Alumnae of Sweet Briar, whose board voted to shut down the 114-year-old women's college at the end of the summer, are brewing a fight.
On Sunday, however, they turned their attention to embracing the students.
With bunches of daisies and words of encouragement, hundreds of alumnae lined the main road into campus in a Sunday afternoon show of support for students recently told they'd have to find a new college.
"Your alumnae sisters are fighting for you," said Terry Evans, class of 1974, welcoming students back from spring break.
"It's a show of support and this feeling of sisterhood that we actually all share over all the years, but there's always real strong bond here."
For students like Anna Ten Bensel, the bond has been challenged by a spring break consumed by considering other colleges.
"It's kind of bittersweet because you're happy to be back, but you know that you have such little time left."
A week and a half earlier, this sophomore's education was rocked after the board declared that "insurmountable financial challenges" were putting an end to Sweet Briar.
"People were on the ground crying, sobbing, convulsing. Professors were just beside themselves."
On Sunday, however, there was an enthusiastic declaration from Ellen Pitera, a member of a new board trying to replace the existing one and save the Amherst area school.
"We will not stop fighting until until we have turned every stone, boulder, pebble, grain of sand."
Fellow board member Sally Mott Freeman pledged a six-figure sum toward a drive that has topped $3 million, and she hopes new leadership can quickly take charge.
"We will look at the numbers, and we find out how we can live within our means and do a little bit of creative destruction perhaps."
That's welcome news to Katrina Matz of the class of 2017.
"With everybody here, it gives me a little bit more hope that they're gonna try and save it for us because I don't want to go anywhere else. Sweet Briar is my home, and I don't want to leave."
Volunteers with Saving Sweet Briar Inc. hint that the first salvo in their legal battle could come this week.
