Shuttered St. Joseph’s College plots a comeback, even as doubts hang over 3-year plan

RENSSELEAR — When Saint Joseph’s College comes back — and Bill Carroll, adviser and spokesman for the private, four-year institution that closed nearly three years ago, insists it will be when, rather than if — it will mean leaning on partnerships with stronger colleges and universities.

Given the increasingly shaky standing emerging for other small, four-year liberal arts colleges since Saint Joe’s shut down in May 2017, Carroll suggests the college — with a new, three-year plan meant to restore life at the 131-year-old campus — might wind up being seen as a leader.

“I think we’re a beacon of hope,” Carroll said this week, after a letter went out to alumni that gave a rough, three-year outline of the trustees’ plan.

“I know it’s been a hotly contested idea that the board closed down in 2017 — and voluntarily so,” said Carroll, the former president of Benedictine University in Illinois, owner of consulting firm Hunter Global Education and hired in March 2019 by the shuttered Saint Joseph’s as an adviser. “There’s been a lot of criticism of that and a lot of hard feelings. But, OK, that’s finished — that’s behind us. How do we move forward?

The new plan would have Saint Joe’s partner with other schools to host their degree programs beginning in fall 2021, build activity and student traffic on the 180-acre campus during the following three years, and then start the application process by spring 2024 to win back accreditation the college gave up under a $27 million pile of debt and declining enrollment.

“At some point, we might be able to take this model to other small institutions,” Carroll said. “There are a lot of them struggling. Unfortunately, these institutions die slow and painful deaths. I think what happened at Saint Joe’s was, they said: Time out. Let’s resolve these issues — which they did resolve — and let’s try and bring it back.”

Whether alumni, still stung by a closure that took them off guard, or leaders in Rensselaer — a community rooting for a Saint Joe’s comeback — buy that is another matter.

“How can anyone look ahead when the Board of Trustees’ decisions are dominated by those who made the past mistakes?” asked Tim Conroy, a 1989 Saint Joseph’s graduate. “I personally have given my time, effort and money to Saint Joe’s since the closing, and I don’t believe this landlord or diploma mall approach is viable.”

When Saint Joseph’s stopped operations — a move that left undergrads on a campus of 900 student scrambling after the 2016-17 academic year to find other schools to finish their academic careers — trustees at the Catholic institution gave up the college’s accreditation. Regaining that, trustees wrote to alumni, “is the single biggest hurdle standing in the way of” the college.

The letter described a two-pronged approach, meant to rebound in a financially sound way.

Part one: University Center

The Saint Joseph’s University Center would focus on degree programs, starting with a two-year associate’s degree offered by a yet-to-be-named institution. Those credits would be designed so they could transfer into a four-year degree — either at a partner school or in what Carroll described as specialized, junior-senior programs developed by Saint Joseph’s.

Those courses could start as early as fall 2021.

Saint Joseph’s in January started hosting Ivy Tech Community College courses. Ivy Tech has nine students in an eight-week English composition class, according to a spokesman. He said courses in public speaking and Microsoft Excel would start during Ivy Tech’s second eight-week session, with an Entrepreneur 101 class coming this summer.

Part two: Career College

Saint Joseph’s Career College would offer non-degree professional certifications in medical fields, including nursing and phlebotomy, and others, possibly agriculture. Saint Joseph’s announced in late 2019 that it would host certified nursing assistant courses in 2020.

Combined, those would build a case for accreditation when Saint Joe’s goes back to the Higher Learning Commission, Carroll said. The accreditation process could take another four to six years, he said.

Carroll declined to say which schools might be partners but that “we’re talking about four-year colleges and universities, all over the country.”

Carroll said Marian University, a four-year, Catholic school in Indianapolis, was still part of the conversation. Saint Joseph’s partnered with Marian University to create a two-year school called Saint Joseph’s College of Marian University-Indianapolis. Classes aimed at associate’s degrees in liberal arts, business and information technology started this academic year. The promise from Marian University officials was that if the new collaboration worked, a spinoff could wind up on the Rensselaer campus someday.

‘A lot of what-ifs’

Not included in the plan were any references to an “aspirational goal,” revealed to potential donors in 2018, to have students on the Rensselaer campus for the 2021-22 school year “with a prominent Saint Joseph’s College identity,” including a fight song, Puma mascot and a familiar purple-and-cardinal color schemes.

“The college feel you’re talking about, my reading is that that’s not really possible. Not yet, at least”, Carroll said. “There’s a lot of what-ifs. We will not be the Saint Joe’s we were in 2015. That model was not working. And that model was not working across the country.”

The reception among alumni and the community was measured.

“So essentially what they are saying is that they are going to reboot as a vocational/technical school and that they will essentially use the campus to serve as a regional campus for other schools,” said Ralph Loura, a 1986 graduate who was student body president his senior year and captain of the Saint Joe’s football team.

“Overall, a fairly non-compelling (and non-)appealing plan for alumni,” Loura said. “This is not the resurrection of Saint Joe. It is more of a community college/vo-tech model, which most of us don’t resonate with emotionally.”

‘They have to take baby steps, right now’

Conroy said he was expecting to hear more from Saint Joseph’s. He said alumni still had trust issues with a plan coming from some of the same trustees who decided to suspend operations.

“This information has been repetitive for several months — when will Saint Joseph’s College be announcing the partners?” Conroy asked. “What assurances do potential donors have that SJC accreditation is possible? What year? Four to five years after the initial application? I am not sure that this board even knows.”

Rensselaer Mayor Steve Wood said he’d not received a copy of the letter sent to alums. He said people in town have been anxious to see some action on a campus that has largely been empty for three school years.

“Hopefully, something’s going to happen out there,” Wood said. “I think some of the alumni want it to come back as a four-year school. I think they have to take baby steps, right now. I’m not an educator, and how they work those things is a little beyond what I consider my expertise. Hopefully, down the road, they’ll pull something together so we see something more than vacant buildings.”

Carroll continued to ask for patience. And he pointed to signs of life on campus — “When you turn into the campus now, the gate’s open, the electronic sign is on, you have Ivy Tech students coming to class,” he said — as a commitment.

“It’s a small activity,” Carroll said. “But you know what, it’s a heartbeat. We didn’t have one a few months ago. It’s a heartbeat, and it’s showing every sign of getting stronger.”