Becker College to close
Area universities to help students after school year
Becker College, a 1,700student school whose budgetary challenges were dramatically worsened by the COVID-19 crisis, will close at the end of this academic year, its trustees announced Monday.
“Ultimately, the impacts of COVID-19 turned what was a very challenging situation into an unsustainable situation,’’ said Becker College President Nancy P. Crimmin, Ed.D. in a statement announcing the school’s closure.
News of the plans comes less than a month after the Department of Higher Education issued a public notice, as required under a 2019 state law, advising that it believed Becker’s financial situation was so precarious that the college was unlikely to sustain full operations through the next school year.
State higher education officials have been working with Becker, which has campuses in Worcester and Leicester, to plan for a potential closure and to develop paths for current students to continue their studies.
“Our commitment going forward is to do everything we can to ensure our students finish this year strongly positioned to continue their education, and that they and all our faculty and staff get access to the best education and employment opportunities available,’’ said Board of Trustees Chair Christine Cassidy.
According to Becker, students will have options to continue their studies at schools including Worcester State University, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, UMass Amherst, Quinsigamond Community College, Mount Wachusett Community College and Fitchburg State University. Private schools including Clark University, Assumption University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are also working with the school.
The higher education department said it “remains committed to working closely with Becker College to support an orderly closure process to ensure that all available resources are leveraged to support students and staff.”
Becker’s spring semester will continue as planned, ending with a May 8 graduation.
“We pushed ourselves to develop scenarios in which Becker remained open for another year and beyond. However, those scenarios included more debt, selling assets, and further cutting operations. Guided by the advice of our auditors and other expert consultants, we concluded that this would be irresponsible and unsustainable over time,” Cassidy continued.
In conjunction with Becker’s announcement, Clark University said Monday it is establishing the Becker School of Design & Technology to house Becker’s renowned game design program. Many of the program’s faculty and students are expected to transition to Clark, also in Worcester.
Clark intends to operate the school facilities at Becker’s campus for at least a year.
Becker traces its roots to 1784 when Leicester Academy was founded. Becker’s Business College was founded in 1887 and the two institutions merged in 1977, according to the school’s website.