By Anthony Cordoba:
With Mount Ida College closing its doors soon, students and staff are acting quickly to determine what is next for them.
On April 6th, students and faculty were made aware of the college’s decision via an email sent by the President, Barry Brown, stating the school’s financial struggles play a major role in the campus’ closure, and it would be selling the property to UMass Amherst.
The email identified students as the top priority during this time, and explained all students in strong academic standing will have immediate acceptance to UMass Dartmouth, and expedited transfer applications to UMass’ Lowell, Amherst, and Boston campuses.
For a lot of Mount Ida students, their majors are not as common at other schools, and they fear that UMass Dartmouth or other options may not offer what Mount Ida had provided for them.
Some of the unique majors that Mount Ida offered were: Veterinary Technology, Fashion Industry Marketing & Management, Funeral Home Management, Dental Hygiene, and more. It has appeared to have a major toll on students at the college, according to a tweet sent out by Katie Thompson at WCVB.
Students like Regan Doyle, an Interior Architecture and Design major who is finishing her junior year, are left confused and anxious on where to go next:
“Mount Ida was one of the only schools that fit me well enough while also offering this major… I don’t have a plan for next year yet, but I’m hoping to figure it out soon.”
Doyle also expressed her concern for friends going through the same difficulties;
“A lot of my friends here are really struggling with the news. There is a lot of uncertainty on what we are going to do next. It seems like UMass Dartmouth is the only option for some of us, but we didn’t choose that school, we chose Mount Ida.”
According to a tweet sent out by Mount Ida College, they are actively working to provide students like Doyle with assistance in finding school’s that offer the programs they are interested in:
Raine Grant, a senior football player at Mount Ida, is looking for one thing: answers.
“Basically us as a student body is kind of left confused. Every year since we’ve come here our tuition has continued to rise, our President’s salary was increased by $100k in a year, we get an 8 million dollar anonymous donation, yet somehow we don’t have the money to fund our school,” he explained.
According to Grant, Mount Ida students have voted to disallow President Brown and the Board of Trustees to be present at this year’s graduation.
Grant had plans to return to Mount Ida in the fall for an internship with the school, but is now searching for a new route following the campus closure.
Students, faculty, and alumni of the college have not been shy about sharing their feelings on this matter, as they continue to search for answers and a new pathway. The popular hashtag, #Justice4MountIdaStudents, has surfaced twitter and is allowing people to speak their voice.
THE AC301 