Dave Bangert Lafayette Journal & Courier
Published 9:31 AM EST Nov 30, 2019
RENSSELAER – The first classes on Saint Joseph’s College campus since the four-year, Catholic liberal arts school closed in 2017 will come in the spring 2020 semester under the Ivy Tech Community College flag.
What that might mean for the direction of the college’s promised rebirth and retooling has been left to speculation for alumni and others, as Saint Joseph’s trustees quietly work toward the January 2020 release of a full-blown plan for the Rensselaer campus.
“I know there’s a lot of angst out there,” said Bill Carroll, the former president of Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, hired in March 2019 by Saint Joseph’s as an adviser.
“I get that there’s a great need out there to know what’s going on,” Carroll, owner of the consulting firm Hunter Global Education and Saint Joseph’s new spokesman, said. “But we’ve got to take one step at a time. We’ve promised a plan. We’re developing the plan. I think the plan is kind of exciting. It’s looking at a new way for doing business in Rensselaer. … The Ivy Tech classes are the first stepping stone.”
Saint Joseph’s alumni, many of whom have been frustrated by what they’ve characterized as a lack of communication dating to the decision to shutter the campus, say they’re waiting for stepping stones two, three and beyond.
“While it will be nice to have activity on campus, alumni remain unsure what this means for the future of Saint Joseph’s College,” said Jackie Bradway, vice president of Saint Joseph’s College Alumni Association, Inc. The nonprofit group started after the college closed as a way to keep alumni connected as Saint Joe’s tried to rebuild.
“Ivy Tech is a fine source of income for the campus in the interim,” Bradway said. “But what we are really waiting for is the resurrection of Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer. Alumni are eagerly waiting the ‘plan’ the SJC team has been working on since the announcement of the closure in 2017.”
Saint Joseph’s suspended operations after graduation day in May 2017. The decision, made earlier that year, came with the college $27 million in debt and facing declining enrollment on a campus that closed its final year with 904 students. Students in the middle of their academic careers had to scramble to find new schools.
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Since then, St. Joe’s negotiated a settlement on its debt. The deal included the sale of some land nearby but saved its campus, along with thousands of income-producing acres known as the Waugh Farm in nearby White County.
The college also partnered with Marian University, another Catholic liberal arts school in Indianapolis, to create a two-year school. Saint Joseph’s College of Marian University-Indianapolis started offering associate’s degrees in liberal arts, business and information technology 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.
Two weeks ago, Saint Joseph’s sent a newsletter to alumni with news about student programs coming on two fronts.
The first came when the Indiana Department of Health approved the campus as a training facility for certified nursing assistant courses. Those classes will begin in January.
The second came when Saint Joseph’s reached to Ivy Tech’s Lafayette campus, which is the hub for a district that includes Rensselaer.
Ivy Tech will offer four, eight-week courses in English composition, communication/public speaking, introduction to education and Microsoft Excel. The four subjects are considered core classes that would apply toward certificates or degrees at Ivy Tech.
David Bathe, chancellor of Ivy Tech’s Lafayette campus, said the partnership had been in the works since the summer. Bathe said Ivy Tech “had a natural link” to Rensselaer, with some of its students making the 45-mile drive down Interstate 65 for classes in Lafayette. He said Ivy Tech is starting small with four courses and will grow from there.
Is the move a precursor to making the Saint Joseph’s College campus a permanent home for Ivy Tech – or even an Ivy Tech asset at some point?
“I think it’s complementary at this point,” Bathe said. “Their goal is to come back. I’d say we’re serving people that are in our service district as they move forward with their plans for what they want to do in the long run. … As that changes and they complete their mission and their plans, if we fit into that, we’d be happy to do that.”
Carroll said he was in talks “with several other institutions,” which he said could produce a mix of public and private partners for Saint Joseph’s. Which schools? He wouldn’t say this week “without the presidents’ permission.”
“I’m looking at students in seats,” Carroll said. “There won’t be 500 or 600 students on campus next semester. … But if the community is showing interest in these programs, that’s like a breath of fresh air and wind behind our sail.”
There are skeptics among those close to the college, as it was.
“I’ve compared renting space to Ivy Tech to having a Ford dealer rent space in the showroom to Chevy,” said Brian Capouch, a former professor at Saint Joseph’s College. “I take the news no differently than hearing that they rented some office space to one of the businesses affected by the big fire (in downtown Rensselaer), it's just a way to keep some revenue coming in the door. How could it usher the way to a future reincarnation of the college to have another school offering classes on our campus?”
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Capouch said that “all eyes now are on this big impending plan they have teased the past few weeks.”
Saint Joseph’s trustees promised in its 128 Core Partners plan, revealed in 2018, that the college’s “aspirational goal” was to have students on the Rensselaer campus for the 2021-22 school year “with a prominent Saint Joseph’s College identity.” The 128 Core Partners literature says that would include a fight song, Puma mascot and a familiar purple-and-cardinal color schemes. When Saint Joe’s closed and the college created what it called its “Phoenix Team,” the plan was to retool the college so it would be relevant and financially sustainable.
Carroll said Saint Joseph’s hasn’t strayed from that.
“The decision, the way I understand it, was to shut down because it was growing in the wrong direction,” Carroll said. “And the trustees put a brake on it so it could come back. … Their goal was to stabilize the deficit, and they’ve done that. And the next step was to bring back the institution. Will it be like it was in ’16? Probably not. That wasn’t working. Will it be a Saint Joseph’s College that adheres to the mission of Saint Joseph’s College? Absolutely.”
Carroll said that since 2017, news emerged of other U.S. campuses in similar situations.
“Saint Joseph’s College wasn’t the only institution that was in dire straits,” Carroll said. “There are literally hundreds of small, private institutions struggling with this. I’m hoping that someday Saint Joseph’s College will be looked at as a model for how these institutions might persevere, retain their identity and be financially stable.”
Bradway said alumni are waiting, particularly after the departure for Bill Hogan.
Hogan, Saint Joseph’s former athletic director, had returned to campus as the face of fundraising efforts and a trusted voice of the rebuilding effort. Hogan resigned in October. Others followed, including Ned Tonner, a Rensselaer attorney who had been at Saint Joe’s trustee since late 2017. Hogan didn’t reveal why he was leaving. But Tonner told the J&C in October that he resigned because his “vision for the future of Saint Joseph’s College aligned with his. … I thought it was best that I leave, as well.”
“Alumni remain unhappy with the lack of communication from the leadership at Saint Joseph’s College,” Bradway said. “Bill was one of the only people who would talk to alumni, and in his absence, there is a lack of connection between alumni and the campus.”
Matthew Heaney, another Saint Joseph’s alum, said that since Hogan resigned, “mistrust was at the highest point for me” of leaders who voted to close the school and who are now are asking for faith and trust from alumni that they can rebuild it.
“This Ivy Tech thing is Band Aid of something, and no one is sure what that something is,” Heaney said. “End of the day, I fully support anything that will open the doors of our home back to Puma family, because that is who we are – family. I just do not trust current leadership to get us there. In my view they should beg Bill to come back.”
Carroll pleaded for patience.
“It was a promise made, and it will be a promise kept,” Carroll said about a new Saint Joe’s. “Will all the alumni like it? Probably not. Will all the alumni dislike it? Probably not. But Saint Joseph’s College will be back.”
Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.
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