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Sweet Briar College reaches deal to remain open

New president, board of directors to begin term

A circuit judge in Virginia authorized a Memorandum of Understanding June 20 that will allow Sweet Briar College to remain open for the 2015-16 academic year. Saving Sweet Briar Inc., the plaintiffs of the case, partially fulfilled the first provision of the memorandum Tuesday by paying $5 million in donations to the college for continued operation.

The settlement institutes new leadership at the college and requires the alumnae group, Saving Sweet Briar Inc., to pay a total of $12 million in donations to Sweet Briar College in order to keep the institution open.

A provision of the MOU calling on the Commonwealth’s Attorney General Mark Herring to release once-restricted funds from Sweet Briar’s $16 million endowment also helped keep the college open.

“The agreed settlement certainly is better for all parties than continued litigation, and more importantly, Sweet Briar College will stay open,” Herring said in a press release.

The initial agreement required Saving Sweet Briar Inc. to pay $2.5 million by July 2, $8.5 million in total by August 2 and $12 million in total by August 31. However, since the first $5 million payment substantially exceeded the requirement, the plaintiffs will now have to pay only $3.5 million by both the August 2 and September 2 deadlines.

Per the memorandum, a new Board of Directors was elected and Phillip Stone, former president of Bridgewater College, was named president of Sweet Briar July 2.

"I do want people to know that I am very actively engaged in transition activities,” Stone said in a press release. “As part of this process, I am having a number of important conversations with incoming board members, faculty and others.”

John Gregory Brown, a English professor and director of creative writing at Sweet Briar, said while the previous Board truly wanted Sweet Briar to succeed, they did not see a way out of the college’s financial hole.

“The truth is that running a small, single-sex, rural women’s college is a complicated business,” Brown said. “One of the things that I hope will happen is a board that comes in who doesn’t feel exhausted, but feels energized by the prospect of doing that kind of hard work to make a college work.”

Two groups have been at the center of the movement to resurrect the all-women’s college: Saving Sweet Briar Inc. and Sweet Briar 2.0. Mimi Fahs, a 1971 Sweet Briar graduate and founding member of Sweet Briar 2.0, said Saving Sweet Briar Inc. has handled all of the financial and legal matters.

“It’s been important for [Saving Sweet Briar] to be very structured and focused with a laser-like vision on the legal challenges and the financial challenges, which of course they’ve done an enormously superb job of,” Fahs said.

The support group Sweet Briar 2.0 consists primarily of alumnae and serves to gather and organize fundraising ideas and promote volunteering to keep the college open and running.

“People have come forward with what they do best and volunteered to head up committees,” Fahs said. “Sweet Briar 2.0 is really trying to harness all the talents of this incredible group of alumnae to contribute in any way that is helpful to the college going forward really on all levels.”

Brown said the alumnae’s responses to keep the college open have been overwhelmingly supportive and demonstrative of the college’s goals of graduating proactive and passionate women.

“One of the strongest sentiments now is just amazement at the resourcefulness, the energy, the enthusiasm, the confidence of the women, the alumnae,” he said.

However, while the faculty are grateful for contributions given by alumnae, Brown says there are still bittersweet reactions to job security within the college.

“Certainly those who are staying have a sense of risk in what they're undertaking here,” Brown said. “But I think there’s a tremendous kind of enthusiasm and excitement to have this second chance we didn’t know that there might be for the college.”

Although Sweet Briar is slowly getting back up on its feet, the Saving Sweet Briar Inc. and Sweet Briar 2.0 support groups will continue efforts to support the college in hopes of creating a more sustainable financial climate.

“Our long term goals are really just to help sustain the college, to maximize the energy of the alums that have become more involved, reinvigorated and catalyzed by this crisis and to contribute productively to the college's sustainability and perpetuity,” Fahs said.

Fahs’s group specifically has dealt with how the college should emphasize certain parts of the curriculum, especially the STEM and engineering degrees Sweet Briar offers, while maintaining its liberal arts reputation.

“I think we’re wanting very much to support and build on the strengths of Sweet Briar as we know them,” Fahs said. “So, engineering, STEM, but both of those solidly placed within a very strong and outstanding liberal arts education.”

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