in an attempt to answer the question on most everyone's mind: how did it come to this?
How did the 128-year-old Catholic college amass $45 million in debt, so that it can't pay its bills and must lay off nearly 200 employees and find new academic homes for nearly 900 students?
The answer, Sponseller says, is that he and other board members wanted to preserve the colleges tradition of subsidizing 65 percent of the annual operating costs, while students pay about 35 percent of the actual cost of their education.
But donations haven't kept pace with expenses, so Sponseller says the board took out a large loan several years ago and began dipping into the college’s endowment to cover daily operating costs -- to the point Saint Joe can't pay its bills and must cease operations until a new financial plan is hatched.
The college in November posted an online statement saying it had been placed on probation by its accreditation commission because its resource base didn't support current educational programs.
Students and staff say it was common to hear administrator say money was tight. But many people on campus, like sophomore Jordan Dixon, say they're in shock and upset the trustees didn't communicate the severity of the problem.
"I am partially angry to the fact that it's been 15 years of this and it hadn't gotten fixed," she says. "But you can't just be angry. It's not one person's fault. No one purposely did this so Saint Joe would fail."
Several employees became irritated when Sponseller couldn't answer questions about the timing of layoffs, health insurance and severance pay, which he says depends on the state Attorney General’s approval to distribute some of the remaining dollars in the remaining endowment fund.
And while Sponseller invited staff to help shape the future of Saint Joe, one faculty member asked why she would care about the new college when the board was getting rid of the faculty.
After the meeting several staff members crowded into a room to discuss their options.
