Students, faculty protest school’s possible closure
Officials could decide this month, amid falling enrollment and persistent financial struggles
BELMONT >> Rumors have circulated since 2015 that 169-year-old Notre Dame de Namur University — the state’s third oldest college — could close amid falling enrollment and persistent financial struggles, leaving more than 1,400 students behind.
But now it seems the rumors could come true, with a decision expected as soon as Friday but no later than March 18 on whether the school will shut down, university officials said.
In a desperate bid to save the school, faculty, university staff and students have gathered in the center of its Belmont campus over the past week, protesting what they say is the administration and board of trustees’ lack of transparency. They accuse administrators of ignoring the community’s pleas to keep the school open.
Administrators said that they have tried numerous times to counteract trends that threaten the viability of the school and that they have been a part of several “frank, open discussions” with community members about the future of the university.
“Despite these efforts,” a statement from the university said, “challenges continue to persist.”
Students and faculty members are not appeased. Holding signs that read “Don’t let it close!” “Save our school” and “New administration is our salvation,” many urged the university in recent days to allow interim President Daniel Carey to take on the difficult task of righting the ship after five years of what one faculty member, professor Stephen Cole, called “a miserable, dismal catalog of failure.”
Students like first-generation college junior Daisy Alcaraz, who is studying English and sociology, fear they will soon face the daunting task of finding a new school with limited financial aid and credit hours that cannot easily be transferred to other institutions.
As Alcaraz spoke tearyeyed in front of her peers last week, one student nearby held a sign that read “Total units: 167. Transferable units: 3!”
If Alcaraz, a Los Angeles native, transfers her credits to another school, her graduation date likely will be pushed back a year, school advisers have told her.
“I don’t have the financial aid (to transfer),” Alcaraz said, adding that she has invested about $36,000 in tuition and fees each year in the school. “I don’t know what to do. It’s hard when you are first generation and you’re accepted to a school with help. This was my only hope of getting out of the projects, of getting out of bad
environments. The school closing will push me back to that. I’m scared.”
Founded in 1851, NDNU in 1870 became the first institution of higher learning in California to accept women — four years before the first woman graduated from the University of California. Since then, the school has had a storied history as a women’s institution before allowing men to enroll. During the 2013 school year, NDNU enrolled more than 2,000 students, the highest number in its history.
The university counts among its alumni a former governor of Guam, Eddie Baza Calvo; Barbara Morgan,
a teacher and astronaut who was a backup for Christa McAuliffe, who died on the 1986 ill-fated mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger; and Princess of the Kingdom of Hawaii Abigail Campbell Kawananakoa, who graduated in 1900.
But in the past five years, NDNU has faced declining enrollment and fundraising challenges, mirroring other small universities across the country over the past two decades, the school said in a statement.
In a preliminary report on the state of the university published in October, the board of trustees noted that since 2007, undergraduate and graduate enrollment at the university has fallen precipitously, from a high of more than 2,000 students in 2013 to just under 1,400 in the fall of 2019.
Undergraduate enrollment has nosedived, as more than a third of students left the school in the same time period.
The university reported a drop from just over 1,000 students to about 680 since 2016, while graduate enrollment fell by about 30% in the same time, from 730 to 515.
In 2016, the board of trustees — which includes members of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, which owns and runs the school — began talks about instituting massive change at the school that “could take the form of a large cash infusion, a major restructuring, a merger, or even closure.”
The university is considering selling off portions of the campus, according to a letter sent to the city of Belmont.
Officials from the university are expected to meet with city leaders in the coming weeks to determine the future use of sites within the campus, including the theater and the Koret athletic field and tennis courts.
Vince Fitzgerald, chair of the English Department, has said the decisions made over the past five years have left university staff disheartened and students fearing the worst. He said that the financial difficulties the school is facing are temporary and that administrators should partner with Silicon Valley companies to attract more students and revolutionize the university.
District 13 state Sen. Jerry Hill said in a letter sent to the school in October that he also doesn’t want to give up on saving it. He said he believes NDNU has a “promising future if a visionary and innovative leader is found and is willing to take on the many challenges the University faces in the coming years.”
Hill said many institutions, private and public, have faced similar strife.
“They have needed to reinvent themselves, and this is the time in your history — as the third oldest educational institution in the state — to do just that and become the university that educates the future leaders on the Peninsula,” Hill said.
Cole, the professor, who was going to retire until a recent market crash eliminated about $15,000 of his retirement savings, said he was appalled at the role of “our feckless board.”
Though he was able to push back his retirement date, he fears he won’t have a place to work in the near future.
“It would be personally devastating,” Cole said.
But most of all, he said, he’s afraid for his students.
“These are extraordinary kids. They’re what get me out of bed every day,” Cole said. “It’s amazing to see their evolution. Most of these kids are first-generation students from communities that face great challenges. It’s incredible to see these kids come here freshman year with no sense of direction and walk the stage four years later with determination and self-discipline.
“There’s so much potential for more to be done for these students,” Cole added. “To be told I won’t be able to help these bright, wonderful students to get out into the world robs me of meaning.”