The Catholic College That Claimed The Education Dept. Pushed It To The Brink Of Closing — Is Closing

[Purveyor]

Source: Washington Post

St. Catharine College in Kentucky is closing its doors after a protracted fight with the U.S. Department of Education left the small Roman Catholic school in a financial hole.

Three months ago, St. Catharine filed a lawsuit against the department for withholding more than $1 million in federal loans and grants as a condition of heightened cash monitoring, a form of federal oversight the school was subjected to for more than a year. Although government officials said their decision was made in error and promised to reimburse some of the money, the damage proved too much for the school to overcome.

John Turner, chairman of St. Catharine’s board of trustees, blames the federal sanctions for the trouble the school has had attracting students. Whereas the small private college touted 600 full-time students prior the the problems with the government, there are now fewer than 475 enrolled for the fall, according to the school. Turner said the decline in enrollment has been difficult to handle with the school’s obligation to repay debt used to finance the construction of a new residence hall, health-science building and library.

“The challenges facing St. Catharine College are insurmountable,” Turner said, in a note to the campus community Wednesday. “Without the enrollment and with [Education’s] chokehold on our cash flow, the debt is simply not manageable.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/06/01/the-catholic-college-that-claimed-the-education-dept-pushed-it-to-the-brink-of-closing-is-closing/

[tonyt53]

1. I know a guy that lives near the school in Springfield.

He told me a few months ago that the school has been on a building binge. He also told me the school was in trouble for adding programs not submitted for approval under federal guidelines. A little more to it than the post link provides.

[Demit]

3. Yeah, really. For an enrollment of 600...

they want to build like the big boyz do? They're quick to blame the govt for declining enrollment, but maybe prospective students (and the parents thereof) saw the reckless expansion plans & got concerned about what on earth the college thought it was doing.

[Retrograde]

5. Sounds a little like a small college in Vermont

that's been in the news recently

Small colleges like this are remnants of the days when most schools were secular, and very selective in their admissions policies. They were competing mostly against other denominational schools, not the big state institutions that really saw their growth soar in the post-WWII era. There were a lot of these small religious schools in Western New York when I was growing up, and some of them survive by finding a special niche (or having a good basketball team), but it's not a guarantee. And if the president develops an edifice complex it's easy for a small school to incur a lot of debt quickly.

[ConsiderThis_2016]

2. Maybe they could try an adoption biz instead?

[niyad]

4. oh, my, look at some of the problems:

(hmmm, do we think that college personnel should know how to use apostrophes?)

http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/iwqn1v/picture81098522/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/031210stcatherineajw113

. . . .

St. Catharine faced a $5 million deficit in its operating budget amid declining enrollment and faced mounting debt after building a series of residential and academic buildings in recent years to accommodate its expansion from a two-year to a four-year college. The new library opened just three years ago.

After an audit found "severe" problems with the school's handling of financial aid, the U.S. Department of Education last year began requiring the school to spend its own funds on students first, and then seek federal reimbursement.

The college said its enrollment had fallen to fewer than 475 students for the upcoming fall semester, down from about 600 full-time students before the financial aid dispute. There were 118 full-time faculty and staff, plus many part-time workers.

. . . .

Of the nearly $3.9 million requested by the college between April 2015 and February 2016, DOE paid $3.16 million, the office's statement said. "The Department of Education also has been working with SCC (St. Catharine College) to process new financial aid submissions in a timely fashion," it said.

. . . .

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/st-catharine-college-kentucky-closing-end-july-39542484