You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Facing financial difficulties, the College of Saint Rose will close at the end of the academic year.
The college’s Board of Trustees voted at a meeting Thursday to close the small, private college in Albany, N.Y., according to local news reports. The Times Union recently reported that the college had requested $5 million in emergency funding from the city of Albany as well as money from the state.
The College of Saint Rose has been in operation for a little over a century. Recent years have been fraught with tension; in 2017, multiple trustees resigned due to a clash with then president Carolyn J. Stefanco (who later stepped down) over her leadership style. The college also saw deep cuts in 2020, with multiple programs and faculty members axed amid financial issues.
Like many liberal arts colleges, Saint Rose has struggled to maintain enrollment in recent years. While local media reports (and the latest data from the U.S. Education Department) indicate that the college currently has about 2,800 students, that number has been on a steady decline.
In 2019, the last year before the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. and slowed enrollment nationwide, the college had 4,004 students, according to figures from the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Going back a decade to fall 2013, federal data shows a head count of 4,542 students.
Multiple institutions have announced closures this year, including Magdalen College, Lincoln Christian University, Alderson Broaddus University, Alliance University, Cabrini University, Cardinal Stritch University, Finlandia University, Hodges University, Holy Names University, Iowa Wesleyan University, Medaille University, Presentation College and various for-profits.
