A Message from the Board Chair
Last night, the Board of Trustees voted to permanently close Becker College at the end of the current academic year. The College will provide academic, support and transitional services to students through August 31, 2021. Following an orderly transition, classes will not resume in the Fall. As already stated, graduation is currently set for Saturday, May 8, 2021.
Closure of the College was a very painful decision for all of us. As Trustees we are duty bound, not as day-to-day managers, but as overseers of the mission and the financial condition of the College. Many of us are also alumni, which makes this duty even more meaningful. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were keeping a watchful eye on the trends indicating a vulnerability among small colleges, including the declining number of college age students, the heightened level of student subsidy and the increased competition for a smaller pool of students. We supported President Crimmin and her team on measures to address these matters.
As enrollment fell in 2018 and 2019, the college began austerity measures to cut spending and balance the budget. Contracts with major vendors were renegotiated, funds raised, assets sold, departments consolidated and two leased buildings in downtown Worcester were vacated. There was also a reduction in staff and rollbacks in compensation, among other actions.
In 2020, the COVID-19 crisis quickly accelerated the need to take more aggressive actions necessary to maintain a reasonable and responsible balance sheet, and to operate the college in a fiscally responsible manner. The need for some of these measures were noted in President Crimmin’s message to the community in August 2020. In addition to a greater investment in technology – remote learning comes at a cost – there was an unanticipated and significant drop in the number of students who, due to the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, chose not to live on campus, never registered, took a leave of absence, or dropped out. This loss of revenue had a dramatic impact on the ability of the College to continue to maintain financial day-to-day college operations.
Concurrent with these measures, we also sought various strategic opportunities including mergers or affiliations with other organizations to help us gain our financial footing. We had hoped that an alliance would be transformational, while generating revenue and assisting in optimizing the College’s resources. When this affiliation did not happen earlier this year, the continuing pandemic and its obvious impact on the College’s financial condition caused a sudden and significant shift in our position.
The Greater Worcester region has been a wonderful home to Becker College. This has proven out in the outreach from so many over the past few weeks, providing words of encouragement. Closing the College is not the path we wanted to pursue. It is sad at every level. We have sufficient resources to complete this academic year, but not beyond that in a way that is fiscally responsible and in the best interest of students. We have worked diligently to prepare appropriate academic pathways to allow students to transfer to several new institutions without worrying about things such as deadlines and admissions fees.
The College has made arrangements with several area universities to provide admission to Becker students; those details are available on the Becker microsite. We are committed to doing everything possible to ensure that our students, faculty, and staff have access to the best opportunities moving forward and finish this term in a strong and positive way.
Sincerely,
Christine Cassidy, Chair
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Becker College: John Budd, Scott Conti, Rebecca Crocker, Daniel DelMastro, Jeff Goodsill, Cheryl Lapriore, Frances Polito, Dr. Gregory Pogue, Eurayshia Williams Reed, Edward Wilson
Communications from President Nancy Crimmin
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