NCAA Division III program Sweet Briar College has announced that they will no longer be closing the school on Aug. 25 as was previously stated.
The College, located in rural Virginia, retracted their decision to close the school on grounds that the financial situation (which was the reason for the initial shut down) has improved drastically allowing them to continue running.
Saving Sweet Briar, a company created solely for the purpose of opposing the closure, will be donating $12 million, a large reason why the school will be able to remain open.
The attorney general of Virginia also indicated that he will release $16 million from the colleges $85 million endowment so that Sweet Briar College can continue to operate.
The Board of Directors decided that under these two circumstances, the school will be operational for at least one more year, with hopes of finding a long-term solution for sustaining the costs of running the college.
Although the college will be operational in terms of education, the standing of athletics has not yet been determined. The all-female institution with just over 700 students has six different sports teams, including a swim team.
Known as the Vixens, the Sweet Briar College swim team competed in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference where they placed fourth out of nine teams this past season. The team was also recognized by the CSCAA as a Fall Team Scholar All-America award winner, accumulating a 3.06 GPA.
Previously, the team was coached by Donna Hodgert, however following the announcement of the closure, she took up the head coaching position at Ferrum College.
With 20 members on the 2014-2015 roster, the future of the Sweet Briar College swim team, and other athletics programs, remain unknown, according to a spokesperson for the Athletics Department, who said that the school is still working through those details. Several members of the 2014-2015 squad have already registered to enroll at other schools.
Sweet Briar seems like a great little school with a solid history. Since the announcement a few months back they have turned away all of the incoming applications, told the existing students to go elsewhere and I would imagine that a lot of the staff has left. You wonder if they have put themselves in a “death-spiral” because of it? Let’s hope not.
I was following this one – very unique place & gorgeous environs in that area even if I did get Lymes around there. . I was certainly thinking – where does that $85 million plus the enormous value of their campus go if it were sold ?
Excellent pushback ladies. ( there was some nasty male gloating going on ) . A big win for the girls against the bankers.