Officials from St. Catharine College announced Wednesday that the school will shutter its doors next month.
According to a news release, following recent meetings of the board of trustees, chairman John Turner told faculty and staff of the planned closure at a campus-wide meeting on Wednesday.
“It is with great sadness that I announce today, after exploring all possible options, the board of trustees has determined the challenges facing St. Catharine College are insurmountable and we will be closing the college at the end of July,” Turner said.
Turner said a decline in overall enrollment and the federal Department of Education’s admitted wrongful withholding of student aid has proven to be too difficult to manage along with the college’s debts.
The school says the debt Turner referenced was due to the construction of new facilities, including residence halls, a health sciences building and a library.
“Without the enrollment and with the DOE’s chokehold on our cashflow, the debt is simply not manageable,” Turner said.
The college said summer camps and classes will proceed as scheduled, but no classes will begin in the fall. SCC employs 118 full-time faculty and staff employees, as well as numerous part-time staff and adjunct instructors.
SCC is a private institution that was founded in 1931. Total undergraduate enrollment for school-year 2014-15 was 939 students.
Read the letter from the SCC Board of Trustees here.
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