Marian Court throws a Hail Mary

SWAMPSCOTT – Although James Burke, chairman of the Marian Court College Board of Trustees, went into Tuesday night?s meeting with students and faculty fully intent on telling them the school would indeed close, he left agreeing to ask the Sisters of Mercy, which run the school, for more time to see if other options can be found to save it.?Because of your passion, and your commitment, we, as a board, have agreed to call the Sisters (today).”Earlier in the meeting, Burke told a classroom full of students and faculty in no uncertain terms that mounting debt and dwindling enrollment had forced the board?s hand.?Just to get us through August,” he said, “we?d have needed $600,000. Taking that into next year, we?d be talking about more than $1 million.?As a result, (Monday) night the board took a vote to close the school,” Burke said.Burke said that 64 seniors graduated last month, but as of Tuesday night there had been only 14 committed incoming freshmen. He said that when he and the board went looking for the financing they?d need to meet the college?s financial obligations, the disparity in enrollment figures caused the lenders not to loan money.The refusal caught the board by surprise, Burke said. Another board member, David Gravel, was already working on a course curriculum for next year in web design that the school had hoped would attract students.?He was working it up free of charge, and he was going to teach it free of charge,” said Burke. “Why would he have done all that if he?d had any idea we were going to close?”Burke, fellow board member Dr. Walter “Buck” Weaver and college President Dr. Denise Hammon listened as several students voiced concerns about the suddenness of the closing announcement, and related stories about how even though schools such as Salem State and North Shore have committed to taking them, the differences in policies and programs made such a transition difficult, if not impossible.Faculty member Rebecca Bragg explained that although some seniors may have walked across the stage at graduation last month, they were a credit or two short and had counted on making that up over the summer.Also, she said, many of those students were receiving financial aid, which would not be available to them anywhere else because it is not given without a committed major.Bragg and a group of other faculty members, and students, put together a memorandum with quotes from students expressing their happiness with Marian Court and a number of ideas and recommendations for saving the school. No, 1 on the list was to ask for an extension of the deadline to give the students a chance to recruit friends and family members who have expressed an interest in enrolling in the college.?The best thing the school has going for it is the night program,” Bragg said, “and don?t think we sell it enough. We attract a lot of people who have jobs, but who have always wanted to go back to school and get degrees. The night program is perfect for them.”Taryn Walsh of Peabody, who said the student drive to save the school began as part of a classroom discussion, said that while there were signs that the school was struggling, “it wasn?t to the extent that we thought it would close right away.?I don?t think it was ever communicated how much in dire straits we were.”As for her expectations, she said, “it?s a process. Nothing?s going to happen overnight.”?I am not surprised at the passion these students have shown tonight,” Hammon said. “I expected this from them. This tears my heart out.”