Closed colleges

[MoxieGrrl]

We talk on here a lot about chapters being closed...but does anyone know of colleges or universities that have closed down?

Yes, it's completely random, but I'm curious

[MoxieGrrl]

Thank you very much, localsororities!

[The1calledTKE]

We used to have a Division of Emory at Valdosta til the lat 50's then they closed it and gave it to VSU for $1.00 . The former Emory campus is now VSU's north campus.

I don't know if this counts as a closed college, but back in the late 80s/early 90s, Hawaii Loa College was taken over by Hawaii Pacific College, which in turn became Hawaii Pacific University.

HLC is now HPU's Hawaii Loa Campus on the Windward side of Oahu, and has breathtaking views!

No Greek system there, though.

[RockChalk]

Phillips University in Oklahoma closed four years ago. I don't know if they had a Greek system or not.

[KappaKittyCat]

In the 1960s Downer Women's College merged with Lawrence College and they became Lawrence University. Downer was in Milwaukee. Lawrence is in Appleton. About 75% of the Downer alumnae have accepted that Downer=Lawrence now. They come to reunions at LU, they give money to LU as if it were Downer, etc. The other 25% see Lawrence as this monster that ate their school. They raise hell with the poor, underpaid and underappreciated student employees of Alumni & Development; I've received some of the worst old lady tongue lashings ever from some of them, and that includes the time my Gran caught me exploding marshmallows in the microwave.

[texas*princess]

Originally posted by zntke711
We used to have a Division of Emory at Valdosta til the lat 50's then they closed it and gave it to VSU for $1.00 . The former Emory campus is now VSU's north campus.

$1???

[The1calledTKE]

Yes $1.00. I learned this being a history major and we had to learn a little VSU history to.

[queequek]

Wow, I would buy a college for a buck

[texas*princess]

same here

that is a really interesting tidbit of info zntke!

[winnieb]

A lady I worked with a few years ago told me the college she attended closed--due to lack of enrollment and funds....
Anyway, she claims that when the school closed all her federally funded students loans were forgiven!!! **Kind of makes me wish my school would close**

[winnieb]

A lady I worked with a few years ago told me the college she attended closed--due to lack of enrollment and funds....
Anyway, she claims that when the school closed all her federally funded students loans were forgiven!!! **Kind of makes me wish my school would close**

Wendi

[Fewdfreak]

From a newspaper from where I live.
__________
Marycrest closes doors for the last time
By Ann McGlynn/ QUAD-CITY TIMES
08-01-2002

For 42 years, Betty Wilson came to work with the people she called her family.

She took a week-long vacation just once from her job as housekeeping supervisor at Marycrest International University in Davenport, and that was only because her son tricked her into it.

On Wednesday, Wilson, 73, packed up her office and left the school she called her life.

“I love it dearly,” she said while sitting on a bench outside Lawlor Hall, one of the campus dorms. “I’m so sad to see it closed.”

Marycrest officially closed Wednesday. A deal is on the table to buy the 10-acre, 22-building Davenport campus, although no one will say who the potential buyer is. All student transcripts are in storage at the University of Iowa. Other documents, about 200 boxes worth, are either at or on their way to another Teikyo-owned university in Colorado. Inspection records and blueprints will stay with the campus buildings.

An administrator at Teikyo Loretto Heights University is now the chief administrator for Marycrest.

Japan-based Teikyo purchased the school in 1990 from the Sisters of Humility. The sisters started the school in 1939 as an institution for Catholic women. Enrollment plunged when Teikyo came in, and the name of the school changed from Marycrest College to Teikyo Marycrest University to Marycrest International University.

The school was placed on probation in 1994 because national college and university accrediting organizations had problems with the way the school was being governed. Marycrest was placed on probation again last fall for similar reasons.

The school’s then-newly appointed president, former North Scott School District Superintendent Pat DeLuca, made the announcement in December that the board, made up of six members from Japan, three from Denver and one from Davenport, had decided to close the school after student enrollment projections fell. Marycrest is the second Iowa college to close after being purchased by Teikyo.

DeLuca continues to look for a job. Wilson will be looking for a new job, too, she said.




“If they had just given Dr. DeLuca a chance,” she wistfully said while reminiscing about her years at the school.

The Marycrest Alumni Association will continue, association president “Gabby” Rafferty said. More than 500 people who answered a survey about whether to continue answered yes. Only three said no.

“We got letters and telephone calls from all over the country,” added Rafferty, who graduated in 1945.

A homecoming celebration, with a business meeting and Mass, is scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 5, she said. A newsletter will go out in August. A Web site, marycrestalumni.com, provides more information. Membership eligibility is extended beyond graduates to include faculty, staff, friends and any students who attended the school.

“We’re sowing those seeds they gave out at the last event,” Rafferty said of the school’s closing ceremony in June. “We will re-grow the traditions.”

Jeff Ashcraft, a 1986 graduate and the school’s vice president for institutional advancement, made a final rounds Wednesday with the pile of keys he has acquired over the past several months. He took on several duties as others left.

A company called 1-800-GOT-JUNK took away 86 loads of stuff, he said. The three auctions held by Scotty’s Auction Service, the most recent of which was Saturday, brought in just less than $100,000. Items were donated or sold at a steal of a price to several charities or educational centers, including a hospital in Guatemala, Habitat for Humanity, churches and the Wapsi River Environmental Education Center.

All that remains is classroom furniture in a couple of buildings, the contents of the library, a few erasers here and there and some thumbtacks stuck in boards that once were home to school announcements.

Ruhl & Ruhl Realtors Inc. will manage the property until a buyer is found, Ashcraft said. Security officers will keep an eye on the site, too.

As Ashcraft walked through the buildings one last time, he shut off lights. He closed a window. He looked through a pile of pictures left behind by someone in a hallway. He looked out at the breathtaking view of the Mississippi River from a classroom in Upham Hall. He paused when he got to the stage in the auditorium.

“This is the sad part for me, the stage,” he said. “I met my wife here. I did a thousand shows here.”

Before he slowly turned around to leave the stage, he said, “Everything looks secure.”

--
It sucks for those students because they offered a major in computer animation and graphic design, and I remember seeing on the news that it was a rare, and hard to transfer, and some people would be having to move to California to complete their degrees.

[Cluey]

I never realized how many women's colleges closed or were merged with another school. Wow! I am a graduate of Judson College (AL). I find it truly amazing to me that my college has held on so long. There have been three merger attempts with Samford, but we've managed to remain independant throughout the years. I guess this thread hits home for me

Judson College
Women, Faith and Knowledge
Since 1838

To the spirit of our Judson,
To the place where memories dwell,
To these dear old ivied halls we love so well.