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Sweet Briar Saved

Sweet Briar College is back in business - at least for the coming academic year.  Virginia’s attorney general brokered a deal that will bring a new board of directors and president to the Amherst campus. 

In an agreement brokered by Virginia’s Attorney General, several groups have agreed to drop their lawsuits against Sweet Briar College.  In exchange, they’ve been allowed to choose a new board of directors which is expected to appoint Phillip Stone as interim president.   When he led another small, liberal arts school - Bridgewater College, enrollment grew by 78 percent.  But Sarah Clement, who led a group of alumni in the fight to save Sweet Briar, says more must be done.

“Marketing, branding, a whole new focus on our land and environmental resources and programs.  I mean the college has a gorgeous 3200 acre campus, and we really need to highlight our strengths and not apologize for being rural or being small.”

And Clement said she would not rule out admitting men to the historic women’s college.  Her group has $21 million in pledges from alumni and other supporters, and the attorney general will lift restrictions on the school’s $85 million endowment, allowing administrators to use $16 million for operations in the coming year. Clement says some students have already made plans to transfer and some faculty members have accepted new jobs, but she hopes many will be back in the fall.

“I’m sure it’ll be a lean year, sort of like what Sweet Briar and other colleges were like during the World War Two years.  We might expect to have a smaller student body, and we hope to get back as many of the faculty as we can.”

Clement says it’s unfortunate that Sweet Briar had to endure a crisis of this kind, but it’s galvanized supporters who will, she says, keep a close watch on the Amherst campus to assure something like this does not happen again.

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Sandy Hausman has more on the future of the Amherst campus.

 

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief
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